A nurse let in the waiting Mitch, who burst in like someone had lit him on fire. Alex slowed him down, reassuring him again that Max was perfectly fine. He hugged Alex, her surprise at the gesture causing her to be stiff in his arms for a moment, before hugging him back. He then slowly approached Max and the baby.
"All ten toes and fingers?" He asked gruffly. Max just smiled at the baby and nodded.
"I'm going to name her Jacklyn. You can call her Jack," Max told him, looking up at her father. His eyes almost seemed to be full of tears. Max didn't forget the agreement he made with her mother before she died. He wasn't sure what to do with daughters. They fought over the names because he hated all things girlie. They had come to an agreement that her mother could name the girls whatever she wanted, as long as the names could be shortened to boy nicknames. Max had never heard her father utter her full name of Maxine. She wanted to give him the same for his first granddaughter.
"Well hiya, Jack," Mitch whispered as his finger softly touched her little hand.
Once Max brought Jack home to the Montana compound life drastically changed. Mitch was even more paranoid than before. He questioned the special formula Max had to buy for her since she couldn't seem to handle normal types. Before he allowed her to feed Jack anything, he would test it the day before and make sure it didn't poison him. His newest paranoid idea was poisoning baby food would be the fastest way to put an end to the human species.
Max started to feel suffocated with Jack. After the first year of her daughter's life, she realized they had to leave and take control of their own fate. Max knew she couldn't stay in Montana. There were too many relations with Griffin in the nearby towns. They would see Jack and know by her age that she must be Griffin's. If he hadn't wanted Max without a baby, she didn't want him rushing back to her out of obligation. She came to the conclusion she was going at the parenting thing alone.
Her first decision was the leave Montana. Mitch had been furious. Max had seen him angry at her and her siblings before. However, it was always typical parent anger. This vexation was beyond anything Max knew Mitch was capable of. According to him, Max was abandoning all of her education and understanding of the world by moving away from the compound. She tried to make him understand that he had prepared her better than anyone could have. In the end, she knew the real thing he was panicked about was losing Jack.
Part of Max was heartbroken to leave her father. She knew nothing of living away from the compound and the work that came with being prepared for anything. But she couldn't allow Mitch to suffocate them. She tried to picture Jack growing up and eventually being school age. She could easily see Mitch not allowing her to leave for her schooling. Max couldn't allow that to happen with her daughter, so leaving was the only option.
South Carolina was her choice because it was far away but also because she had a distant cousin living there at the time. As a child, Max knew very little about her mother or the family she came from. When she made the decision to leave she asked for Alex's assistance in finding the family they didn't really know. Sadly many had passed away already from old age and illness. However, Alex found cousins from their grandmother's sister's children. They were eager to meet and learn about the family that came from Montana.
Max never forgot about Griffin. Over the years she thought about dating, but it was a non-starter for her. She was a single mother, with a prepping complex, who was looking for a man that was her equal. No matter who she met she could never find a man that understood why it was important to be prepared. Not understanding and not caring were the first reasons for her to toss a date out on his behind. No one could compare to Griffin and she had a daily reminder of that in her daughter's face.
Now sitting in a mostly empty mall in South Carolina, with the infected crawling around outside, Max watched Jack read. She did feel guilty for not telling Jack the truth about her father. It took her a few years at school before she realized she was different by only having a mommy at home. Max cringed inwardly thinking about the day she came home from first grade asking where her daddy was. Max didn't really have an answer planned, so she just said he was gone and they were on their own.
When she had heard Griffin was in North Carolina and was staying after his time in the Army, Max almost thought it was a sign. Something she typically didn't believe in. Her mind would wander and she would think about calling him or writing to him. But she would then remember that he had left her alone, never writing like he promised. The sadness and anger would come back and she would regret even entertaining the idea of reaching out to him. He didn't deserve Jack. And Jack deserved something so much better, that it probably didn't really exist.
"What are you reading, Momma?" Jack's little voice came from behind her. The sound startled Max out of the musings she was having. Right then, stuck in the mall while the rain came down in torrential buckets, there was nothing she could truly do about Griffin.
"I was looking at the road atlas," Max replied, holding up the map to show her daughter. She looked back to the route she was planning on taking.
"It's a long way," Jack stated.
"Yeah. But we'll make it happen."
"How?" Jack asked. The girl had learned the words why and how early on in her talking days. She was inquisitive, which Max had always supported. Right now though, the questions would get old, with no answers to really give in return.
"Well, my idea is to find a car that I can hot-wire. That will have to be how we get to Montana. We'll have to collect fuel as we go. Hopefully, since it's early on, we may find gas stations with power still. Gramps taught me to siphon from other vehicles too," Max explained.
“Hot-wire? You know how to do that?" Jack seemed incredulous. It made Max smile. There were many skills Max had obtained over the years that Jack would never need to know about. The more illegal things like hot-wiring cars, stealing electricity, and siphoning gas were just a few that her father had made sure she knew. All before she was even old enough to legally drive the cars she was learning to steal. Mitch didn't teach her things so she could be a criminal, but so when the time came, and he knew it would, she could fend for herself.
By midday, Max was starting to feel despair with the amount of rain that was flowing. She thought for sure it would stop quickly. The Carolina states liked their fast storms. However, this one wasn't waning yet. March was showing the end of winter and it was bad timing.
She took Jack through some of the clothing stores, searching for changes of clothes they could take with them. They collected undergarments, warm sweaters, additional pairs of jeans and new boots for Jack. Max acquired an additional duffel bag she could sling over her shoulder and packed it full of the additional items they decided to take. She wanted them ready to go the moment the rain stopped.
They ate lunch alone behind the counter of a fast food kiosk. Max was determined to ensure that Jack ate well, while they had the supplies to do so. While the rest of the group felt that the illness and the chaos happening outside was not long term, Max felt differently. She felt deep in her gut that this was the end her father had always prepared her for.
That night sleep came easier to Max. The sense of safety was infectious. She knew by instinct that safety wasn't this easy. But after a day and a half with no incident, her body decided it needed to shut down a bit. Curled in their sleeping bags, Max and Jack slept soundly under the little lights Jack had set up.
The noise of breaking glass didn't wake her. The sound was far down the length of the mall, not echoing far enough to reach the Duncans in their tent. The crunch of the glass under feet was quiet, as the living decided to come in through the locked doors. The sound of breaking glass was louder than the sound of the falling rain, and it attracted the dead.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Shouts reverberated through the empty mall. Max sat straight up in the tent, shushing Jack as she started to call out to her mother. Listening carefully, Max tried to determine if the shouts were the living fighting the living or
if it was a different nightmare. Pounding feet could be heard near the entrance to the store, indicating the living.
Max quickly shut off the lights, plunging them into total darkness. Her eyes started to slowly adjust. She grabbed her jeans and pulled them over her pajama pants, her button up shirt over her pajama shirt. Jack quickly followed her mother's lead. In less than three minutes they were dressed for whatever was in the mall.
"I need to find out what's going on," Max whispered. Jack nodded her understanding, knowing the need for silence.
As quietly as possible Max unzipped the tent door. She paused when she could peer out and glanced around the front of the tent. She was thankful for their set up, being able to see all entrances to the store they were sleeping in. She also realized that unless someone knew they were sleeping there or saw their lights, they wouldn't realize the tents weren't just displays.
Max didn't see anyone moving and she slowly unzipped the rest of the door. She equipped herself with her gun and tomahawk. She still wasn't positive what she would find, but she needed to be prepared for anything. She motioned to Jack to stay in the tent and zip it up. If there were infected they wouldn't see her and the darkness would keep any living from finding her easily.
She tiptoed away from the tent, feeling a tightness in her chest she wasn't used to. Leaving Jack behind was hard on her. However, she knew she was safer in the tent than in the mall with the unknown. Max found the opening to the mall and crouched behind a display, trying to watch what was happening.
The rain had decided to stop during the night and the moon's light illuminated the center of the mall through skylights. She could see living people running and some hiding. But she also could see uncoordinated movements, movements that didn't belong to anything still breathing. She could pick out the infected by their shadows. They seemed to chase those that ran, but their pace was much slower.
Max did not want to be locked inside the mall with the infected. There was no way there was a positive outcome in that situation. She thought about the unarmed people hiding throughout the mall. None of them had weapons. None were fighters from what she could tell. They were hiding, waiting for someone to save them. Max cursed, wondering if she was the one that had to do that very thing.
From her hiding spot, she saw a small man running in the distance. By his height and movements, she guessed it was Scott. She wanted to call out to him and tell him he needed to hide, but she knew her voice would attract unwanted attention. Her mind raced through alternatives, but nothing came to her. The only option she had was to find out what was going on in the building.
Staying low, Max ran toward the advertisement stand that stood in front of the sporting goods store. She pressed herself against it, evaluating her surroundings again. The mall was a large open space in the middle and she knew once she ran that direction she would be exposed. She decided to hug the wall of stores and try to avoid the light of the moon reflecting in the middle.
Light on her feet, Max quickly reached the nearest store. It was pitch black inside, the security gate still pulled down. She assumed that was safe and leaned against it for a moment to allow her pounding heart to slow. When she moved again she heard shouting from further into the mall. She ran toward the sound now, trying to distinguish what was happening.
When she found the location of the conflict it wasn't the living fighting the infected. Instead, it was the living fighting the living. Max realized then she hadn't thought through how the infected had gotten into the mall. For two days they didn't seem to have the mental capacity to break the glass doors, thus creating a safe place inside the mall. Now that she saw new people fighting the people that had hid in the mall, she realized it was the living that had threatened their safe haven.
The realization brought anger into Max's mind. And that anger immediately became action as she approached the first fight and found a man punching Scott in the stomach. She didn't want to kill anyone living, but her self-defense and Muay Thai trainer had given her plenty of tactics to use in such scenarios. She left her weapons in their holsters and struck out at the strange man with a sharp blow to his kidney. As the man pivoted toward the pain, she struck him with a blow to the temple, knocking the man to the ground.
She waited above the downed man, adrenaline coursing through her, waiting for the fight to continue. Instead, the man stayed where he was. Max stepped over him to Scott, who was lying in a fetal position on the ground. She touched his shoulder, causing him to jump and cry out. When he looked and realized it was her he calmed slightly, but the fear was evident in his eyes as he looked around at the chaos.
"What happened?" Max asked.
"They broke in. The dead followed. I was trying to hide from the dead, but that guy found me," Scott said, his voice wheezing.
"How many living came in?"
"Don't know. I've seen a few different, but I've hidden. They don't have flashlights, which seems odd."
"Not odd. They were sneaking to get passed the dead. But I guess they didn't think about the noise they were making to get in here," Max surmised.
Scott didn't answer, just nodded in the dark. Max helped him to his feet and shuffled him to a nearby open store. After checking around, she determined it was empty except for them. She walked back to the entrance and from the shadow of the store, she watched another intruder sneak through the moonlight. Not bright, Max thought.
"What are you doing?" Scott's voice at her shoulder caused Max to jump and curse softly. She glared at him and he looked at her sheepishly.
"Going to handle the intruders. Then going to get Jack out of here at daybreak," Max whispered.
"Handle them?"
"Do what I have to. Lock yourself inside here. I'm going to go move the last guy into a store and lock him in. At least then I won't have to try and feel bad if an infected dines on him," Max said sarcastically. She held her hand out and Scott gave her the security keys he held for the mall. Walking out, she looked around and didn't find any immediate threat. She pulled down the metal gate, the rolling noise echoing through the mall.
With that, Max disappeared into the darkness of the mall. She tiptoed, keeping her noise to a whisper. She found the first intruder exactly where she had left him, knocked out on the tile. Looking around she determined which store was closest and drug his body to it. The noise of the dragging attracted attention, causing Max to move with urgency.
Pushing the guy to the side of the store, Max yanked down the security gate and locked it quickly. She turned just in time to pull her tomahawk as an infected rambled at her. Fingers were bent like claws coming at her, the average looking woman wouldn't have looked sick if it weren't for the black balls for eyes she had. As Max cut her down, she assumed her injury was somewhere she couldn't see, but she took no time to check.
Max moved further into the mall, and further away from Jack. For the first time since Jack was an infant, Max found herself wishing there was someone she trusted around. Someone she could leave Jack with when she had to handle other things. But there was no one. Max had to hope that Jack stayed silent, and no intruders thought to open tent displays in the sporting goods store.
The sound of crying slowed Max's steps near a clothing store. The store was pitch black and even with Max's eyes becoming accustomed to nothing but moonlight, she couldn't make out who was in the store. She entered slowly, preparing for an attack to come from the darkness. When one didn't, she approached the crying noise.
"Who's there?" Max whispered.
"Max?" A wobbly voice answered from behind the checkout desk of the store.
"Jules? Are you hurt?"
Max rounded the counter and crouched down in front of the woman. Max brushed against her side and Jules hissed in pain. Squinting Max tried to see what was wrong. Deciding it was worth the risk, Max pulled out a small pocket flashlight she carried. She covered the light with her hand and switched it on.
In the dim light, Max could see Jules' pale face, streaked with blood. Procee
ding down the side of her body, Max was able to find the source of her pain. The side of her shirt was ripped and soaked with blood. Carefully Max pulled it away from the wound and tried to inspect it. The telltale teeth marks made Max gasp and pull back quickly.
"I know," Jules whispered.
"How?" Max asked.
"I was hiding and suddenly one of the sick ones was on me, biting into my side. I fell, but instead of it following me, it caught sight of one of the looters I think."
"I'm....sorry," Max said, not knowing what suitable words were for a person that had been sentenced to death.
"Maybe I'll be fine," Jules sniffed.
"I don't really know," Max said. She was unable to just tell the woman the truth of it in her normal no-nonsense manner. Jules was a sweet woman, it was apparent just from being around her for a short time.
"It's ok. Even if I'm not, I don't have children or family to leave behind. You need to go, Max. Get Jack, run," Jules whispered urgently, grabbing Max's hand with hers. Max wanted to pull back from the gesture, the stickiness of Jules' blood causing Max to swallow down bile.
"I'm going to take care of the looters first," Max said, venom in her voice. This sweet woman wouldn't be dying of an unknown illness if the intruders hadn't broken in.
"Be careful," Jules said, her voice cracking with a cough that she tried to muffle with her arm.
Suddenly voices could be heard near the entrance to the store. Max quickly switched off the small light, darkness taking over again.
"I know I heard something," a voice said.
Survive (Sundown Series Book 2) Page 6
