He hobbled toward the bathroom, the closest door he could see. Everything was going fuzzy around him. The pain wasn’t much there anymore, but for some reason, he was still afraid of what could happen next. He didn’t want to die now, not like this. He had to save his wife. He reached the bathroom door, just as Daniel caught up to him.
Daniel struck him hard in the back with the knife. It was more of a pressure feeling than any pain. He knew that wasn’t a good sign. It would be over in a matter of seconds, he was sure. Paxton fell into the door, twisting the handle. He kept falling, the door opening into the bathroom. He spun around on his way down to the floor. Daniel was right behind him, ready to kill. There was nothing more Paxton could do. Paxton fell to the floor hard. He pushed backward on his feet, sliding on the floor into the bathroom even deeper. He knew he wasn’t going anywhere, but it was the bodies response to not giving up.
Daniel stepped forward once but paused. Suddenly, Paxton saw pairs of feet step over him and toward Daniel. The saliva dripped on his face as he realized that the soulless were still in here. He looked up. The teenagers he was in charge of, the ones he had let down and had turned to these monsters, were now fighting with Daniel. He could feel himself slipping even more, his eyes becoming heavy. He tried to keep his eyes open, but it was a fight he couldn’t win. Before he closed them, for what he expected to be the last time, the last thing he saw was Daniel being overwhelmed by the soulless.
7
Daniel struggled with the soulless. He was surprised when the bathroom door had opened and the three soulless had come out. He had it set in his mind that he was going to finish Paxton off, but when they came out, it pushed his plan off. The first one grabbed him by the arm. He began to wrestle with it while the other two stood behind, almost like they were waiting their turn if Daniel made it past the first one. Luckily, the doorway kept them from all attacking him at once.
Hot breath hit the back of his neck, and he quickly glanced behind him. The soulless from outside were now inside, and one of them had caught up to him. The wet smacking lips and chomping teeth were so close to him. He dodged to the left while still struggling with the one in front, nearly missing the bite that came from the one behind him. If he wanted to live through this, he had to leave now.
Daniel kicked the soulless kid behind him hard in the gut. It caused it to buckle over and stumble backward, still showing no signs of pain, but definitely reacting as a body would to force. The girl in front of him tried pulling Daniel’s arm closer to her mouth. He went with it but directed his hand to grab just under her jaw. He took his knife and jammed it in her face while holding her head steady. The chomping stopped, and her body went limp. He let it fall to the ground, sliding his knife from her skull as she went down.
He looked one last time at Paxton on the floor. There was a puddle of blood pooling around him, and he wasn’t moving. He had probably just blacked out, but Daniel knew it was a matter of minutes before the man would die. He closed the bathroom door, closing him in the bathroom with the other two soulless before they could escape. What would be a matter of minutes to die, would now probably be seconds, Daniel thought. The soulless would finish Paxton for him.
The bathroom door closed in front of him. Daniel turned around and grabbed the soulless teen behind him. He took the knife and buried it in his eye socket. The body hit the floor quickly with a loud thud. He watched as more of the wandering bodies entered the gym. There was no way he could kill them all himself. He had to get out before it was too late, there was no point in trying to stick around to see Paxton finished off. He preferred keeping his life at the moment.
Daniel headed toward the doors, walking past the soulless that meandered through the gym. He didn’t pick up his pace to a run, or even a jog. His mind kept focused and to do so, he didn’t feel like running would help him any. At the door, they still kept filtering in. If only Paxton hadn’t made so much noise when Daniel was stabbing him, they wouldn’t have been alerted to coming inside. But here he was, having to deal with the problem. He stood with his back against the wall, next to the door, as if he was an assassin going to surprise the next person walking through.
As soon as a soulless girl walked through the door, he pushed her to the side. He couldn’t wait for an opportunity to come where there was an opening, he had to make one himself. The girl fell to the floor, snarling at him. She didn’t immediately get up but started to crawl toward him, mouth frothing and drooling all over the floor. Daniel would have been disgusted if he didn’t have enough on his mind already. He quickly turned to the door, hoping to make an easy exit, but in his brief time in this new world, he was discovering nothing was that easy. He didn’t mind, though. Daniel was good at solving problems and getting his hands dirty.
Daniel grabbed the letterman jacket that the soulless boy in front of him wore. He spun the kid around, turning his entire body to face out the door. Daniel noticed the reaction he got. It was as if the monster knew he was being messed with, and it triggered an attack mode in it. It didn’t get angry, but it just became known he was there. The mouth started chomping, trying to reach Daniel’s hands, but he kept them low enough that the thing couldn’t do any damage. Besides, he wasn’t going to hold on long, just long enough to be guided out.
Daniel walked the monster forward, through the crowd of soulless. It was like he was a VIP and the soulless kid in front of him was a bodyguard, parting the crowd of people wanting an autograph. The monsters did so reluctantly, and he had to push his way through, but they were doing it. Once they let him pass, they started to catch on. Thankfully, they were slow, and he was able to keep ahead of them.
Still, having that many monsters at his back, wanting to bite, hurt, or kill him wasn’t something he wanted to have take place for long. He pulled his knife up when he got far enough out from the gym, still followed by the rest of the soulless, and slid it in and out of the back of his guide’s skull. He held the knife up, ready to do the same to another if he needed to, as the body hit the ground.
Now was the time to pick up the pace. He jogged forward, pushing any soulless that were in his way. They all hit the ground and snarled when he did. The mini car pileup he and Paxton had caused was right in front of him. His car was dead, but Paxton’s truck may have some life in it. He shot into the front seat and closed the door before any of the monsters could catch him. They slammed against the door and streaked their hands down the window. He watched them through the glass, staring into their empty eyes. They seemed to want nothing and everything from him at the same time. He reached over and closed the passenger door Paxton had left open.
Daniel smiled, thinking about Paxton. Something about killing him had made him nostalgic. He was one of the most pain in the ass kills he had since finding the bunker. It wasn’t something he liked about kills, but this one in particular reminded him of safety. It reminded him of home, and he needed to get there as soon as he could.
The truck was still running from the scuffle earlier. Daniel shifted the truck into reverse and backed over some of the soulless bodies writhing on the ground, bones broken and no longer able to hold up the bodies that needed them to get around. Daniel thought he could hear the snapping of bones, slightly muffled by the engine. He shrugged and put it in drive, carefully maneuvering through the crowd of soulless. The truck sputtered as he turned the wheel, trying to avoid the few bodies wandering in front of it. He wasn’t big into vehicle knowledge, a fact that didn’t bother him at all, but it felt like the truck was not doing well. He had no idea what the condition of the truck was in the first place, other than knowing it wasn’t brand new, but he figured the crash and running over bodies probably didn’t do too well for it.
Daniel made it past the crowd and put the truck to the road. He exited the church sidewalk at the same point he entered. Once he was clear of the church, the road looked wide open. All of the soulless remained back at the campus. He pushed the gas to the truck and took off down the long black stripe in front
of him. The truck picked up and began to sputter. Daniel didn’t worry too much about it, but knew he was better off finding a different mode of transportation sooner than later.
Driving down the road, Daniel could have thought nothing wrong was going on. He didn’t see a single person, or soulless, in sight. It was just him and the truck heading down the road. If he didn’t have the memory of what had just happened the past couple of hours, he wouldn’t be any wiser. As the truck sputtered, smoke began to filter from underneath the hood.
Daniel yawned hard. He had forgotten how tired he was. Normally, he wouldn’t have stayed up so late, except on nights he made special plans like he had. Even so, he would have made it home after cleaning up and gotten some sleep. The sun was still down, but he figured not for long. He would have checked the clock on the radio in the truck, but there was no radio in the truck. The Pastor really had a shit job, he thought.
In the distance, Daniel could make out a truck parked on the side of the road, just slightly sticking out near the road. He pulled up to it and saw the property had a driveway that went deeper back. Just as he pulled down the road, his truck began to jerk uncontrollably. The steering wheel wouldn’t turn and eventually, smoke started pouring out from the hood. He put the vehicle in park, just in time for the engine to quit running completely. Smoke still blew out, but he knew he didn’t need to look under the hood. He wouldn’t know much about how to fix it anyway, but he figured it was done for.
It was at this moment the pain finally hit him. He had pretty much forgotten completely about the injury Paxton had inflicted upon him. He lifted he left hand, and the pain shot through his left shoulder. The pastor had a little fight in him on the way out, but luckily not enough, otherwise the blow with Daniel’s own knife could have been deeper. He pulled his shirt away from the wound and saw the cut. It wasn’t too bad, but he still needed to get it cleaned and wrapped. For now, the pain was minor enough to just be a reminder to stay careful in this world.
Daniel got out of the truck and peered in the window of the truck he parked next to. It was clean inside. The outside was covered in mud, but it looked to be in good condition. This vehicle hadn’t run over any bodies, that was for sure. He tried the handle, but it was locked. There was no point in breaking in if he had no keys to start it up. He looked behind him toward the driveway. He could just make out a house behind the citrus trees that lined the driveway. He took down the road on foot, gravel crunching underneath his feet.
He began to peel the orange he picked from one of the trees as he came up to the house. The house was a decent size and looked like it had been there a while. He figured it had with all of the citrus trees around. The smell of grapefruit and oranges filled his nose once he was away from the smoking truck. The owners probably made their money off picking the acres of trees that were behind it. He dug his finger in the orange and pulled out a section and popped it in his mouth. The sweet juice filled his mouth and gave him a burst of energy. The pain in his shoulder diminished from the sugar he ingested.
The front door was locked, so he knocked. The last thing he wanted right now was to get into a fight because he was trespassing. He had no problem killing the owner, but he wasn’t in stealth mode right now so they would surely know he was here. There was no answer at the door. He looked in the window and saw nothing, but darkness. He walked around the back.
He took a deep breath of the warm citrus air as he got behind the house. Someone stood in the moonlight. He could tell it was a woman the way she was dressed in a dress or nightgown. At first, he thought she saw him, but he stood still for a moment and slipped back into the shadow of the house. She stood there, looking at the moon, still not moving. He pulled his knife out, not sure if he needed to use it just yet. She may not be the only person here, and he didn’t want to go killing some farmers wife to be met with a shotgun in the face.
Daniel began to make his way behind the woman. He kept his back against the house and crept in the shadow. He got closer, watching the woman as she stared at the moon. There was something off about her, and as Daniel got close enough, he realized she wasn’t all there. She was soulless. He held his knife close and got near the back door. He placed his hand on the doorknob. If she was out here, he hoped she lived here and the door had been left unlocked. He twisted the handle, confirming his theory.
Daniel opened the door slowly and stepped inside, closing the door quietly behind him. He wanted to be as quiet as possible. Killing that woman would only cause sounds he didn’t need anyone, or anything else, to hear. The kitchen was quiet as he walked through it. There was a drink on the counter, half gone with Chapstick marks on the edge of the cup. Daniel wondered how many half-full cups or half-eaten snacks had been left on counters since the event happened.
The house was not as large as he thought it would be from the outside. He walked through it, making sure not to make any noise with his heavy boots. Luckily, it was mostly tiled and wasn’t filled with creaky wood planks. He walked to the stairs and looked at the wood that covered them. So much for his luck. Before stepping on the first step, he heard a tumble come from upstairs. Daniel ducked down behind the railing and looked up, waiting to make sure someone wasn’t coming down.
When he was sure nobody was on their way down to him, he stepped up on the stairs. He made it three steps from the top when his foot stepped on a creaky board. He cringed as the sound echoed out in the silent house. He paused, waiting for any other sound or movement. Nothing happened. He stepped up one more step and lifted his foot off the creaky one. Another loud creak rang out in the house. This time, Daniel didn’t need to pause. Immediately, loud thumps sounded through the house. They got closer, and Daniel quickly stepped onto the top floor, shrouded in the dark. He could not see a single window, and the entire floor was pitch black. Immediately, the wind was knocked out of him.
Daniel tumbled backward down the stairs, along with whatever or whoever hit him. His body felt like it hit every step on the way down. He didn’t have time to think about avoiding any damage when he fell, but once his body crashed to the bottom, that’s all he could think about. He felt the hot breath, he heard the guttural groan, he sensed the teeth near his face. He grabbed in front of him and pushed.
The moonlight from the window now shining through. He could now see the assailant he was battling. The man couldn’t be older than twenty. He could have been considered handsome at some point, but now he seemed disheveled, and the saliva hung from his mouth without a care. He seemed to be in good shape, which was unfortunate for Daniel. He struggled beneath him, feeling that strength behind the soulless man. He looked around, trying to find his knife.
In the moonlight, the metal blade glimmered across the room. It must have slid across the floor when he fell and there was no way Daniel could reach it now. The man pushed down hard, nearing in on Daniel’s face. Daniel pushed back but couldn’t move him any further away. He tried to roll his shoulders and was able to kick the man over. Both of them rolled, putting Daniel on top. A loud banging started on the back door. The woman must have heard the noise they were making and now was making her own. He had to put an end to both of them before any more were alerted to his location.
Daniel squeezed down on the soulless body in front of him. It was difficult, but he was able to keep him pinned down for the moment, giving him a sliver of time to look for something, anything, to use as a weapon. To the right of the railing, a small table stood. It was tall, but narrow. Its legs were long and thin, made of wood.
Daniel reached out, just barely able to grab it. It wasn’t heavy, but slightly awkward to handle. He swung it down as best he could, hitting the soulless in the face. It barely made a dent, but Daniel persisted. He tried again and nothing. He slammed it against the floor next to its face. The table broke apart, leaving him holding one leg. He jammed the leg up into the man’s jaw, sharp splintered end first. It penetrated underneath his mouth and up into his skull. The life immediately extinguished from the body.
The banging stopped from outside, but Daniel didn’t trust it. He picked up his knife from the floor, leaving the body on the floor with the table leg still in its skull. He waited next to the back door, listening for any movement. He could hear nothing. He slowly opened the door a crack. The door crashed inward, pushing Daniel back. The woman in the nightgown frothed at the mouth as she looked at Daniel. This time, he was ready and brought the knife up. She grabbed at him, Daniel swung the knife at her skull.
The knife missed as she swung her arm out. He stabbed directly into her forearm, causing no pain to her. She kept on. He grabbed her throat with his left hand as she lunged at him again. He tried pulling the knife out of her arm, but it was stuck in there good. He put a foot up on her stomach for leverage and pushed as he pulled the knife. This time, it slid free of her as she was pushed back, leaving blood pouring down her arm.
She came at him again, this time he swung straight down, planting the knife in the top of her skull. He body fell to the floor immediately. Daniel slid to the floor with her, his body completely exhausted from the night he was having.
After taking his knife and catching his breath, he headed back upstairs. The hallway was still pitch black, but he could feel the walls and felt a door. He opened it, letting the light spill out in the hallway. He checked it, making sure nobody was inside. He did the same to the other two rooms. He felt satisfied that he was alone and picked the first room he had found.
Inside was fairly plain. A few pictures on the wall of the man he had wrestled with before he was soulless. His age estimation was right because he had a picture from his recent graduation and cap and gown in the case with it. Daniel looked at the clock on the wall. It was three in the morning, and he was still awake. Between his planned kill for the night, discovering the soulless, the church, and now this, he was exhausted. His eyes were heavy. He needed rest, and he wanted to go to the bunker, or even his apartment, right now.
Soulless Wanderers: Soulless Wanderers Book 1 Page 6
