by Damon Hunter
“Why don’t we wait for Bar and Kate before we find out,” Donna said, thinking if the thing was in there, she would feel better going against it with the extra guns.
“What about Grampy Gary?”
“If he is in there, he has already been bitten,” Jennifer said. “It would have been the first thing it did when it broke in.”
Tanner nodded and turned away from the door. He took a step away just as the door crashed in on him. The door with his vampire rotter father standing on top of it slammed Tanner to the ground.
Vampire rotter Doug Rutherford stood up on the door with Tanner pinned underneath and said, “Eat,” before it crouched and sprang at Donna.
Donna fired and put a bullet through vampire rotter Doug Rutherford’s shoulder but the bullet did not stop him. The gun was knocked aside as he drove her to the ground. The back of Donna’s head bounced off the Rutherfords’ hardwood floor.
Before it could bite her, Jennifer swung the bat with the nails and buried it in his back. She tried to pull it out and go for another blow, this time to the head, but it twisted, going an impossible one hundred and eighty degrees so he faced her. The bat was pulled from her hand as it twisted around, leaving her unarmed and facing the vampire rotter.
Gavin stepped forward to stab it before it could bite Jennifer, but the vampire rotter’s clawed hand shot out and knocked him away. Jennifer tried to back away, but the same hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. She tried to pull away but the grip was too strong. She kicked out, trying to keep it from pulling her to its open mouth but could feel herself losing ground.
“Dad, no,” Tanner yelled as he shed the door from his back and charged with the bat.
His vampire rotter dad twisted again and caught the swing headed for his noggin. It pulled the bat loose from his son’s hands and tossed it across the room before slapping Tanner aside the same way he did Gavin.
He then turned his attention back to sinking his teeth into Jennifer.
Chapter 17
Corrigan’s Bunker - Fallbrook, CA
Bo reached Clay before too many of the infected had made it onto the field. As the TMRT soldier climbed on the back of the dirt bike, he could see the path back to the Suburban was still clear. As he kicked the bike into gear and turned the throttle he was feeling pretty good about his chances.
Both Bo and Clay were looking forward towards the relative safety of the Urban Assault Wagon, so neither saw the vampire rotter come out of the trees and jump into them, sending them all to the dirt.
Bo rolled to his feet first. He saw Clay was still down, maybe hurt. He also saw the vampire rotter who had knocked them down rise to its feet right in front of Clay. Bo leaped forward, getting himself in between Clay and the rotter.
He had no plan other than saving the TMRT soldier who had done the same for him more than once. Once he was in the rotter’s way, he wished he had a weapon. He remembered he still had his folding knife, the one he used to kill the woman he planned to marry, in his pocket. He was reaching for it when the rotter jumped on top of him.
Bo twisted so he took the bite on the shoulder instead of the neck or face. The pain was much more intense than when Jenny bit him. She didn’t have an extra set of sharp teeth when she clamped down on his arm. Bo knew he should be unfolding the knife in his hand and stabbing this thing, but the sensation of having his shoulder eaten made anything but flailing his arms and screaming impossible.
The relief when it let go was short lived because he knew it was only letting go so it could go in for another bite. He sensed the rotter knew it could not infect him and would use its razor sharp teeth to end him instead.
Bo grabbed it by the hair and pulled back, keeping the teeth out of his flesh for the moment. He tried to throw it off him but it was stronger than he was. The vampire rotter returned the favor and grabbed him by the hair and did what Bo had failed to do, throwing him to the ground. Bo got a mouthful of dirt as he did a faceplant in the field. He rolled over to see it standing above him.
Bo heard the gunshots and saw the rotter take bullets in the chest and then the head. After it fell, he turned to see Clay standing there with a smoking pistol in his right hand.
Clay turned away from Bo and fired some more, taking out amblers closing in on them. Bo worked his way to his feet as the gun ran out of ammunition.
Clay took the Sick Slaying Stick off his back as he and Bo started running towards the road. After getting knocked off the bike, neither was moving at full speed. A mass of infected had gathered in front of the Suburban, but they headed toward it anyway, figuring their chances were better if they could get to Suburban than trying to escape on foot.
“What the hell were you doing?” Clay asked as they limped toward the Urban Assault Wagon.
“Saving you. I’m immune, remember.”
“Not from bleeding to death. Besides, I’m wearing the TMRT armor,” Clay said before he swung the SSS and bashed in the head of one infected with the spiked ball end and nearly cut off the head of another with the blade.
“Sometimes I don’t think things through,” Bo told him as he unfolded his knife.
While Clay used the Sick Slaying Stick to devastate another pair of amblers to their right, Bo stuck the knife through the neck of one coming at them from the left. He did not do nearly the damage Clay did, but it was enough to put the ambler down for good.
Bo glanced behind them and saw the field behind them was filling up with infected too.
“I don’t think we are going to make it,” Bo said as he saw more vampire rotters running on all fours through the horde of amblers toward them.
“Shut up and keep fighting,” Clay said as he swung the SSS and dropped another ambler.
Chapter 18
Caroline Rutherford’s House - Oceanside, CA
Bar wanted to use the shotgun as he rushed down the stairs with Katelin right behind him, but with the young brunette in the thing’s grip and Donna underneath it, he did not think he could get it without shooting Donna and the kid too.
“Hey asshole,” Bar shouted, thinking if it could talk, maybe yelling at it could be a distraction. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”
He was a little surprised when calling it names worked and the one-eyed rotter with the points of a pair of gardening shears poking out the back of its neck turned to look his way.
“Yeah asshole, I was talking to you,” Bar said as he swung the butt of the shotgun at the one-eyed rotter’s head.
He was also surprised when it ducked out of the way and countered with a swing of its elongated right arm. Unlike Bar’s swing, the rotter’s blow landed, knocking Bar into Tanner, who had just gotten up.
Katelin jumped up and came down with both swords, putting them both deep into the shoulders of the rotter on top of her mom. With Bar in front of her, the vampire rotter did not see her coming until she was nearly right on top of him.
Instead smacking her across the room like it had the others, the vampire rotter formerly known as Doug Rutherford turned and sank his teeth into her arm.
Despite the pain, Katelin managed to say, “Wrong move, asshole,” and drew one of her Glocks. She put the barrel right on the rotter’s temple and pulled the trigger until it let go of her arm.
The vampire rotter who had been Tanner’s dad slumped dead on top of Donna. Bar pulled it off as Katelin stepped away.
“He got you,” Jennifer said, pointing at Katelin’s bloody arm. She looked at Bar, who still had his shotgun, and said to him, “It got her,” as if she expected him to do something about it.
Instead of shooting Katelin, Bar leaned down and helped Donna, who was starting to come around, sit up.
“You alright?” Bar asked her.
“I think so,” Donna said.
“Um,” Jennifer said as she picked up the knife Gavin had dropped, “am I the only one who saw she got bit?”
Katelin held up her bandaged arm and said, “It’s not my first bite.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
Jennifer looked at Bar, who said, “Yep. For whatever reason, the rot doesn’t take with her.”
“Sorry,” Jennifer said. “I didn’t know…”
“No worries. I would have thought about killing me too.”
Tanner made it to his feet. Tears formed in his eyes as he looked at the corpse of his father on the floor. Monster or not, as of just a few hours ago it had been his dad.
“I’m sorry,” Katelin said.
Tanner nodded. “I know. This whole thing is beyond messed up. I’m going to go check on Grampy Gary, he may be my only family I have left.”
Tanner stepped towards the door, but he did not have to go inside Grampy Gary’s room to check on him. Grampy Gary was standing in the doorway. His impossibly scrawny legs, unused for decades, held him upright. With the rest of his body so shriveled and decayed, Grampy Gary’s head seemed massive sitting atop his thin neck, above his slumped shoulders and sunken chest. Tusks jutted out of his short neck and he had an extra set of teeth in his mouth. He opened his jaws wide and made the low sound the rotters used to call the other infected before springing forward and grabbing his step-grandson.
Chapter 19
Corrigan’s Bunker - Fallbrook, CA
“They’re fucked, man. We should get out of here,” Ben Corrigan said to Vance.
Vance was pointing his gun towards the gathering horde in the field. He was holding his fire until he found some sign of Clay and Bo, since he did not want to shoot either of them by mistake.
“If I had the same attitude towards you I wouldn’t have to listen to your bullshit right now,” Vance said.
“Give me a gun, then. Let me help.”
“Get in the car,” Vance said.
“Come on. You knew my dad, that crazy motherfucker thought the NRA was too soft. You know he taught me to shoot.”
Before Vance could answer, Ana called down from her perch on top of the Urban Assault Wagon, “I see them.”
Vance had a lower vantage point, but he looked where she was pointing and caught a glimpse of Clay swinging his Sick Slaying Stick. They were about halfway across the field with a wall of infected between them and the road. While the infected had been headed toward the Urban Assault Wagon, most were now turning towards the two men in the field.
Ben looked up at Ana and said, “I assume whoever welded all this shit on the Suburban didn’t do it just for decoration.”
Before she could answer, he climbed in the S.W.A.R.C. Urban Assault Wagon and slid behind the wheel.
“What are you doing?” Ana said as she leaned in the hole they had cut in the top.
“Get in and hang on,” Ben said as he put the Urban Assault Wagon in gear.
Ana slid inside as Ben cranked the wheel and hit the gas. She fell in the seat, but sat back up quickly, drawing one of her Glocks and pointing it up front.
“Stop or I will put a bullet in you. We’re not leaving them,” she told Ben.
“Leave them?” Ben said as he lined up the Suburban with where the fence had gone down. “I’m trying to save them. Hang on.”
Ben accelerated into the field, plowing through the infected. He slammed on the brakes and the Suburban slid in the dirt. Ana was sure he going to roll the SUV, but it stayed on four wheels.
The trailer they had used for the motorcycles did not fare as well. The bumpy road loosened the hitch and when the trailer whipped around on the skid, it came loose and careened across the field, clearing out infected as it bounced and rolled towards the avocado grove.
As the dust cleared, they could see Clay and Bo running towards them. Ben meant to stop right next to them but the Suburban had slid much farther than he anticipated. He thought about pulling closer but he had stalled it while skidding to a stop.
“You might want to give some cover fire,” Ben said as he crawled across the seats and opened the door to the back seat. He moved back to the wheel and turned the key to get it started, but it would not turn over.
Ana grabbed her rifle and came up through the hole in the roof. There were almost too many targets to choose from, but she popped the nearest pair to Bo and Clay in the head, and then swung to the front of the Urban Assault Wagon to spray a few with bullets who were moving towards the open door.
She saw a vampire rotter leap onto the hood. It was crouched to pounce on her when the left half of its head came off. She looked as it fell to see Vance back at the road providing some cover for her as she attempted to do the same for Bo and Clay.
Clay threw his Sick Slaying Stick inside and then helped Bo, who was bleeding heavily from the shoulder bite, climb in.
“Whoa,” Ben said, pushing Bo back towards the door. “This dude’s been bit.”
“He’s immune, asshole,” Clay said as he pushed Bo back inside. Ben quit pushing back and Bo slid over so Clay could get in as well.
“I didn’t know that was really a thing,” Ben said as he slid back behind the wheel.
Clay closed the door and Ana slid back inside, closing the hatch as she dropped.
“Are you going to drive or what?” Bo asked.
Ben shrugged and tried the ignition again. Again nothing happened.
“Won’t start,” he said as he saw an ambler climb on the hood. On all sides amblers had begun to pound on the side of the Suburban.
Bo was the closest to the driver’s seat. He leaned forward as Ben turned the key again without success.
“Dude, you are still in drive. Put it in park,” Bo told him.
“Oh yeah,” Ben said as he rammed the lever on the side of the steering column upwards, putting the Urban Assault Wagon in park.
The ambler on the hood had reached the windshield and started to pound as another two joined him on the hood. Ben ignored them and concentrated on turning the key. This time the engine turned over. Ben wasted no time putting the Suburban into drive and stomping on the gas. The surge of the engine sent all three infected on the hood tumbling onto the windshield.
Ben turned the wheel hard, knocking them off the hood, but the constantly growing and popping sores the amblers were covered with left a stain of thick green pus across the windshield when they smacked into it, making it almost impossible to see.
Ben hit the wipers, putting them on high, but all they seemed to do was spread the goo around, actually making it worse. Even though he could not see and was not sure what direction he was going, Ben kept his foot on the gas.
“Wiper fluid,” Ana said from the back.
Ben pressed the button on the end of the lever for the windshield wipers and some blue cleaning fluid sprayed on the window. Ben kept the fluid spraying as the wiper blades moved at full speed. At first it didn’t seem to be helping, but soon the infected goop was diluted and spread enough he could see somewhat out the front.
What he saw was somehow while turning to get the amblers off the SUV, he had gotten completely turned around, as he was headed for the drop off where his dad had built a bunker into the side of the hill.
He slammed the brakes to slow them and then released them while cranking the wheel. The Suburban slid in the dirt and Ben was sure they were going to slide over the edge, but he let off the gas and steered out of the slide. When he hit the gas again he was sure at least one back wheel had gone over the edge. Luckily, the one wheel still on solid ground and the rear wheel drive Suburban had enough power and purchase to get them moving away from the hill.
As he moved from the edge, Ben saw that instead of heading back towards the road, he was speeding toward the avocado grove.
Again Ben whipped the Suburban around, spraying dirt as he turned the SUV back towards the road.
“You sure this was good idea?” Clay asked.
“You kidding?” Ben said as he stomped on the gas. “I don’t know why you guys didn’t do this the first time around.”
“Maybe because they designed these things to haul families and not go off road?” Bo said. “It’s not even
a four wheel drive.”
“It’s a Chevy. My stepdad always told me Chevys were built to survive the apocalypse.”
“Let’s hope he was right, because I think we are there,” Ana said as she looked back at the horde, which despite all the killing they had done appeared to be rapidly growing.
“My stepdad was a fucking moron, but he did know cars,” Ben said as they hit a rut and the front tire exploded.
Chapter 20
Caroline Rutherford’s House - Oceanside, CA
Jennifer was closest to Tanner when Grampy Gary grabbed him. She got a grip on his shirt and tried to pull him away, but despite having arms with the thickness of twigs and the muscle tone of jelly, Grampy Gary was too strong for her. Jennifer found herself close enough to take in Grampy Gary’s rancid breath as he sank his teeth into Tanner.
Grampy Gary quickly released Tanner and tossed him aside. Jennifer held on and joined Tanner in flying into what had been Grampy Gary’s room. They both hit the iron lung laying on the floor and bounced off it onto the carpet. Somehow during the bounce they reversed sides and Tanner was now on top of her.
Jennifer was glad when he got off her quickly and rose to his feet. He turned to her as she worked her way up and said, “Jennifer.”
She was about to tell him she was okay when she saw the first pus-filled sore growing on his face.
Jennifer turned to the busted-out window Doug Rutherford had used to come in and infect his wife’s father. A rapidly changing Tanner was between her and the door but she had a clear path to the window. She took one step towards it but froze as an ambler, his face a mass of scars and dried pus, filled the window frame. He reached in for her but she stayed out of his reach.
All she could think to do was call for help.
The ambler’s face was so mangled she could not see the mustache very clearly. The ambler leaned in, reaching both arms in to try to grab her. Jennifer saw the end of one arm was bloody severed bone instead of a hand. The shirt it wore was covered in gore but seeing the missing hand, it began to look familiar.
