Each house had a small chain link fence separating their yards. When Alex went to unlatch the fence leading to the yard behind house #4, it started to let out a high pitched squeal. He stopped and then tried to open the gate slower, but it didn’t do much to minimize the noise, which seemed to be magnified louder than any other gate known to man. Once he had it open just enough to squeeze through, he did so and left it open, rather than repeating the performance again.
The grass in the yard was knee high, matching what he had seen in the front of the house as well. It had been well over a month since anyone cared about the appearance of a yard and nature was beginning the process of reclaiming the land. Alex continued to try and listen for any nearby sounds and didn’t hear anything, so he re-holstered the shotgun in the scabbard on his pack, while he approached the fence separating him from the back yard of house #6. As he crossed the yard, though, a dog began barking loudly in one of the houses on the next street over, whose own back yard abutted the yard he was in.
Alex quickly jumped the fence, almost dropping the shotgun in the process, and hurried to check the back door of his target house. It was slightly ajar, so he entered hoping that there were no immediate dangers inside the home. He found himself in a small kitchen area and he peered through the only window in the room towards the house with the dog. As he did so, the back door opened and he saw a mangy looking German Shepherd come bounding out of the home and it ran up against the fence, raising up on its hind legs as if it were going to climb over. The dog barked furiously and, given its appearance, Alex imagined that it would probably kill and eat him in a heartbeat, if it had the opportunity.
Two men armed with handguns appeared on the back porch and looked around, before one of the men nodded his head in the direction of the dog and gestured with his pistol towards the house that Alex was hiding in. The men fixed their gaze on the home as if they could see him through the window, causing him to be as still as possible, while he waited to see what they would do next.
CHAPTER 14
“Help me turn him on his side,” Naomi said in an unflustered, but clearly urgent, tone as Lilliana rushed over to assist her. Jack’s body convulsed uncontrollably for another half a minute, before it stopped just as suddenly as it started.
“This is his second one in the past hour,” Lilliana stated matter of factly. “If this continues, the seizures might kill him before the sepsis does.”
Andrea came downstairs, when she heard the commotion. She appeared distraught and disheveled. “What happened?” She asked, reaching for the couch to stabilize her as she began to feel faint. Andrea was not sure if it was from getting out of bed too quickly or from the effects of the medicine that she had taken earlier in the day to help her sleep.
“He had a seizure, but it’s over,” Naomi explained as she went over to help Andrea to the nearby recliner chair. “You should be resting; we’ll take care of Jack.”
“Is he dying?” Andrea asked with a broken voice. She looked to Lilliana for her answer, indicating that she had heard what she said from upstairs.
“I won’t lie to you,” Naomi said calmly. “It doesn’t look good. But Alex is out looking for the medicine he needs as we speak. You must be patient and rest yourself. I’m worried about the chest pains you have been experiencing.”
“It’s fine, I just get indigestion sometimes,” Andrea said trying to redirect the attention away from her.
“You still need to rest,” Naomi said in a voice that conveyed the message that there was no room for debate. She then helped Andrea back to her room and gave her two Aspirin pills and another Valium to take. “These will help with your chest pains and this will help you to relax and sleep more.”
After ensuring that Andrea took her medicine and went back to bed, Naomi returned to the first floor with Lilliana and Jack who was still unconscious but muttering in an indiscernible manner as if he were talking in his sleep.
“It feels like a curse to be a nurse under these circumstances,” Naomi said quietly. “We can see the symptoms and diagnose the likely problem, but we have no ability to provide reliable treatment. It would be better to be ignorant and not know what could happen next.”
Lilliana did not respond and only nodded in agreement. She too recognized that the situation was grave for both of the Sullivan’s given their limited treatment options. She quietly hoped that Andrea really was only suffering from exhaustion and indigestion and she prayed that Alex would return quickly with the medicine for Jack.
The men paused for another moment, which felt like an eternity to Alex, before turning to go back into the house. One of the men yelled to the German Shepherd.
“Shut the hell up and get back in here. You’ll never catch one of them damn squirrels if you keep making all that racket.” The dog obediently returned to the house and followed the man inside.
Alex realized that he had been holding his breath, while trying to keep still, so he quickly exhaled as he turned away from the window to look around the kitchen. He was suddenly aware of a foul odor and tried unsuccessfully to stifle a gagging cough. He pulled his shirt up over his nose and tried to collect his thoughts.
He hadn’t heard anyone inside, but he still wanted to carefully clear the house before doing a more thorough search for supplies. However, if the kitchen was any indication of what he might find in the rest of the house, he wouldn’t have much searching to do, because it had clearly been ransacked and whoever had been there last did not see the need to close the empty drawers or cabinets.
Alex began to make his way from room to room with his shotgun now in hand and he tried to ignore the awkward feeling in his stomach. He was officially a scavenger and it felt weird to be in someone else’s home. Pictures still hung on the walls in some rooms and he recognized one of the people from the ID card associated with the home. When he was satisfied that the home was empty, he looked more closely at one of the photos of the family. They looked happy in the photo and Alex wondered to himself about their fate. He tried not to think about them for too long and got back to looking for the meds he needed.
The bathrooms were the first logical places to check, so he checked the one in the main hallway on the second floor first, since he was already there. The bathroom looked almost like the kitchen, and there were no prescription pill bottles left. However, there were some items that Alex thought might be useful, so he gathered them and put them in his backpack. There was a small half empty bottle of hydrogen peroxide and an unused tube of prescription ointment for treating poison ivy, which Alex was quite allergic to.
None of the other rooms in the house, nor the bathroom on the first floor, offered any other useful items, so Alex decided to move on to the next house. Before going, though, he realized he hadn’t checked the basement. He knew if he didn’t check, he’d be left wondering if he missed discovering a goldmine of supplies, like what he and his neighbors found in the Kim’s basement. When he retraced his steps back to the basement door in the kitchen, he realized that the smell he had been trying to ignore was much stronger on the first floor than it had been upstairs.
When Alex opened the basement door, the intensity of the terrible odor magnified, knocking him to his knees and inducing immediate vomiting. He tried to slam the door shut again as quickly as possible, but through his watery eyes he caught a terrible glimpse of the rotting pile of corpses at the bottom of the basement stairs. An angry swarm of flies terrorized Alex, like a scene from a horror movie. He frantically tried to crawl away, while still clutching the shotgun in one hand. He retreated towards the back door and barely was able to get to his feet, before he stumbled out the door into the back yard. Alex collapsed again in the yard and threw up a second time as he gasped for fresh air.
His body was covered in a cold sweat, even in the midst of the summer heat, similar to the experience he had the night he went to help the Walkers. Only this time, he didn’t have the cool cleansing rain to help wash away the stench of death that now seemed to be e
mbedded in his clothes.
At that moment, the German Shepherd began to bark again. In his haste to get out of the house, he didn’t have time to think about the dog. Alex looked up and his eyes met those of the two men, who were peering at him from across the two yards from their window. He heard them shouting to each other in the house and knew that they would be coming for him. He did not wait for them to appear at their door, as he forced himself up and ran for the nearest gate.
The adrenaline surged as he made his escape, although he didn’t know where he was running to. Once he reached the front of the house, he ran as fast as he could away from the direction he had originally come from to the next intersection, where he turned left and continued running. He hoped to put some distance between him and the men, but also hoped he wouldn’t run into anyone else in the process.
In the distance, he could still hear the barking, but could not be sure if he had been followed. He ducked into an alley way between two homes to catch his breath and to try and reorient himself. Alex was not familiar with the side streets he had taken, so he racked his brain trying to remember if the street he was on was close to any of the other houses.
“I should have brought a map,” he said to himself as he retrieved the bag of ID’s from his pack. When he had initially gone over the plan in his head, he envisioned each of the streets he planned to check by their location in relation to Washington Street, since it was a main road.
Alex quickly looked at the remaining addresses on the ID’s. He had already abandoned the thought of checking the last two houses on the previous street, since he had been compromised there. He closed his eyes for a moment as if it would help him remember the street grid on the map. He knew he was close to one of the other streets and felt like he had an idea of how to get there from his position. As he picked up his backpack and began to get up from his hiding spot, the German Shepherd appeared and was on him, before he had time to react.
Alex instinctively raised the backpack as a shield, but he was still knocked onto his back by the full force of the large dog charging into him. The shotgun landed beside him as he fell and the ID cards scattered behind him in the alley as he hit the pavement. His head knocked against something hard and Alex saw stars for a moment as the dog proceeded to try and maul him. He regained his senses enough to realize that the backpack was being torn to shreds, but had at least protected him from the initial attack.
Alex lifted a leg and kicked straight into the massive dog’s chest with as much force as he could muster. He was able to temporarily create some distance between himself and the dog, but as the Shepherd was being kicked away, it also pulled the pack away from Alex as well. The beast flung the bag to the side and moved in on his victim again. Alex tried to scuttle backwards, but didn’t make it far and knew he had no chance to get to his feet before the dog would be upon him again.
Alex tried to reach for his pistol as he defensively raised his left arm to meet the ferocious jaws. The beast gladly accepted his offer and sunk his teeth into the flesh, savoring the taste of warm blood that now flowed from Alex’s forearm. At that moment, Alex felt the pressure from the bite, but was still too amped up on adrenaline to feel the pain right away. He quickly freed his weapon from its holster and pressed the muzzle into the chest of the dog, before frantically shooting a number of times. The giant animal leaped back awkwardly as the hollow points tore through his body. Alex continued shooting wildly as it moved away from him until his 10 round magazine emptied, locking back the slide on his pistol.
The dog whimpered and collapsed on the sidewalk a few feet away from Alex in front of the alley. He sat in shock for a moment, still pointing the pistol in the direction of the dying dog, when he became aware of the sounds of feet running in his direction. He quickly hit the magazine release on his M&P and grabbed a new mag from the pouch on his belt. When he inserted the new magazine and racked the slide to chamber a round, he felt an intense pain in his forearm. He stole a quick glance to see a number of puncture wounds and trickles of blood seeping from each of them.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” Yelled one of the men in an exasperated tone, when his bloodied dog came into view a few yards away as he rounded the corner. Alex was out of sight in the alley, so his focus was solely on his critically wounded pet.
Alex creeped over to his shotgun and grabbed it as the distracted men mourned the dying animal. He holstered his pistol and flipped off the safety on the shotgun as the faint clicking sounds of both actions suddenly made the men aware of his presence. Alex stepped out of the alley with the scattergun aimed at the surprised men, who stood with their own pistols by their sides.
“Drop the guns and head home,” Alex said. “You can come back for your dog later.”
“Who the fuck do you think you are, asshole?” The first man barked. “YOU KILLED MY FUCKING DOG!”
“The dog attacked me and I defended myself. I don’t want to shoot you, but if you don’t drop the guns, I will. I’ve seen enough death for one day, so just walk away.”
The men looked at Alex and showed no signs of complying at first. However, after a moment, the second man nervously looked at his friend and down at the dog.
“Listen, Will, let’s just go,” he pleaded as he slowly placed his weapon on the ground and started to back away.
“YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” The first man shouted at his friend. “When I’m done with this asshole, you can be sure that you’re next.”
Alex’s eyes were on the second man, who had been slowly backing off, when the first man tried to take advantage of the moment. The slight distraction gave the man enough time to raise his weapon and take a single wild shot that missed high. Alex flinched away and pulled the trigger at the same time, peppering the man’s midsection with buckshot, hitting him much lower than he had intended. The man was knocked backward and he landed beside his friend who stood frozen, afraid to move. The man laid on his back staring at the sky with wide eyes as blood poured from his exposed entrails. His mouth moved as if he were struggling to find another breath that was not to be found.
Alex repeated his direction for the remaining man to leave and the frightened man didn’t hesitate. He took off running back the way he came, leaving his friend and the dog behind without looking back.
Alex quickly retrieved his ravaged backpack. The outer pocket was ripped and dangling, but luckily the large inner section was still intact. He also picked up his empty magazine, which he tossed into the pack.
He glanced down at his injured arm, which was now throbbing in pain. He felt the same throbbing in his head, which was beginning to ache worse than the headaches he had been experiencing from the caffeine withdrawal. He touched the back of his head, where he had banged it, and felt the sticky wet blood that confirmed yet another injury. Alex felt the fear rising within.
“Don’t panic, Stone,” he said to himself. “It’s just a couple of scratches. The bleeding isn’t too bad and you’re going to have a cool story about the Direwolf you just fought.” The self-talk helped somewhat, but he was still very concerned about his wounds.
Alex wanted to get away from the area as quickly as he could, so he refocused his attention on his mission and decided to wait until he was somewhere safer to try and tend to his wounds. In his haste to leave and with his mind distracted by his worries, he carelessly forgot to take the two guns lying next to the dead man and his dog. As soon as he had his pack on, he took off in the direction of the next street he needed to find.
CHAPTER 15
Ten minutes later, Alex found himself a few blocks away at the next street on his mental list. He kneeled down behind a dusty looking SUV and removed his pack to take a look at the ID’s and determine which houses he was looking for. After rummaging through his pack for a minute, Alex began to realize his mistake. In his rush to leave the scene of the dog attack, he forgot to pick up the ID’s which had scattered in the alley.
He pondered his options for a moment and considered going back for the ID’s. However
, after weighing his options, he decided that it wasn’t worth the time he would waste. It was getting late in the afternoon and he was starting to worry that he wasn’t making as much progress as he thought he might have. Instead, Alex decided he would simply take the risk of checking out the houses that looked like they could be abandoned. However, given the dilapidated overall look to the neighborhood that was going to be easier said than done. Like most neighborhoods in the city, this one looked like a riot had passed through and most cars and houses on the street bore the scars of the event. Only a couple of homes had been burned down, which gave Alex some hope that he might find what he needed.
The house closest to him looked like a good place to start. The door had clearly been kicked in and one of the first floor windows had an almost perfect octagon missing from the pane, where something had been thrown through it. Alex cautiously approached and looked around the rest of the neighborhood. There was no immediate sign of anyone else and he felt like he was visiting a ghost town, abandoned long ago.
Alex entered the house and paused just inside the doorway to listen. He did not hear anything, so after a minute, he pushed the front door closed. It remained slightly ajar, due to the damage from being forced open. He thought about pushing a chair up against the door to close it more, but decided against it, just in case he needed to retreat in a hurry.
Alex then began his process of clearing the house and quickly surveyed the first floor. Once he got to the second floor, he was more methodical in his room by room check making sure that the rooms and closets did not hold any surprise occupants. When he was finished, he was grateful to find the house unoccupied and even more grateful that he didn’t have the same gruesome surprise waiting for him in the basement as the last home. Unfortunately for Alex, though, the home had been picked clean of anything useful.
The Power Struggle Series (Book 2): The Downward Spiral Page 10
