The Decaying World Saga Box Set [Prequel #1-#2 & Books #1-#2]

by Garza, Michael W.

  Men poured out of the surrounding structures, each armed and running toward the lights. Rows of sandbags lay stacked inside the fence line. The men slammed into the bags and took cover waiting for some unseen foe. Chris leaned out around his escorts for a better look and discovered the cause of the alarm.

  They came in waves of ten or more, each one of them tweaking violently as they ran into the outside of the fence. Chris didn’t need to hear their familiar growl to know what they were. The barricades came to life as gunfire erupted into the advancing infected. Chris lost his view as the escorts got to their feet and hurried him away. They aimed him toward a storefront with a crude sign of a fish above the door.

  The mountain men pushed Chris through the front door and into an open space covered with rows of tables topped with boxes. Hurrying past the tables, Chris caught sight of clothing and shoes, then canned food and water. A hand-scrawled sign listing quantities and prices fronted each box. The echo of increased gunfire vibrated off the long storefront window.

  They moved quickly through the makeshift general store toward a door in the back corner. A pair of doors on either side flanked a small hall beyond the exit. One of the escorts grabbed a set of keys hanging from a coat rack hook on the wall. He unlocked the door closest to the hall’s entrance and stepped out of the way. Chris was thrust into darkness and the door slammed shut and locked behind him.

  He stood silently trying to regain his nerve. The exit door closed out in the hallway beyond the room. A new sound pulled his attention back to his pitch-black surroundings. Someone or something was breathing and it was close. A sudden panic engulfed him as he considered having been fed to one of the infected. The breath was deep and quickening with anticipation. Chris waited as long as he could.

  “Come and get me, damn it.”

  He didn’t expect the response.

  “Leave me alone.”

  The voice was piercing and obviously terrified. It took him a moment, but Chris was sure he recognized the voice.

  “Jake?”

  “Chris?”

  Chris felt the boy slam into him in a makeshift, no hands hug.

  “They tied me up and threw me in here,” Jake said. “I don’t know where Alicen or Jenn are.”

  Chris didn’t have to see him to tell he was crying.

  “They wouldn’t tell me anything except I would have a new family.” He was shaking. “What the heck does that mean?” the boy asked.

  “I’m not sure, really,” Chris admitted. “I think they’re some kind of end of the world survivalist group.”

  “What are they going to do with us?”

  Chris wasn’t sure he knew the answer to that either.

  “What are they going to do with Alicen and Jenn?”

  Chris had a few ideas about that one but didn’t think the boy needed to know.

  “Jake, listen to me.” He urged him to take a few steps back. “We have to get out of here. I don’t have a whole lot of answers, but I’m damn sure we don’t want to become permanent residents of this town.”

  “The girls too, right?”

  Chris could imagine the boy’s sullen, tear-streaked face. “One step at a time.” He spun around and refocused his mind. “Turn around and back up against me.”

  “For what?”

  “Just do it. I don’t have time to explain everything. Who knows when they’ll come back.” He got down on his knees and promptly found the boy’s hands. “Try and get hold of the knot on these bindings.”

  There was a lot of effort on Jake’s part with little result. Chris’s frustration grew as the boy did his best. He was considering an alternate plan when success was finally reached.

  “I think I got it,” Jake said.

  Chris struggled to pull his hands apart and felt the bindings give way. A moment later, he was free and working on Jake’s hands. They stood liberated from their bindings in the center of the dark room. The excitement in Jake’s voice was evident when he spoke.

  “Okay, now what?”

  Chris didn’t have the heart to tell him that his plan was forming minute to minute. “Let’s see what we have to work with. Find a wall and feel along it as best you can.”

  They started on opposite sides of the small room, working their way around until they met again. A pile of metal hangers told them they were in an oversized closet, but not much more. There was nothing else of use. Chris took a moment, listening to their surroundings.

  A faint sound of gunfire in the distance indicated the fight to hold off the infected was still ongoing. He guessed he had until the end of that conflict to figure a way out or someone would be back to collect them. He was pretty sure he didn’t want to find out what they planned to do with them. Chris didn’t want to admit it, but he knew getting away clean would be easier without Jake.

  “Come here a second.” The two found each other, and Chris cupped his hands in front of his waist. “Put your foot in my hands, and I’m going to lift you up.”

  “But why are—”

  “Just do it.”

  Jake felt his way and then rested his hands on Chris’s shoulders.

  “1…2…3.” Chris lifted and Jake shot up, balancing his feet in Chris’s hands. “Now run your fingers along the ceiling and tell me what you feel.”

  Jake grunted as he stretched out. “Kind of like cardboard,” he explained. “I feel bars or rails of some kind every couple of feet.”

  “Do they make squares?” Chris asked between groans. The boy was heavier than he looked.

  “Yes, with the softer spots in the middle.”

  “All right, I’m going to let you down.” Chris dropped him and finished his makeshift plan in his head. “It’s a drop ceiling like they have in office buildings. You should be able to push right through it. I’m going to lift you back up and you push yourself through.”

  “What for?”

  “If you can get up above the ceiling then I figure you’ll be able to get outside this room and drop down in the hall. The key to this door was hanging on a coat rack out there.” He grimaced. “With any luck, it’s still there.”

  There was hesitation from Jake followed by a question dripping with panic. “What if it’s not there?” He continued before Chris could think of a response. “I’ll be stuck out there without you.”

  “We’ll cover that if we need to.” Chris didn’t want to give the boy any more time to consider all of the things that could go wrong with the plan. “Come over here and get ready.”

  Jake did as he was told and the moment his foot touched Chris’s hands, he moved the plan along. “1…2…3.” Jake went up and a few seconds later, a punch produced a loud pop.

  “I made an opening,” Jake said.

  “Good, now feel around for something to pull yourself up with.” Chris offered a warning. “Those dividers won’t support you. Be careful or you’ll fall right through.”

  It took a few minutes, but Jake got hold of something. Chris pushed on his feet and soon lost contact. He backed out of the way, hopeful the boy wasn’t going to drop down on top of him. Several painstaking minutes of silence followed in which Chris was powerless to help. It was a not-so-stealthy crash outside the door that announced Jake had accomplished his mission. An intense fumbling around in the hall increased Chris’s concern until the boy’s voice whispered against the door.

  “I got them.”

  Chris rolled his eyes. “So open the door.”

  The jingle of keys followed and the door swung open. Only a thin slit of light shone through the bottom of the door leading out into the storefront. Gunfire told Chris that they still had time. “There’s no guarantee the room outside this door is empty.” Jake nodded. “But we got to go now or we might not get another chance.” The declaration was as much for Chris’s nerve as it was for Jake.

  Chris didn’t wait for acknowledgment. He crouched as low to the ground as he could get and grabbed the doorknob. He felt Jake close behind him. The knob turned and an effortless p
ush produced an inch opening. There was no initial reaction.

  Chris held his breath and allowed his eyes to adjust to the light. He pushed the door and poked his head out. His eyes told him the storefront was clear, but it was his ears that urged him to move. The gunfire had stopped and the silence heightened his fear.

  They moved together down the center aisle of the makeshift general store. Along the way, Chris grabbed a hand axe off one of the tables for himself and commandeered a hunting knife for Jake. They reached the front door and Chris motioned for the boy to stay down. He slid his head up to the edge of the front window and peered out. The view of the street did not reveal what he’d hoped. Several armed men walked shoulder to shoulder along the main road. The formidable row was headed in their direction.

  “It’s time to go.”

  They were moving before Jake could object. Chris never bothered to look back to see if they were spotted. He was expecting the noise and commotion to let him know. They moved in a straight line, crouched close to the front of the store’s exterior, heading toward the edge of the building. They reached a dark narrow way between the general store and the adjacent structure.

  Chris dove into the darkness and pressed his back against the wall. He motioned for Jake to move to the opposite end of the alleyway and then glanced out at the street. The main group of men had splintered, but there were still enough of them headed in Chris’s direction to cause trouble. He pulled back and checked on Jake’s progress. The boy had reached the backside of the building and was presently waving at him. Chris closed the distance in several long strides and found the cause for Jake’s frantic gestures.

  There was a clear zone between the rear of the buildings and the chain link fence. The perimeter appeared to extend around the compound. The limited light from the street lamps revealed the start of hilly terrain beyond the chain link. The landscape was dotted with dense patches of bristlecone pine trees and bush.

  Chris’s attention was drawn to a lumbering figure beyond the light. His eyes adjusted to the low illumination and then widened as he took in the true scene before him. A sea of countless walking corpses littered the landscape within the darkness. The sound of nearby generators drowned out their moans and flesh lusting calls. Most of the undead were moving in groups of a few dozen.

  “My God,” he whispered, “they’re everywhere.” He realized at once that his plan of escape was in jeopardy.

  “Look.”

  Chris followed Jake’s finger to a shifting figure breaking into the light. It was moving fast toward the fence and as it did, its features came into full view. Its skin was the color of cigarette ash, its eyes brimming with the feral stare of the infected. His limbs twitched and in the full light, it showed it was a man. He rushed the boundary with his mouth open wide, drool and spit streaming from the orifice.

  A sudden explosion of gunfire sent Chris to the ground to seek cover. A burst hit the advancing infected male as he reached the fence. His chest opened up like a rotten melon and he fell to his knees, his arms clinging to the chain link. A man stepped away from the other side of the general store, his focus on reloading. He crossed the clear zone when his task was complete and slid the barrel of a shotgun through the fence. The gun went off a few inches from the infected man’s head, producing a shower of blood and brains. The mass of undead turned from their aimless walk and headed toward the gruesome display.

  Chris motioned for Jake to stay in the shadows as they crept along the backside of the adjoining building, when something else caught his eye. There were two figures at first, both moving between the undead. Their twitching limbs gave them away as they approached the fence. The hesitation of one caused Chris to pause. One of the infected, a woman draped in the bloody remains of a nightshirt, came to a stop under a tree. Chris swore she motioned at the fence and then growled their terrible call as if to order the other to advance.

  “Did you see that?”

  Chris heard himself ask the question, but a quick look revealed Jake was too far away to hear him. The gunman at the fence shot as he stumbled away. An echo of gunfire reverberated from the alley on the opposite side of the general store. A mass of the infected rushed the boundary from the shadows of the trees and smashed into the fence line. The impact bent in the closest support poles as they crawled over one another to reach the top. The sea of death poured over the razor wire oblivious to the cuts and gouges as it tore at their skin.

  A large section of the perimeter went down under the combined weight of the attackers. A dozen or so gunmen held their ground at the edge of the buildings, firing at the infected as they advanced toward the flesh buffet. A herd of undead followed them in, trailing now by only a few feet. A desperate call for help rang out.

  “Breach, breach!”

  Chris couldn’t pull his eyes from the war scene, but a call from Jake snapped him back into the moment.

  “Run, Chris, run.”

  He turned and didn’t look back, sprinting wildly as the infected closed in.

  9

  Jenn was sure the man intentionally had his hand on her butt. She’d kicked and screamed as much as she could when they pulled her out of the chair, but a swift pop on the back of the head made her rethink her approach. She wasn’t sure if she would ever see Chris or the kids again. She thought there was a good chance she was going to be killed and figured she’d be lucky if that was the extent of it.

  She stopped fighting and pressed the full weight of her body over the shoulder of the man carrying her. Maybe I can give him some back pain, she thought. She laid her cheek against his jacket and tried to push the gag out of her mouth with her tongue. They crossed through two rooms, and then another man opened a door, letting them outside into the cold.

  Jenn tried to take in the upside down view to understand where they were. There was a street running away from them in both directions. The road appeared to be lined with small stores and old houses. The doors and windows of most of the buildings were boarded over, some lined with metal bars. A few of the windows were filled with light while the others remained dark as a cemetery. There was a great deal of commotion at one end of the street, but it was difficult for Jenn to make out any details. She thought she saw the outline of a fence, but she lost the view when her carrier made a sharp turn and headed in the opposite direction. The man out in front spoke first.

  “Is Earl back yet?”

  “Doubt it,” her carrier said. Jenn noted a strong disdain in the man’s reply. “That boy’s more trouble than he’s worth.”

  “He’s made the dedication and deserves his due. You got just the same.”

  Her carrier shrugged and then grumbled to himself. Jenn shifted her weight trying to get his shoulder out of her gut. He’d yet to remove his hand from her butt. He gave her right cheek a firm squeeze and then responded to his partner in a less-than-convincing tone.

  “If you say so.”

  The row of buildings across the street was nondescript, although a few showed signs of life. A group of men passed close by, heading in the opposite direction. They were all dressed in similar hunter’s gear, each carrying at least one gun. Jenn’s escorts made no attempt to announce themselves, but her carrier managed to remove his hand from her butt long enough to offer a wave.

  The trip lasted another few minutes, ending when they turned toward a two-story building on the nearside of the street. The long storefront window was boarded over. A jingle of keys produced an open doorway. A second later, the trio was cloaked in darkness. A strong rush of fear took hold of Jenn. There was a flurry of movement followed by a forceful pull at her legs. Her head hit the floor with devastating effect. The world spun out of control, but she managed to kick her legs trying to hold off an anticipated attack. Jenn’s heels made contact several times, but it wasn’t until the lights sprang on that she realized she was beating the hell out of a desk.

  “Calm down, woman, before I slap you.”

  “John, drag her ass over here.”

 
; The man who’d carried her was near a doorway at the rear of what was once a furniture store. Most of the tables were turned over and in bad shape. Broken wood and empty drawers littered the cramped space. A thick, musty smell clung to everything. Jenn tried to sit up, but her hands, still bound behind her back, made the task difficult. She tried to calm herself. Experience told her that keeping her composure might be the only thing to keep her alive.

  They could do what they wanted to her. At the right moment, she would be ready to act. There were four men in Topeka, each one taking their turn putting their filthy hands on her. She made herself remember, although it hurt worse than a gunshot. She had to remember because she survived it. John grabbed the collar of her shirt and dragged her across the floor, tossing her the last few feet.

  He was an older man, defined primarily by the hair on his face. His mane of disheveled locks ran down his shirt and ended at frayed tips near his beltline. His flannel top and worn leather jacket did little to hide the strength in his chest and shoulders. John looked down at Jenn with a piercing stare.

  “Now, sit still and keep your mouth shut.”

  He rested a shotgun against the wall and removed a buck knife from his boot. He held it where she could see it and then smiled. Jenn started to squirm and let out a muffled scream despite his warning. The reaction was instant. John hit her across the face with the back of his hand.

  “Damn it, I told you to hush.”

  Jenn felt the heat on her cheek as she tried to shake off the attack. The taste of blood trickled down the back of her throat. John leaned in close and cut the material covering her mouth. He held a finger up for a point of emphasis.

  “Don’t forget what I said.” He showed her the long blade again for good measure, then grabbed his shotgun and turned his back on her. She was considering a kick high enough to cause some real damage, when his words froze her mid-thought. “Dave, go get the little one.”

  Terror took hold of Jenn as she locked in place. Dave headed down the rear hall and didn’t return for several agonizing minutes. He finally reappeared, dragging Alicen by the arm. The little girl was fighting against his grip, but the blood running from her nose told of a lesson she’d already learned. Alicen’s eyes locked on Jenn, and she screamed at the top of her lungs.