Survive (Sundown Series Book 2)

by Courtney Konstantin

  "What's up?" Griffin whispered, standing close to her.

  "Group of living. The house caught their attention. They're at the door," Max quietly said back.

  From behind the bookcase, Max heard the doorknob be tested. She moved and pressed herself against the front of the furniture, adding weight to the door. She knew the doorknob would give because there was no lock on it. Griffin followed her lead and they both pressed against the door, waiting for the group outside to make their move.

  Griffin's eyes darted to Max and then over to Jack, who stood against the far wall with Turner. They both watched the door waiting for what was coming. Griffin's gaze landed on Jack and stayed there, his eyebrows drawing together. Max recognized the worry on his face. It was the worry a parent had when they thought about protecting their child. That worry only intensified when there was so much unknown to protect them from.

  She knew that there was no proof these scavengers were bad people. If she were more like her sister Alex, she may have asked them in, fed them a meal and sent them nicely on their way. Max didn't trust the way Alex did. She was suspicious of everyone's actions. The plague had only intensified that feeling. Being carjacked on day one hadn't helped her predisposition to her untrusting behavior.

  The bookcase bumped forward slightly, before pushing back against the door and wall. Max held her breath, wondering what the group would do when they realized they couldn't get in. The second attempt was more violent, the bookcase coming an inch away from the wall. Max knew it was enough space for them to see inside if someone pressed their eye to the opening. The bookcase leaned back with a loud thud, giving away the fact that something was actually against the door.

  "Get the packs ready. We're gonna have to go out the back," Max whispered harshly. Jack immediately was in gear packing up the last few things that they had out still. Turner and Cliff threw their bags over their shoulders, waiting for Griffin and Max to make their move.

  "Go to the back. Get the door open. We will run for it as soon as we can," Max said. When they had chosen the house to stay in, Max had investigated all exit options. This neighborhood didn't have fenced yards, all of the small green space running together behind the buildings. They could run out and down the row to the road easily, the scavengers never the wiser.

  Once Max and Griffin were alone, Max turned so she was pressing her hands against the bookcase. She listened intently to see if she could determine what the group was going to do. Once more the bookcase bent toward them and thudded back to the wall. That was the moment, Max and Griffin both knew it. Together, they turned and ran for the backdoor. The sliding glass was left open with the rest of the group waiting for them to run.

  In a fluid motion, Max had her pack in her hand and was running down the grass along the houses. She used the bags momentum to swing it up onto her back while she ran. Without looking she could feel the rest of the group with her, Jack to her left like always. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed what changed. Griffin was running to the left and slightly behind Jack. A defensive position and a way to keep her in his line of sight.

  Reaching the asphalt road, Max stopped and looked both ways. In the distance she could see a car exit the neighborhood, the driver never noticed the group bursting into the street. She quickly spied an older four-door sedan and she ran straight for it. She knew she could easily hot-wire the vehicle if given the time. No one asked but just followed her direction at a quick pace. They all wanted to put space between them and the other group getting into the house they were in.

  Turner reached the car first, realizing quickly what Max planned to do. He tried the driver's door, and as everyone arrived at the car they all tried handles. The car was locked up tight. Turner looked at Max and she nodded. She didn't want to wait and try to jimmy the door open, the butt of Turner's rifle doing the job of busting out the window easily. Reaching in, he opened the driver's door and stepped back for Max to see in. She dropped her pack and sat on her knees near the steering column.

  Unlocking the rest of the doors, the group popped open the doors and the trunk. They loaded the extra supplies into the trunk, keeping their bug out bags with them on the inside. By the time everyone was getting settled, Max had stripped the appropriate wires and was touching them together to get a spark. The car sputtered to life. As soon as it caught, she twisted the wires together and jumped into the car. It was then she heard the yell from behind them.

  She didn't wait but threw the car into reverse and lurched into the street. In her rearview, she could see the group that had been scavenging coming out of the same backyard area they had come. Apparently, they had entered the house and realized someone had just escaped. Now they were yelling and motioning toward the car, but no one fired any shots. Max didn't feel like they needed to know what the yelling was about and quickly got the sedan moving forward.

  The broken window allowed a cold damp air to flood the car. Before long Max could feel her body cooling and her teeth chattering. Griffin pulled one of the sleeping bags open to cover Jack in the back seat where she curled up next to Turner to stay warm. The clouds were black and covering any hopes of sunshine to warm the day. The moment between winter and spring seeming to blur, leaving them with a chill.

  Max sped out of the neighborhood, heading back to the freeway they had exited on the motorcycles. Once they swung onto the freeway, Griffin pulled out the roadmap and started giving guidance. They all settled into a tense silence as they drove through the congested city. Max originally wanted to take small roads around the freeway, but she wasn't sure they would be any clearer.

  As they had seen before, there was some signs of military presence. Barricades could be seen on some freeway exits, cars pushed all the way up to the barricades on both sides. Some people trying to flee to the freeway, while others wanted to go the other way. Max could picture people pulling off at the barricades, hoping the military servicemen had answers for them. Many of the cars had doors propped open, windows were broken out, and trash was strewn about. Between some of the tires, she could see bodies on the ground, lying haphazardly wherever they fell.

  "There are bullet holes in the cars," Griffin said quietly. He was staring out of the open window on the passenger side. Max slowed more so they could study the scene. She realized quickly that he was right. There had been some sort of shootout at the barricade, with the occupants of the cars being the target.

  "But why would they be shooting into cars? Those would have been healthy people," Max said, more to herself than anyone else. The question was rhetorical for her, as she didn't expect even the military to know how to protect people from the plague. The scene in front of them was too similar to the one they had come across two days earlier on the country bridge.

  "Maybe the infected was mixed in?" Turner suggested from the backseat. But there was a tone in his voice that said he didn't really believe that.

  Max couldn't handle staring at the gruesome scene anymore. She could see Jack keeping her face turned away, looking out the opposite window until they pulled away. Max carefully maneuvered around stopped and piled up cars. For the number of cars, there were not enough bodies, which gave Max a foreboding feeling in her gut. Those bodies went somewhere, and likely they were walking dead now.

  As they approached the downtown area of the city, Max slowed the vehicle again. She hit her hand on the steering wheel, looking at the scene in front of them. The downtown corridor of the freeway was completely blocked with bumper to bumper cars. Some were stuck in some sort of accident, while others must have been stopped when traffic just couldn't move any further.

  Max threw the car into reverse and carefully backed to the last exit they had passed. It was one that didn't have a barricade and only a few cars were on it. Max easily left the freeway and they were suddenly surrounded by tall corporate buildings. Some were smoldering wreckage at the bottoms, that once held coffee shops and shopping. Others had broken out windows, cars crashed into them and even some were boarded up.
Max suddenly stopped, looking at a hotel that stood looming in front of them.

  "Oh my god," she breathed. Looking up, Griffin was able to see what Max was staring at. From the higher levels of the hotel, sheets were strewn together, the words "We're Alive" written in some sort of black substance. Next to the sign was the beginning of a makeshift rope, also made of sheets. Max stared at the rope for a long moment. It was nowhere near the ground, seeming to not be done. But she was left to wonder if someone had been in such a panic, a fall to their death was better than what waited for them in the hotel.

  "Do you think they are still in there?" Griffin asked.

  "Even if they were, what can we do?" Max replied.

  Griffin didn't say anything. There was nothing they could say. People at the top of a hotel, alive or not, would be close to impossible to get to. If they were searching for help from the top, then Max assumed they couldn't make their way downstairs on their own. She was fairly sure that the reason for that would be the infected that were probably teeming through the hotel hallways. There was no way of knowing when the plague had hit this city, and how long the people had been trapped. The conclusion stood, there was nothing they could do.

  Max made quick work of the downtown congestion, working her way through to the next freeway onramp. When they approached it, they could see the freeway was still full, so she bypassed it and continued to work her way north. Five exits later, the congestion started to thin and by the seventh they were able to pull back on the larger road and speed up to cover more ground.

  Leaving the city in their rearview gave Max some comfort. They hadn't seen any hordes of infected which was her greatest fear, driving the sedan. The road was easy to navigate once they left the city limits. People either didn't make it that far or they had done the same as Max was now, pedal down to get far away from the city full of people and dead.

  A few hours later they ate a lunch of canned peas, beef jerky, and Starburst candies that Jack had in her bug out bag. Max ate in the driver's seat, keeping her eyes on the road. The sun was high in the sky hidden behind gray clouds, making her feel confident that they could get a large number of miles out of the way. She glanced down at the fuel gauge noting they were at three-fourths a tank. The sedan would get better gas mileage than the SUV, which was a positive. The negative was they didn't have a fuel reserve, as they had to leave theirs behind with the SUV.

  A piece of beef jerky was put near her face, bringing her out of her concerns around fuel. She looked over at Griffin who was still in the passenger seat next to her. He motioned for her to take the jerky and she did, chewing quickly.

  "You need to eat more," Griffin said.

  "I'm eating plenty."

  "You don't. You eat less than Jack. We have the food now. You should eat it. And we will worry about provisions later," Griffin insisted, hanging another piece of jerky near her mouth. She took it with her teeth and chewed thoughtfully. She always made sure Jack had enough to eat. No one had ever really paid attention to her needs, beside herself. Max knew her limits, knew what she really needed, and what she didn't. Mitch had sent her out camping or to do survival training with very little to eat. Sometimes she wouldn't want to hunt or forage, so she would just stretch the little food for as long as she could.

  "Thanks," Max finally said quietly. Griffin didn't respond but grinned widely. Max was sure he had some smartass comment to make, but she was glad he kept it to himself.

  As the car was getting ready to run on fumes, they pulled into a small rest stop right off the interstate. Max slowed to a crawl, eyeing the cars parked and crowded into the rest stop. If they hadn't known there was a plague going on, it would just seem that a large number of cars had stopped, and people were all taking a bathroom break. It was eerie, with no alive bodies moving around the rest stop like you would typically see on an afternoon drive. No children running and calling to their parents. No one at the vending machines getting snacks for the road. No line from the bathroom doors.

  "We need fuel. But where do we think the people went?" Max asked the group.

  "I'm guessing if they were alive, they fled. The cars were left behind by those that were no longer alive," Turner said from the backseat.

  "Thanks, captain obvious," Griffin replied.

  "I don't see any infected outside, not to say there aren't any inside. We need to be quick and quiet," Max said, ignoring the men's joking.

  "We don't have a gas can to fill," Griffin reminded her.

  "Yeah, I know. I have tools in my bag, but we need to search for some sort of larger container."

  They started with the larger vehicles. The first one they approached was a van. Max slowly approached, checking the windows for any sign of infected bodies. She was saddened to see the toys inside the van, indicating there were children there at one point. Pressing her face to the windows, she couldn't see any containers that would work for them and she moved on. No reason to be sad about something she couldn't help now.

  The third truck Griffin checked was a construction vehicle, piled with tools in the bed. Strapped down inside was a ten-gallon gas can, and it was full. He signaled to Max and Turner with a low whistle, which was the sign to return to the sedan. They met up just as Griffin was filling the car with the gas he already found. From there it was an easy process to fill the car and then fill the gas can to be prepared to continue their drive.

  While the three of them worked outside the car, Jack sat inside with Cliff. Max was at first weirded out by Cliff's attention to Jack. But it didn't take her long to realize that after losing his own child, he was protective of Jack. She wasn't his blood or his responsibility, but he wanted to help keep her safe. Something he couldn't do with his own family. While they drove, Max could see Cliff's eyes fill with unshed tears while he stared out of the car window. She could almost read his thoughts filled with his wife and child.

  The day's drive was uneventful, just as Max liked it. They had driven close to six hours for the day. Twilight was hinting, as the sun began to dip below the horizon. They were debating on a location for camp during the night. If push came to shove, they would all sleep inside the locked sedan. Though uncomfortable, it would be relatively safe from any infected.

  According to the map they were getting near a medium sized city. Max mentioned to the group that the outskirt of a city was sure to have some sort of shelter they could take. As they spoke, Max's eye was caught by a flashing light sitting near the freeway, ahead of them. She took her foot off the gas, worried what may be causing the light. As they crept closer, she realized it was a road sign, which she assumed was solar powered because nothing else in the city was lit.

  "What is that?" Cliff asked, his voice again causing Max to jump because she could forget what he sounded like over the span of time he was silent.

  The sign lit up with orange letters again. It read "Government Safe Zone. All vehicles will be searched." The sign flashed dark again, and then another message came up. "Safety Here," was all it said. It then flashed to the first message again. Max watched it for a moment, wondering if there would be anything else, but it just continued to flash the two lines. The sign sat alone on the side of the road, no sign of government or anything living.

  "I wonder what this safe zone is," Griffin said.

  "Well if it's anything like the ones you had in North Carolina, it probably doesn't exist any longer," Max replied. Griffin just shrugged a shoulder in her direction, as he continued to look out his window, searching the area for any clues.

  Max continued down the freeway, keeping her headlights off. She was determined to only turn them on at the last moment, afraid to attract any unwanted attention with the bright lights. With no street lights or other car lights, the city was eerie and dark. Shadows seemed to be deep pits in the ground, with no ambient light to illuminate the frightening areas. Max's eyes were growing accustomed to the dark as it gradually took over the day.

  Suddenly many small lights seemed to appear out of nowhere down a
n exit they were approaching. The lights bobbed and grew as they got closer to the car. Max's hands tightened on her steering wheel, trying to see what was happening. Gradually she increased the car's speed, determined to avoid whoever or whatever was bringing the lights toward them. As she began to pass the exit, the lights bobbled in front of them.

  "Max, stop!" Griffin exclaimed, just as Max realized she was going to mow down living people. She slammed on the breaks, and Griffin caught himself on the dashboard, his face just a few inches from the windshield. He stared out, silently watching the scene unfold.

  In front of the sedan, two lines of men appeared, wearing fatigues which seemed to indicate they were military of some sort. They all held their rifles out and pointed directly at the car. No one said anything, they just waited. Max didn't turn off the car, just sat watching the men as they watched the car. Griffin's hand went to the door handle, and Max hissed at him to stay inside. If she had to make a quick getaway, she needed all people in her party inside the car.

  "This is the United States Government. Exit your vehicle immediately." The demand came loudly, from a bullhorn.

  "Well that's one thing we aren't doing," Max said aloud.

  "They seem pretty serious," Griffin replied, hand still on the door.

  "Yeah, so am I."

  "Max, probably not the best time to see who can stare without blinking here," Turner piped up from the backseat.

  As they sat, not complying with the order, a man with silver hair stepped through the lines of men and walked directly to the car. He stopped when he was an arm's length from the front grill, his face now visible in the waning light of day. Deliberately, the man unholstered his sidearm and raised the gun to point directly at Max's face.

  "I said I am the United States Government. And I'm ordering you to exit your vehicle NOW."