by Lilly Black
As Rey reloaded his gun, Savannah raised hers and shot the people she didn't recognize, but when it came to the Wootens, even though the old woman snarled and hissed at her like a rabid animal, she couldn't pull the trigger.
"Close your eyes," Rey said softly. She heard two gun shots, and when she opened them, the Wootens, like the other five, lay motionless in front of the gate.
"Thank you," she said, smiling a sad smile, and relieved, they began to walk up the gravel path toward the lodge when Savannah heard her name whispered from the other side of the fence. She looked back to see her friends Sally and Bella running toward the gate from the woods on the side of the drive.
"Can we come in?" Bella asked, and Savannah entered the code to disarm the gate. Olivia had banned them this weekend, but given the circumstances, she didn't think her mother would mind.
"Is everything okay?" Olivia asked when she answered Savannah's phone call.
"Well, there's a pile of dead bodies at the gate, but otherwise, sure," she said, and then she had some explaining to do. Once she, Rey, Sally, and Bella were safely in the panic room, the first thing she had done was call the Vincents, the only other family who lived in the lower ring now that the Wootens were gone, to tell them the gate was open. All of the gates had surveillance, but with fewer monitors than cameras in their system, they had to be toggled to see everything on the property. Tonight, Savannah had them set to prioritize the upper ring, which made her feel guilty as she called the Vincents.
She didn't have any problem getting through to their landline because not too many people were up at that hour in Summers County. In fact, the Vincents were not even aware that anything was happening, and when she told him, John Vincent immediately made it his mission to patrol the road between the lower and middle gates as more owners could be arriving.
That already accounted for two of the seven corpses at the gate. Sally and Bella had seen it happen. They had sneaked out of Bella's house to meet a couple of boys, but instead, they ran into three men in an older model, red pick-up truck who had already equated the news stories they were seeing from the cities with an open invitation to anarchy. Though the girls assumed it was just a truckload of drunk, young rednecks at first, once they pulled up close and started making threats, they realized they were dealing with grown men. Frightened, they ran through the woods toward unfamiliar side roads, hiding behind houses and changing their routes to confuse the men, who continued to pursue them.
When they finally made it back to the main road, they found that they were closer to Savannah's house than Bella's and decided to take refuge there. As they hurried toward the private drive, the lower gate was open and they could see taillights ahead, but just as they began to feel safe, the truck appeared again, barreling up the road and past the gate before it closed.
The driveway wound through the woods, turning a distance of less than a half mile into more than a mile of road. While the girls ran in a straight path through the trees, the truck took the curves as fast as possible, knocking over the signs on the sides of the road and slinging gravel. At the middle gate, the girls saw a couple in an SUV, the driver's side door ajar as the man entered his code to open the gate, but before they could even warn him, the truck came around a curve and slammed right into the car.
As the terrified girls hid behind a tree, they could hear the driver gurgling blood, and the woman's soul-crushing wails echoed through the forest. They expected the men in the truck to straighten up and help or at least call an ambulance, but as they peeked around the sides of the tree, they saw the three men rush toward the woman, trapping her against the vehicle. As her husband lay dying, they slammed her on the hood of the car, and two of them held her down while the biggest one tried to rape her. As the girls listened to the cries of the poor woman who had befallen the fate they had spent their night trying to escape, they didn't notice the husband getting up until he was right behind the big guy.
He was covered in blood, his broken body seeming to stand by sheer force of will alone as he attacked, grabbing the rapist from behind and biting through his shirt, and the man howled in pain. Furious, he turned toward his attacker, and unaware that he was already dead, he didn't fear the smaller man like he should have. He wrapped his hand around his throat and swiftly put him on the ground on his back. Then he got on his knees, pinning him down.
"You want me to fuck you, too, son?" he asked as he tried to turn him over, but the husband struggled. To his opponent, he seemed to be trying to get free, but he was actually trying to find an opportunity to take another bite of him. With his pants around his knees, the big guy was at a disadvantage, and in the struggle, a set of hungry teeth found his inner thigh, tearing into his femoral artery.
"Motherfucker!" he cried as he punched the man in the face, not immediately realizing how bad he was injured, but it only took seconds for him to collapse, his blood covering the white rocks of the gravel drive. The other two men hurried to help their friend, but he was as good as dead already. So was the woman, who rushed to her husband's side, unwittingly offering herself up to him, and he took a savage bite out of her neck. It didn't take long for the other two men to fall as well, and Sally and Bella realized they needed to get the hell out of there.
It was just so quiet, the forest full of dead leaves to noisily crush beneath their shoes, but with no choice if they wanted to survive, they had to make a run for it. The husband was the first to follow them. With a severely damaged leg, he wasn't moving fast, and the girls began to feel relief as they approached the inner gate of Savannah's property. Then suddenly the same three men who had pursued them all night were chasing them through the woods just a few yards behind, only this time instead of catcalling, they were groaning and grinding their teeth. The girls hid behind trees and tried to be silent as the men moved closer. They could hear their noses sniffing the air, and from behind a trunk barely wide enough to cover her, Bella fought back the tears as she heard the leaves rustle just a few feet away.
Don't breathe, she told herself as she stood like a statue, not sure if she should wait it out or run. These guys were fast, and she didn't know if she could make it to the gate and climb over before they caught her as sound of the leaves got closer. Then she heard the same noise on the other side.
Oh, God. Oh, God, Oh, God.
About to be surrounded, it was now or never. If she couldn't make her legs move to carry her to the gate, she was going to meet a worse fate than when these men were just bent on rape. She opened her mouth to suck in a deep breath before beginning the sprint when a loud banging sound caught the attention of her pursuers, drawing them to the gate like moths to a flame.
Once they moved on, she looked around for Sally, finding her behind a nearby tree, pointing to the road where the woman was now walking toward the gate as well. But that's not what Sally wanted her to see. Back at the second gate was a third set of headlights where someone had stopped to check out the accident, but instead they had met the dead woman. Now there were two more bodies lying on the ground - two more bodies that soon stood up and began to wander through the woods toward the sounds inside the inner gate where the other five had already congregated.
It was the Wootens. A church deacon, Mr. Wooten had been awakened by a call from the pastor asking him to unlock the sanctuary for those seeking refuge. On the way home, he and his wife saw the cars at the middle gate, and thinking someone might need help, they drove to their deaths.
As the two elderly corpses meandered through the woods, Sally & Bella had to remain quiet, but once all the dead were congregated at the gate, the girls felt the first true glimmer of hope they'd had all night when a voice came out of the speaker. They couldn't tell who it was or make out the words, but it was coming from Savannah's house. Someone was home. Thank. God.
Later, once Sally and Bella were safely inside the panic room with everyone else, Savannah relayed their story and her own to her mother over the phone, and Olivia was proud and relieved to know that her
daughter was handling things so well in her absence. It gave her hope, and it gave her insight because the kids had discovered something their parents hadn't yet. The only way to kill the dead was to take out the brain. They didn't know why it worked, but it didn't really matter as long as put them down for good.
Olivia and Savannah said their I love yous, and after they hung up the phone, Olivia continued to drive in an eerie silence. Even though there were people all over the country dealing with this plague, the roads were still surprisingly clear, most Americans sleeping right through it. They would see the occasional wrecked or abandoned car and when they passed busy exits, sometimes there were people running, but all in all, if they put it out of their minds, they could pretend it was just a regular night on a trip to a compound in a limousine packed with wine, cigarettes, rifles, and a diverse group of mostly strangers.
The remainder of the drive down Interstate 79 was uneventful. Olivia pulled the limo onto route 19 toward Beckley, and for miles, it seemed they were going to have a clear shot to the compound. It was just after 4:00 am when she saw an opportunity up ahead on a long stretch of deserted highway. A tractor trailer from Right Way Pharmacy sat unattended on a frontage road, the driver's side door open with no one around. She hit the brakes and pulled onto the shoulder.
"What's going on?" Liana demanded from the back.
"Can anyone drive an eighteen wheeler?" Olivia asked.
"I can," Ravi said. "I worked my way through college driving one of those. Why?"
"'Cause we're taking the Right Way truck home with us," she said.
"Wait just a minute!" Dani shouted from the very back. "You want to steal a pharmacy truck? Have you lost your fucking mind, Oblivia?"
Olivia laughed, but the name wasn't really applicable in this moment. She'd gone over a thousand scenarios since she and Reid started setting up to survive a catastrophe, and there was little out there more valuable than what could be in that trailer.
"Reid used to work for Right Way. There's a locked area in the back that could have hundreds of thousands of prescription pills that are about to be worth more than gold. We're going to look around, make sure we're not stranding the driver, then we're going to steal that truck."
"Jesus! You're nuts!" Dani protested, but no one else was willing to stand up to Olivia. Most of them were so scared, they were just glad someone had taken responsibility for them, and then there was Alek, who was thoroughly in awe of her. She was thinking so far ahead, he had no fear as long as he was with her.
"Let's do it," he said, grabbing a rifle and passing Olivia the handgun. Ravi pulled out the gun he had taken from behind the counter at his family's store, but he had no clue how to use it. Alek gave him a brief tutorial, then Olivia told everyone else to sit tight as they got out.
"So nobody's going to put a stop to this bullshit?" Dani demanded once the doors had been stealthily closed.
"No," Jax whispered, "and baby girl, neither are you." She opened her mouth to argue, but his lips found her ear and silenced her with a promise. "Look at the size of the cab on that semi. Do you know what that means? There's a sleeping compartment in it. That kid from the gas station is going to drive it, and you and I are going to volunteer to ride with him."
A smile spread across Dani's face as she forgot all about caring that Olivia was committing grand larceny. She didn't even care that they were trusting that some twenty-something kid they'd just met could actually drive the thing.
Through the windows, they watched as Olivia, Alek, and Ravi crept around the truck. They looked under it. Clear. Olivia looked in the cab. Clear. Keys in the ignition. They could hop in and take off right now if their attention had not been drawn by a shadow moving in the truck's headlights, and when they peeked around the front of the rig, they saw the driver lying on the ground, bleeding and missing chunks of flesh. He was weak, but he still had the foresight to warn his would-be saviors what they were walking into. Shaking, he brought his finger to his lips to shush them, then with a nod of his head, he directed their attention to a black limousine on the side of the frontage road, hidden from view by the semi. One tire was off, and there was a jack in the middle of the road. The doors were open, and inside the driver and a woman were being eaten alive...or at least they had been alive. They weren't moving or making any sounds anymore. Also silent was the man atop the limo. He was sitting by a partially opened sunroof, curled up in a ball with his head hidden, but they could tell he was alive from his shaking.
"I stopped to help change the tire," the Right Way driver whispered with ragged breaths as Olivia crouched beside him. "They just came out of nowhere..." Every word was labored, and it was clear that he didn't have long. He had lost too much blood.
"We'll take care of them. Then we'll help you. You're going to be okay," Alek softly lied.
"I'm going to turn into one of those things," the man said. "I can feel it. Please don't let it happen. I'm begging you."
Olivia looked him in the eye and agreed. Then she counted the number of corpses feasting in the limo and realized they couldn't shoot the trucker first because it would draw the dead to them.
"If you can get the two in the front, I'll take the three in the back," she said to Alek, and he nodded. "Ravi, I want you to watch. If Alek and I don't make it, get in the driver's seat of the limo and get everyone the hell out of here. Okay?"
"Yes, ma'am," he said, and she turned back to Alek.
"You have to shoot them in the brain. Otherwise, they'll just keep coming," she said, and he gritted his teeth at the thought of it.
"Let's get this over with," he said as he cocked the rifle. Olivia checked her safety, then they moved in close enough to get a good shot, aimed, and took out the first two. The remaining three jumped up and turned toward them, bloody muscle and skin hanging from their teeth as they growled and came running. Terrified, Olivia and Alek aimed and fired again. She got hers right in the forehead, but Alek's shot only grazed its target on the side of the head. The dead man kept coming, moving so fast Alek barely had time to cock the rifle and get it in position again before the corpse was on him, the tip of the gun driving straight into his hungry mouth as he pulled the trigger. The bullet drove upward into the brain, smattering the pavement all around with grey matter and pieces of skin and hair. The last one, a teenage girl slipped on it and slid into Olivia, knocking her feet out from under her. She dropped the gun, and the dead girl clutched her jeans, pulling on them to climb up Olivia's body and get a good bite on her. While Olivia struggled to reach the gun, Alek hit her attacker in the head with the butt of the rifle, knocking her off before he cocked it and shot her between the eyes.
Olivia's heart was beating so hard, it felt like it was going to pop out of her chest as she exhaled long-held breath before thanking him. Then she picked up her gun and got to her feet just in time to hear the man on the roof of the black limo shout, "More are coming!"
Olivia and Alek looked up, and barreling down a steep embankment just a dozen yards away were more dead, some sliding, others rolling down the hill. She looked back for Ravi to tell him to get help, but he was gone. And the dead were almost upon them.
"How many bullets do you have left?" she asked Alek.
"Ten maybe?" he said. "I have eight in the extra magazine and a couple left in this one.
"I have five," she said. "Let's get the fuck out of here."
But it was too late. When they turned to run back to the limo, they crashed straight into the Right Way driver and Olivia had to use the first bullet on him. She pointed her gun upward under his chin and pulled the trigger, and the dead from the hill caught up to them before he hit the ground. They opened fire, Olivia planting each of her four remaining bullets in heads as Alek managed to succeed five out of nine times, switching out his magazine in the midst, and when he went to fire his tenth and final bullet at a corpse that was less than five feet away, there was no tenth bullet.
"Run!" he commanded Olivia with a guttural scream, planning to
hold them off so she could get away, but the dead man changed course, going for her instead. As Alek reached out to try to pull her out of his grasp, they were both knocked to the ground. Scrambling to get away, they clawed at the blacktop on their bellies, kicking their attacker when Olivia suddenly remembered the knife from the army surplus store that she'd strapped to her belt loop when they rescued Jax. It wasn't a machete, but the blade extended long enough to reach the brain if she could jam it into the right place. She yanked it out of its sheath, twisting her body just enough to take aim, and it seemed to work as the dead man on top them fell in a heap as soon as the knife made contact.
Of course, the unsharpened blade never actually penetrated his skull. It was the bullet from Dani's rifle, and while Olivia and Alek lay catching their breath, they had to cover their ears to protect them from all the gunfire as the rest of the dead were put down. Ravi hadn't abandoned them. He had gone to the limo for backup.
"Come on," he said as he reached for Olivia's hand to help her to her feet. "From the looks of these corpses, I would say there's a bar up on that hill, and more could follow."
Ravi, Dani, and Jax got in the cab of the tractor trailer, and everyone else got back in the Hummer, including the man from the top of the other limo. Wearing a black three-piece suit, Jobe Stricklan unscrewed the lid on a flask and took a big swig while he sat comfortably in the backseat as Olivia pulled onto the road with Ravi following in the semi.
Leary, Olivia listened to him explain to everyone how he came to be cowering atop his own limousine as his wife and driver were eaten alive. His wife was from the area, and her grandmother had been in hospice for months. They got the call last evening that she would likely not make it until morning, and they had rushed to West Virginia so his wife could say goodbye before she passed. They had landed his jet at a nearby private airfield, and they were en route to Mount Nebo when the car got a flat.
