by Damon Hunter
Jennifer realized she was looking at her own dad. He had come for her much like Tanner’s dad had come for him.
She looked back at Tanner, who folded over, moaning with pain. When he opened his mouth, black blood poured out.
Jennifer thought of Tanner’s dad and the thing he became. As far as Jennifer knew, no one had figured out why one person turned to a mindless ambler while others become the predatory vampire rotters but she had a feeling whatever it was that turned a person vampire rotter was passed on from Tanner’s dad onto his son.
Jennifer picked up the chair Caroline used to sit and feed Grampy Gary. The last thing Jennifer wanted to do was have to hurt her own father but she knew as an ambler she had a better chance getting past him than Tanner. She rammed the bottom of the chair into him, pushing him back as she dove out the window.
Between her and the chair coming through the window, her ambler dad was knocked to the ground. Jennifer landed on her elbows and knees and rolled to her feet just as her infected brother grabbed her and opened his mouth to sink his teeth into her arm.
She punched him in the face with her free hand and then pulled her arm free. Once free, she pushed him away. Her dad was rising to his feet and Jennifer looked back to see Tanner was at the window, his transformation from teenager to vampire rotter complete.
Jennifer ran. Looking down the street, she saw crowds of infected converging from both directions on the Rutherford house. She did not see anywhere to go until she spotted her car in the driveway. She turned and sprinted to it, pulling the keys from her pocket as she got close.
A sprinkler head on the edge of the lawn caught her toe as she ran for the VW, sending her sprawling to the cement driveway. It hurt and knocked the air out of her, but she pushed herself to her feet and surged forward to the car, knowing that if she spent another second on the ground, either Tanner or her remaining family would make her the newest member of the “rot crew.”
Thankfully she had never locked her door when she and Tanner arrived. She yanked the door opened and climbed into the driver’s seat. Jennifer risked a look back to the house and saw Tanner bounding over the top of her car. She slammed the door shut and locked it just as Tanner landed.
He put his face to the window, saying, “Jennifer,” and showing his new teeth, before adding, “Come to me.”
Jennifer planned to run him over but realized when she tripped in the yard she had dropped the keys. She could not drive away. She looked over to see her infected brother and father reach the VW Bug and begin to pound on the windshield. She looked back to her left to see Tanner step away from the window and punch the glass so hard the car shook. The window stayed intact for the first blow, but by the time he punched the window three times, Jennifer could see cracks begining to form.
Chapter 21
Caroline Rutherford’s living room - Oceanside, CA
No one heard Jennifer’s call for help. Katelin swung her pistol toward the suddenly spry invalid, but vampire rotter Grampy Gary slapped her hand away as she pulled the trigger, drowning out Jennifer’s cry and sending her bullet through the wall. The force of him hitting her gun had the pistol flying from her grip. She was drawing the other Glock when he hit her again, this time in the face. With his skinny arms and shrunken shoulders, the blow he put on Katelin’s head should not have nearly knocked her cold, but it did. He did not bother biting her, instead he grabbed her neck and began to squeeze. While he gripped her neck with one hand, vampire rotter Grampy Gary stepped back until he could reach the front door.
Bar had a round chambered and the shotgun raised but Katelin had stepped in front of him. With her in the way, he still couldn’t fire as the rotter choking Katelin threw open the front door. Bar stepped forward, planning to put the gun right up to vampire rotter Grampy Gary’s head and blow it off from close range when a German Shepherd slipped in the house between Grampy Gary’s legs and came straight at him.
Bar readjusted his aim and obliterated the the back half of the dog as it came in low, looking to put a bite on Bar’s ankle. Even with half its body a pile of liquid on the floor, the dog kept coming, pulling itself on its front legs towards Bar’s exposed ankles. Bar did not think he had time to chamber another round since he only had one hand to work with. Instead he used the shotgun’s stock as a club and started beating on the head of the determined rotter dog.
While Bar was pounding on the head of the dog, Donna rose and yanked a sword out of the vampire rotter Doug Rutherford’s corpse.
Vampire rotter Grampy Gary had Katelin by the neck, holding her a foot off the ground. Having successfully opened the door, it had brought the other hand around to grab her throat and crush the life out of Donna’s daughter. Katelin was trying hard to pry the fingers cutting off her air supply, but was unable to get them to budge.
Donna went to her knees as she swung the sword low, hitting Grampy Gary around the ankle. The blade cut through the thin layer of skin and on through the bone. Grampy Gary fell forward landing on the exposed bone and somehow keeping himself upright. The pain of balancing on an exposed bone should have been to much to bear, but the vampire rotter kept on choking Katelin as if having his foot severed and balancing on his ankle bone was no big deal.
Donna was still on her knees preparing for another swing of the sword when she saw another dog come bounding through the open door headed right for her. She spun and stuck out the sword, letting the dog impale itself on the blade. The big mutt still knocked her on her back as it slid down the katana.
Even with a katana stuck in its throat, the dog kept snapping its jaws, trying to sink fangs into Donna’s flesh.
Katelin could feel her head get light as she gasped without success to pull some needed air into her lungs. Things were going black quickly and she was unable to loosen the vampire rotter’s grip as it continued squeezing the life out of her. She looked into the vampire rotter’s bulging bloodshot eyes and sensed vampire rotter Grampy Gary was really enjoying murdering her.
Chapter 22
Corrigan’s Bunker - FallBrook, CA
Ben held on tight as the Suburban bounced around the rough terrain. With one tire gone, the SWARC Urban Assault Wagon pulled hard to right, threatening to take them right into the avocado grove he had just avoided moments ago.
“Keep moving,” Clay told him, but he didn’t have to. Ben would ride on the rim as long as he had to. With the Suburban pointed the right direction, Ben made it to the end of the field quickly even on one wheel.
“Stop,” Ana yelled as Ben struggled to muscle the crippled Urban Assault Wagon onto the road. She made sure he saw the gun in her hand in case he had other ideas.
“Kill me and we are all screwed,” Ben said.
“Then we are all screwed. Stop the car.”
“They good with that, too?”
“Stop the car, asshole,” Clay said.
“What he said,” Bo added.
Ben slammed on the brakes and saw Clay open the door. In the rear view mirror he could see Vance limping toward them as fast as he could. He didn’t figure it would be fast enough and put the Suburban into reverse.
Bo opened a door as Ben backed down the road. Ana went back up through the hatch and started shooting down any infected who got near Vance.
The Urban Assault Wagon did not go very fast in reverse on three wheels but with Vance closing some of the distance himself, it did not take long for him to climb inside and shut the door behind him.
Ben put the Suburban back into drive and gave it as much gas as he could. The tire was gone and he could see sparks as the rim scraped the road. He kept going, though, grinding the rim to nearly nothing as he got them clear of the horde.
The rim was digging into the road as they drove and would have dug in enough to bring them to a halt, but the axle gave into the strain of bouncing violently along the pavement and snapped first.
The Urban Assault wagon came to a final stop. They had, however, made it far enough away to be safe for the moment
.
“Told you these things aren’t built for off roading,” Bo said.
“You’d rather be back there?” Ben asked.
“Speaking of back there,” Vance said, “I thought you might be trying to leave me behind.”
“You ain’t my favorite person,” Ben said, “But honestly, with all the shit going on, I kind of forgot about you.”
Vance did not look so sure.
“It’s not like I didn’t stop and go back,” Ben said, leaving out the part where Ana had threatened him.
“What do we do now?” Bo asked.
Vance got out and looked around. They were in an area where people had acreage, so the houses were spread apart. They were among another grove of avocado trees. Not far down the road was a gate in front of a narrow paved driveway.
Vance pointed. “Looks like a driveway. They might have left something behind.”
Everyone else got out of the car and looked around.
“Worth a shot, I guess,” Clay said.
“So, we are stealing a car?” Ben asked.
“Borrowing,” Clay told him.
“Better not tell them about the motorcycles we borrowed,” Ana said.
“Yeah, I owe the kid an apology for that one,” Clay replied.
“Either way,” Ben said, “I wasn’t criticizing. Just asking.”
“Let’s go check it out,” Vance said, taking an awkward step.
Ana looked at his leg and saw that the wound had reopened and it was bleeding again. “Maybe you should stay and watch the gear, maybe patch up the leg again?”
Vance was going to argue, but she was right. His leg was killing him and walking up the driveway to whatever was at the top of the hill would not help.
“Alright,” he said. “But hurry. I get lonely.”
Ana looked at Bo and the nasty wound on his shoulder. He was leaning against the Suburban looking a little pale. “Maybe you should stay and keep him company.”
Bo nodded. “I don’t want to be a wimp, but honestly I ain’t feeling so great.”
“Like about to turn not feeling so great?” Ben asked, taking a step further away from Bo.
“I don’t know, I’ve never turned before to know what it feels like. If it feels like having a big chunk of your shoulder chewed off, then I guess so.”
“Usually happens faster than this,” Clay said. “I don’t think you have to worry about the rot, but you should clean it up and patch it up ASAP. You may be immune to the rot but it isn’t the only nasty infection out there.”
“I’ll do it,” Vance said. “He can help me get my leg bandaged.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Bo said, adding, “Hurry back.”
“No problem,” Ana said, “the sooner we are out of here the better. I used to like avocados, but if I never see an avocado tree the rest of my life I’ll be fine with it.”
“Can I have a gun?” Ben asked. “We don’t know what kind of shit we are going to run into up there.”
“No,” Vance said.
“Seriously?”
“Yep,” Clay added.
Ana handed him one of her hatchets, saying, “Don’t cut yourself,” before she started walking toward the gate.
Vance had gone back to grab the medical supplies they had in the back of the Suburban when he noticed the time. He was long past due a check on his phone. He opened it and found no messages. He breathed a sigh of relief. As bad as things were going on his end he was glad to see everything appeared to be okay back at the house.
Chapter 23
Caroline Rutherford’s living room - Oceanside, CA
Katelin quit trying to pull the fingers off her throat, instead she started kicking vampire rotter Grampy Gary in the chest. The kicks did not do much, he stumbled a step but still stayed upright. Katelin kept her foot propped on his chest making it easier to grab the Tec-Nine holstered low on her thigh. She drew the submachine gun and fired forward, not bothering to aim. With vampire rotter Grampy Gary so close, even his emaciated body was an easy target.
She felt his grip loosen on her throat as a bullet struck home. Just the little bit of air she got was enough to buy her enough time to raise the gun so the next volley hit vampire rotter Grampy Gary in the face. She fired until he was no longer recognizable as human. It was not until his face was gone that vampire rotter Grampy Gary dropped her to the floor. He fell himself once Katelin hit the hardwood.
Katelin looked over to see her mother still struggling to keep the impaled dog from biting her in the face. Katelin put the barrel of her Tec-Nine to the beast’s head. The nine millimeter slug going into the canine rotter’s brain covered her mom with blood and dog brains, but the thing quit trying to bite her. With her mom safe, Katelin concentrated on trying to breathe again. She coughed and gasped as her sore throat struggled to get the proper amount of air back into her empty lungs.
Donna shoved the dead canine rotter off of her and was getting ready to stand when Bar shouted, “Stay down.”
Both she and Katelin looked up to see the old sailor pointing his shotgun their way.
They both got low as Bar removed the head of a vampire rotter jumping through the doorway. Bar pumped another shell in when Gavin rose from his hiding place behind the sofa and yelled, “Look out behind you.”
Bar turned as an ambler came in from the kitchen. He put a big hole in its chest and the ambler dropped. Bar could see back through the kitchen enough to see the infected had broken through the sliding glass door and started to pour into the kitchen. Only a logjam at the door of too many infected trying to get inside at once kept them from being overwhelmed already.
Bar pointed to the front door. “We don’t want to go out the back.” He turned to Gavin and said, “Come on, kid, it’s time to get the fuck out of dodge.”
Gavin said, “Dodge?” as he followed the big sailor toward the front door. He veered off course to pick up the guns Katelin had lost.
“Put them in the holsters,” Katelin said with the horse whisper of someone who had nearly been choked to death a minute ago as she put a full magazine into the sub-machine gun she had used to drop Grampy Gary.
For a second, watching the kid with her guns, she thought he wasn’t going to do it. She pictured him turning the guns on her and getting revenge for what happened to his dad at Katelin’s hand back at the liquor store.
Instead he flipped them over and put them in the holsters, saying, “Team human.”
Katelin expected him to go out the door after that, but instead he went back and pulled the other sword out of vampire rotter Doug Rutherford.
With the blade free, Gavin looked back to see an infected man mere feet away. He heard Katelin say be still and did as she said as bullets cut the air above his head and the ambler fell.
He ran back to her with the sword, thinking about all the times he had been told not to run with scissors. Katelin turned so he could put the katana back in the wooden scabbard.
The four of them stepped out the front door to see a horde closing in and Jennifer climbing out the sunroof on her little red VW Bug. She jumped over an ambler pounding on the side of her car and ran frantically in their direction.
Katelin saw Tanner come up over the same roof, jumping up and clearing the whole car.
Jennifer looked back and saw vampire rotter Tanner right behind her. She heard the girl she knew from social media as Killer Kate yell, “Get down.”
Like Gavin had back in the house, she listened and dove to the grass as Killer Kate fired with the machine guns in her fists.
Vampire rotter Tanner must have heard her too. Instead of getting low, he jumped again, this time going the other direction back over the VW Bug. Katelin shredded the amblers who had quit pounding on the car and turned to join vampire rotter Tanner in his pursuit of Jennifer and put some holes in the VW, but Tanner escaped unharmed.
Jennifer got to her feet and started running again. She looked back and saw that her father and brother were not among the amblers Kateli
n had killed. She was not sure if she felt good about this or not.
Bar pointed to the house next door, yelling, “We need to get off the street.”
They all started running to the house next door. It was the only direction almost ambler free. A couple stepped in the way, but Donna took out one with a swing of the sword and Bar took out the other with a shotgun blast.
Katelin reached the door the fastest, followed by Jennifer and Gavin, who had good speed for a ten year old. She grabbed the handle but found it was locked.
Donna arrived next, followed by closely by Bar.
“Around the back,” Donna said.
The four of them moved along the front of the house. Bar and Katelin fired shots, taking out the amblers closing in on them.
Donna turned the corner and nearly ran into an ambler. She swung the sword, going for the tall ambler’s neck, but caught it in the shoulder instead. She delivered a serious wound but the infected man kept coming, grabbing her by the hair and pulling her toward his open mouth.
Donna let go of the sword stuck in the arm of the ambler and used both hands to try to push herself away. She stuck her thumb into the ambler’s swollen right eye and pushed until she felt something pop and felt the fluid from the eye covering her hand.
It still kept pushing forward. Donna could feel she was losing the battle. To make matters worse, she could see another infected loping her way and even if she could hold this one back the other was sure to get her.
Donna felt something on her shoulder and then her head. She thought another ambler had come up behind her. She braced herself for the bite that would give her the rot, but it did not come. Instead she saw Gavin holding the combat knife in one hand while balancing himself with the other hand on the top of Donna’s head. Jennifer was behind her, holding Gavin up so he could reach the ambler.
