Daniel was on the ground, grabbing at his nose. He looked up and saw a gun in his face, and everything blurred around him. The last thing he remembered was a chuckle and the man with the gun taking off.
The pain throbbed through his cheeks, and he could feel the warm blood covering his face. His nose was most likely broken, but he was still alive. As much as he hated the thought of someone getting one over on him, it definitely just seemed to have happened.
He realized he was moving. His arms were in the air, and he was being dragged through the forest, over dead pine needles that collected behind him in the dirt. He searched around, struggling from the grasp of his carrier and spun around quickly. “Who the hell are—”
“Easy, Danny,” Cole said, reassuringly. His hands were in the air, offering up no harm.
Daniel shook his head and grabbed at his swollen nose. “Damn, Cole. What the hell happened?”
“Alan took off after whoever it was that stole our stuff, then you took off after him. I made sure everyone else was safe, then started after you. I didn’t see what happened, but it looks like you got hit in the face pretty hard. I found you lying on the ground and someone running in the distance.”
“You didn’t go after them?”
Cole shrugged. “And do what? You seem to be handling this whole life change a lot better than me and look what happened to you.”
Cole was right, as much as Daniel hated to admit it. Here he sat on the ground, covered in blood. Cole would have just ended up the same way or worse. But again, the question of why he wasn’t killed came to his mind again. None of it made sense.
Cole grabbed at Daniel’s hand, but he swatted it away. “I can get up and walk myself.”
Cole raised his hands again. “Just trying to help.”
Daniel spit a puddle of blood onto the dry pine needles and looked at Cole. Irritatingly enough, Cole had come through for him. “What’s the plan now?”
Cole shrugged. “Head back to the others and reassess. We still have one vehicle. I think we can still keep to the plan.”
What plan? Daniel thought. Head up north and meet up with some people Alan knows and maybe some family the others have or probably don’t have now. Still, them heading north was beneficial to him, for now. If something like this happens again, though, things would have to change.
The two men stumbled back to the road where Courtney, Jessica, and Eden sat in the car. “You guys okay?” Courtney asked, seeing the blood soaked into Daniel’s shirt. Eden’s eyes lit up, and she bolted from the seat toward the men.
Cole smiled as she came running, but she ran right past him and wrapped her arms around Daniel. “I thought something happened to you.” Cole smiled as he watched his daughter.
Daniel had no idea what to do, so he put his hand on her back and gave it a pat. “Uh, I’m alright.” What a weird thing for her to do, he thought. Hugging in itself was always strange to him, thought. “Should we move that tree?” he said, trying to change the subject and get Eden to break away from him.
“Where’s Alan?” Jessica asked.
That was a good question, and as far as Daniel knew, he was-
“Right here,” Alan said, jogging up to the group from through the trees.
All eyes turned to the returned man. Pine needles were in his hair, and his shirt was slightly torn, but he was still in the same shape as before. “Whoa, killer, looks like someone got you good,” Cole said to Daniel, pointing out his bloody nose.
Daniel stared him down for a moment. The awkwardness in the air hung like a thick stench, nobody speaking. Finally, Alan broke the silence and raised a pistol up. “Looks like my efforts weren’t fruitless.”
“How’d you manage to get that?” Cole asked.
Alan smirked. “I caught up to one of them and wrestled them down.”
“What happened to the guy?”
“He got away, but that’s okay. Seemed like they were harmless, right. That’s why nobody was killed.”
“Right. Just convenient he got away,” Daniel replied, keeping his eyes locked on Alan.
“We gonna move this tree or what?”
Everyone gathered around the tree, and Daniel started to instruct. “Let’s lift it and put it—”
“Actually, maybe we can just push it a few feet and drive around at this spot down there.” Alan pointed, cutting off Daniel.
“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Jessica said, obviously not wanting to lift the tree any more than needed.
It was more than the tree, though. Everyone looked to Alan as almost some sort of hero. It seemed like they were looking to him as their leader. Daniel was glad to not be looked to that way, but it just meant he had to figure out a plan sooner than later now that Alan was. He watched as Alan pushed at the tree with the same stupid smirk on his face, like there was someone else behind his face.
24
Paxton observed the silence in the car. It seemed like they had been driving for days, when in reality it was a matter of minutes. Probably less than an hour. Paxton noticed it went silent because Sherry was no longer sobbing. It was like an endless loop until just a moment ago. Sniffles, a sputtering breath, then some shaking and rustling, followed by the sniffles all over again.
He completely understood and was sympathetic to her. Her husband had been killed, along with all her friends. It was only a fluke that she was alive because Paxton decided to go back. But he couldn’t think that way, could he? Wasn’t it only a fluke that her entire group was dead? If he hadn’t taken the car from the barricade, the soulless would never have been able to get in. If he hadn’t convinced Larry to go inside, there would have been someone to be on lookout. If he hadn’t been so fucking selfish, all of those people would still be alive. Then the thought crept into his mind. The one he couldn’t think and couldn’t let seep in any further.
Is Stacey worth all of this?
He quickly pushed it from his mind because he knew the answer, but he didn’t want to think it. If he actually thought about it, what would that make him? Either way he answered it, he would be a monster. Of course, she was worth it. But isn’t sacrificing all those people for one person wrong? That one person also wasn’t the savior of the world or someone of equal importance. It was his wife. It was all for his personal gain. Then again, no, she wasn’t worth all of this. But then that made his love falter. That made him not a great husband. How could he ever live with himself if he didn’t do everything possible to save the love of his life, the person he was sworn to love and cherish.
He took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in his throat before it turned to full blown bawling. This was something he was going to have to live with for the rest of his life, however long that may be.
He looked over at Sherry and realized, it was also something she was going to have to live with for the rest of her life.
Sherry finally sat up and pointed ahead, catching his attention. It had just been a few soulless wandering the road in the darkness until now. Ahead was an intersection with a gas station. It seemed empty and about as safe as they were going to find anytime soon.
“What do you think?” she finally spoke through a crackled voice.
“We’ll circle around it just to make sure, then go in and settle in for the rest of the night.”
She nodded as he did just that. Around the back, they spotted a pair of wandering bodies stumble against the wall and back to the sidewalk. About as safe as they were going to find anytime soon, he thought again. He parked the car underneath the awning, next to a gas pump as if he was going to refill the vehicle. Of course, with no power, that wouldn’t be happening.
No words were spoken when they went inside. Paxton knocked the butt of the rifle against the counter when they walked in, hoping some noise would stir up anything that was walking about. A skid from behind the register rang out through the store. Paxton peeked over, just in time for an old woman, now dead, to spring up and grab his face with both hands.
Paxton
panicked. He pushed the rifle into her but couldn’t reach the trigger. He struggled as she drew his face closer to her chomping teeth. Those wet smacking lips spraying spittle across his face. The stench from her mouth, reaching his nose, filling it with old cigarettes and rotting meat. In a bit of good fortune, he hadn’t eaten much to throw up, because he would have done just that if he had.
Just as his face was within a tongue’s lick away from her mouth, Sherry pulled him away, causing him to land on the ground. She grabbed the shelf filled with candy bars off the front counter, spilling all sorts of sweets across the floor. The old woman snarled in Sherry’s direction just before the metal shelf was swung at her head. Her eye was split right across and deep into her face. The woman’s body dropped from the blow, but her arms still reached up, trying to grab onto anything near. The zombie growled again when Sherry hopped up on the counter. She jumped down, slamming her boot onto the shelf, embedding it deep into the woman’s brain. The body went limp. Sherry continued to stomp and stomp. Wet smacking sounds filled the room as she started to cry.
Paxton got up and reached his hand across the counter, placing it on Sherry’s shoulder. “Sherry, it’s done.”
“Fuck you, Paxton!” she said, gritting her teeth, tears streaming down her face. She swatted his hand off and glared at him.
Paxton pulled his hand back, trying to avoid any further conflict. He bit his lip and looked her in the eyes. “I’m so sorry, Sherry.”
She slumped down, her back against the counter. “I’m sorry, Paxton. I just- I don’t know what to do now.”
“It’s okay. Everything will be okay. You and I are gonna get through this, alright?” He looked at her, desperate for an answer.
She nodded with a sniffle. “Yeah. I’m sorry. Thank you.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about.”
The rest of the night went fairly smooth. Paxton was able to drag the dead woman out of the store and head back inside without drawing any attention to himself. He figured it was better to get rid of the smell of a rotting corpse if they were to try and get any rest. He cleared the rest of the store, finding no more soulless in the building. Nothing was cold anymore, but that was alright. They had their pick of all the room temperature water and sports drinks, along with a seemingly unlimited supply of prepackaged snack foods for dinner. Paxton had chosen a bag of beef jerky and a pack of super processed, extra sweet donuts. Sherry had decided to go with the assorted cheddar pretzel mix and a candy bar. Both of them drank warm beer.
After a few sips of her beer, Sherry stared across the room toward the doors that Paxton had reinforced with a shelf through the door handles so nothing could open the door and come in. “It just happened out of nowhere.”
Paxton’s ears perked up, noticing the break in silence. He opened his mouth but figured it was better to say nothing and just listen.
“Luke was getting ready for bed. He seemed really upset about something. I asked him what was wrong, but he only shook his head. I hated when he got like that.” She looked at Paxton, searching for his eyes in the dark. “Like something really was bothering him, but he hadn’t processed it enough to share it, ya know? That’s just what he did.”
Paxton nodded and took a sip of beer, remaining silent.
“I tried to coax him into telling me, but you know Luke, he’s a little stubborn about that. If he isn’t going to share, he isn’t going to share. Before I had a chance to say much else, Larry was in the kitchen, calling out for Luke. I don’t really know what he was saying, but Luke seemed to not understand whatever he was talking about. They kept talking and screams came out- Oh God, the screams. They came from across the street.”
Sherry sobbed a little, wiping her face. Paxton couldn’t see that well, but he could tell Sherry had been crying a while. She was good at being silent about it, but the shimmer of her face against the moonlight gave her away. “Luke and Larry ran out, and I followed behind. Luke came back to get me, but by then the- What did you call them?”
“Soulless,” Paxton said, remembering how long ago it seemed that Daniel had taught him that term.
“Right, soulless. They were surrounding the place. Luke had pushed them aside so I could get out, but he—”
She sobbed and couldn’t finish the words. Paxton grabbed a travel pack of tissues and slid them across the floor to her. “Thanks,” she said, blowing her nose. “I was outside, and Luke wasn’t. That’s when Larry came, and we tried running through the crowd of the soulless.” She paused and looked up at him through the dark. “You and I are the only ones who made it out. Thank God you got that vehicle, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it. Thank you.”
Paxton took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You don’t need to—”
“I’m alive because of you. I owe you my life.”
Everyone is dead because of me.
“No, don’t do that.” Paxton could feel the tear trickle down his face. “Don’t thank me. I’m not someone who deserves that. Things were better before—” He cut himself off. Guilt was getting the better of him, and he couldn’t admit anything to Sherry. Best case, she would never forgive him and leave, worst case, she would kill him. Maybe he deserved all of it, but it was done now, and confessing anything did nobody any good.
“It’s so easy to blame yourself, isn’t it?”
Paxton nodded, wiping the tears from his face. She was right, but she had no idea at the same time. “I’m so sorry.”
“Paxton, you have nothing to be sorry for.” Sherry got up and sat next to him on the floor. She put an arm around him and let him bury his head in her shoulder. The two of them were a complete mess, sitting on the floor, crying together.
At some point in the night, they tried to go to sleep. Paxton knew it was going to be a failed effort but did it anyway. The thoughts of everything that had happened filled his head. Going back to the first night at the church. Getting away, being stitched up, and waking up alone at the house. George, how hopeless he was, and his family at the house. The wandering, and finally finding Luke. He had felt safe for that moment, and then Ryan being killed at the hardware store. Then finally the hours just before. How much everything seemed to build up.
Lord, please let Stacey be alive. Please let me find her soon.
The prayer was more habit than anything. From day one, he hadn’t felt God’s presence with him at all. It was as if he had abandoned this world, and the result were the soulless wandering around. Why was he one of the lucky ones to still be alive? It would be easier if he was dead with the rest. But then, he wouldn’t be alive to save Stacey. He had to keep hope that she was still alive. He just had to.
The darkness took over his sight and exhaustion set in.
“Get up, motherfucker.”
The voice bled into his ears and he opened his eyes in slits. A figure stood over him, but he was so exhausted it still took him a moment to realize the danger in that. Finally, he shook his head and opened his eyes wide. Sherry stood over him with the rifle pointed at his face.
“I said get up!” she screamed. The tears seamed to constantly be running down her face.
Paxton held one hand up and used the other to push him up from the floor in a sitting position. “What’s going on, Sherry?” He was genuinely confused.
“You asshole. You should know.”
He shook his head slowly, raising the other hand to show her no harm. He tried to search his head for why things would have changed so much in just a few hours, if it had been even that. “I honestly have no idea—”
“Tell me the fucking truth.”
“About what?”
“How did you get a car so quick? They were on top of us so fast. Larry wasn’t at his post on watch. Everyone is dead, except you.”
“And you.”
“Shut up!”
“Sherry, you aren’t making any sense,” he said, even though he knew she was making perfect sense. The sweat started to trickle down his face as he stared down the barrel.<
br />
“Tell me. Just tell me.”
Paxton shook his head. Now was not the time for a confession. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Liar! You talk in your sleep. You said, ‘It’s all my fault. They’re all dead because of me. I should never have left.’ What do you mean you should never have left?”
“We talked about this last night, I blame myself—”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Sherry screamed.
Paxton quickly grabbed the barrel of the gun and pushed it to the side. The gun went off by the side of his head. The pop in his left ear didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would, but the sound he could hear was completely overtaken with a ringing. He pulled, and then pushed at the rifle, making Sherry drop to the floor. The rifle clanged to the floor next to her.
“Sherry, stop this.” He stood up and kicked the gun across the floor. It was more than likely empty, unless she had found more ammo for it. He wasn’t going to take any chances. He stood over Sherry, watching as she climbed to a seated position. She took a deep breath and slowly stood up. Paxton readied himself for whatever she may attempt next. “Are you gonna calm down? Let’s talk.”
She nodded her head, seeming to let his words make sense. “Alright, so talk.”
“You’re upset, and I understand that. But after last night, I figured we would figure out—”
“Shut up!” she screamed at him.
Paxton closed his mouth and stared at her. They stood there looking each other for a moment, both of them waiting for the other. When it was apparent Sherry had nothing more to say, he started again. “Like I said—”
“I don’t want to hear any more lies from you. I want the truth. How did you have a car so ready? Why was Larry not at his post? Why are we the only ones alive and Luke is dead?”
Soulless Wanderers: Soulless Wanderers Book 1 Page 18
