“I don’t know how bad the explosions are going to be so let’s roll down the windows and keep our heads down until they both go off. Keep your mouth open in case there’s any concussion wave coming our way. I’m pretty sure the building should absorb it all.”
Caleb bent over as far as he could go, his head was resting on Gloria’s head. He could sense an inner calm coming from her and it made him feel more at peace himself. He was beginning to lose some of his nervousness when the first explosive went off. The corner of the police station collapsed while the ground around them shook like a giant train was driving by. Enraged shrieking followed by those infected still alive; hundreds lay either dead or wounded shrieking out their own message of pain. They didn’t have time to think about it because the explosive in the back of the building went off, without as many shrieks.
Both sat up in their seats and watched infected flood towards the devastated building. Fire alarms began going off, inciting the infected to even higher levels of anguish as they tried to get into the building. A few sporadic pops could be heard over the alarms and the shrieking. The infected redoubled their efforts when they heard the gunshots. Soon even more gunshots began to go off, bringing in even more infected from every direction. While Gloria watched, fascinated, Caleb began to sweat and felt his heart beat begin to feel like an alarm clock in his chest. Oh damn, they’re calling for me to join them. They’re only attacking those bikers, what would it hurt to join them to make sure they get them all? Gloria looked over at him and began to worry for him, she could feel he was losing his grasp on his humanity.
“Caleb! Stay with me, I can feel it, too. If you let go and join them, there may be no turning back. Think of your mom and dad, we can be with them by tomorrow night if we drive hard enough tomorrow. Stay with me Caleb, I don’t want to be alone.” She reached over and hugged him to her, unintentionally using all her strength. He turned to her and hugged her to him, pulling her from her seat and to his lap. The infected were continuously shrieking and running by the truck, rocking it. With so many running into it, he pressed his lips to hers to distract himself and she matched him, oblivious to what was going on outside the truck as they began to tear at each other’s clothing.
Caleb woke suddenly, the weight of a body in his lap. Opening his eyes, he could see Gloria asleep on his lap, her head resting on the dashboard. She was wearing only her t-shirt. Around the truck the infected were still heading for the police station, their shrieks still broadcasting their anger as gunshots still echoed from inside the police station.
“Gloria, time to get up, you’re going to be late for school.” He whispered in her ear. She started to fully wake up, then let out a moan.
“Tell me we didn’t.”
“We didn’t. Now pull up your pants and slide over to your seat. I want to scope out how things are going in the cop shop. Thanks for stopping me earlier. Whatever it was is past, thanks to you.”
Embarrassed, Gloria wrestled to pull up her pants while still on his lap. Finally successful, she moved over to her seat and glanced over clandestinely as he pulled up his own pants. Dumb, dumb, dumb, what is wrong with you, girl? She thought, not wanting to speak with him at the moment.
“If you want to speak later after we’re back on the road, I think we both need a moment to digest what happened. If you want, it never happened.” Caleb slipped down from the truck before she could reply.
Turning the corner, hundreds of bodies lay splattered around the parking lot. Many of the mangled bodies were still moving. He added his body to those pressing to get into the building, surprised the lights were still on in some areas, others were taken out by the blast and hung from the ceiling. A couple of desks and an office partition were still smoldering. Further back, the first of the infected bodies were scattered where they were cut down by weapons fire. Just a little ways further, the prior residents could be found. Their bodies were easy to distinguish as they still had pants on, though they were more torn up as it appeared they were fed upon.
The placard ‘Evidence Room’ drew Caleb's attention and he went to investigate. Pushing the smashed door out of his way, he stopped at a counter, behind it was a huge cage for securing evidence. The door was missing from the cage and the only thing left inside was empty boxes and papers scattered on the floor. I bet the scum had a hell of a party from the drugs that’d been in here. I wonder how the armory fared? Pushing past even more infected, he could see the sign ‘Armory’ under it. There was no longer a door, inside the room it was empty to the point of not a single round on the floor. Guess that just leaves the jail section to check out.
Pushing his way further into the building, he could see where the missing wall had been to his right as he turned left. Infected were now packed in wall to wall. Over the shrieking he could hear shouts of anger and anguish. Caleb fought his way to the exit and reached into his vest and pulled out a pack of firecrackers, carefully tearing the paper until he saw the fuse. Pulling out his lighter, he looked around him, happy to be ignored during the frenzy. Lighting the fuse, he threw it as far as he could, landing between a couple police cars. The tatatata from exploding firecrackers was just the invitation the infected needed, he ducked to the side as hordes from inside and from the street converged on the police cars. He returned to trying to get into the building, like a salmon swimming upstream. Eventually making it to the jail cells, he counted ten survivors. Six women, partially dressed, were separate from four teen boys nervously holding pistols. One whose face was still red from crying. He could sense the extreme hatred from the women, but directed towards the four boys instead of the infected.
“Good evening, everyone. It appears you have more guests than you know what to do with.” Only one teen reacted to his banter by aiming his wheel gun at Caleb.
“You, you’re getting us out of here, now, else I’m ah gonna splatter your brains all over the wall!” Caleb thought for a moment and fought off the grin that was building up.
“You want me to try and get all ten of you past the Zs?” Caleb replied, playing with the thug.
“Nah man, just us four, those hoes don’t mean nuthin’.” Caleb smiled at the remarks, the criminal misunderstood the smile and smiled himself.
“I can control the Zs to some degree. When they hear gunfire it sets them off so put your pieces away. Now grab the mattresses from the bed and make a tight square around the four of you. I have a car by the back door so you can make a clean break. I just want the key to the girls’ cell for after you’re gone.”
The punk smiled brightly at the deal and tossed over the keys while the others grabbed the mattresses. Ready to form a block around themselves like ancient Roman Legionnaires. “Okay, here we come.” Caleb fought the urge to laugh as they took baby steps shuffling out of the cell. Arguing amongst themselves.
“Shut up! If they hear you I won’t be able to stop them.” Caleb chastised. The infected sniffed at the mattresses in curiosity, but did not attack. Crap the plan might even work! Caleb thought, and then shrieked as loud as he could and body slammed up against the closest mattress. Two of the men fell, one maintained his wits and managed to have his mattress cover him, the other began to scream in abject fear while infected fell upon him. The two men left standing dropped their mattresses and made a beeline for the exit, making less than ten feet before they were on the ground, being torn apart by the infected. The surviving punk was shaking so badly under the mattress that the entire mattress shook with him. Caleb considered letting him go.
“Ladies, when daylight comes, there’s cars and police cars out back. You can go wherever you want. There’s still some survivors from the town if you want to stay here.” They looked at him like he was crazy, yet not one said a word. “Ladies, can I see your thumbs for the gentleman under the mattress, should he live or die? Thumbs up or down.” The oldest woman gave a firm thumbs down, then the others followed her example.
Caleb walked over to the mattress and then began to jump up and down on it as
viciously as he could. He could feel the contact with the man and smiled. After dropping on his knees, then doing a full body block he was tired of the game and shrieked once again to get the infected to come to him. He grabbed the corner of the mattress and gave a quick pull, totally exposing the man. To his credit he was able to play possum, that is, until Caleb gave him a brutal kick high between his legs with a follow-up to the ribs. He could feel and hear ribs snap as the man whimpered slightly, yet loud enough for the infected to hear and pile on him. His shouts and shrieks matched those of the infected for the first minute, then he went silent. Caleb picked up the six shooter from earlier and entered the cell, closing it behind him to avoid the crowd. He opened up the chamber and was surprised to find six spent shells.
“I’ll be damned! The little shit actually bluffed me. He reached through the bars of the cell and handed the women the keys to their cell. “I may not be around later, so I’ll let you hold on to those. The hole in the wall is close enough that you should have a clean shot when the sun comes up.” Caleb reached for the cell door and turned around one last time. “Good luck, ladies.”
“Wait! This is only one of the places those scum spend the night. The three hotels across the street hold the rest of them, about two hundred in all. They destroyed the stairs to the second floor, and then at night they bring up the ladders until morning. They make a point to stay quiet. They use the police station to see how bad the deader numbers are. If there gets to be too many, they just pack up and move to another town.” The woman said.
“How do you know all that? Ma’am.” Caleb asked, more curious than suspicious.
“Me and the other girls are invisible, when they get tired of us they either give us to the deaders, or if they’re in a good mood, just leave us behind when they move.”
“So they watched us blow up this building from easy pistol range and didn’t do a damn thing. Are they low on ammo?”
“No, the guys they had here were prospects. I don’t think they cared about them one way or the other. They were on the bottom of the pecking order. They could have stopped the deaders if they wanted to, they have enough guns and ammo to easily win World War Three over at the hotels and in their trucks.”
“Thank you, ma’am. I have a busy night ahead of me.” Caleb pushed himself past the infected, that were once again pressed against the cells, on his way back to Gloria.
“Houston, we have a problem.” Caleb announced after climbing back into the truck. There are about twenty in there, or were, the Zs tore them up. There’s about two hundred more of them across the street in those three hotels, and they’re loaded for bear.” Gloria’s relief at his return turned to apprehension. If we’d parked in front of the building instead of the side, we’d be a target now, she thought nervously.
“We did what we came for. We should leave before it gets light out.”
“If we leave now, we didn’t get anything done. Other than to maybe piss them off. They’ll be looking for someone to blame. You go back and warn the folks back on the farm what happened. I’m going to have some fun with them.” Caleb slipped out of the truck without waiting for a reply.
Caleb started running down the street towards houses out of view from the hotels. Quickly jumping a low fence, he proceeded to the open front door. It appeared that both infected and others had been inside and tossed the place. Furniture had been thrown about and the contents of every drawer emptied onto the floor. In the kitchen he found what he was looking for, a box of empty alcohol bottles sat undisturbed in the corner, an additional search of the house produced a couple of cotton t-shirts and a huge screwdriver. Grabbing the box, he headed back to the rear of the police station parking lot. He dropped to the ground next to a black and white patrol car before using the screwdriver to stab the fuel tank with all his strength. The screwdriver easily punctured the tank, the fuel coming out in a splattering mess instead of a steady stream. Caleb cursed as his hands became saturated with gas as he held the bottles under the tank until he had two dozen bottles filled. Still cursing, he carried the box of bottles over to the station and went in again and started going through the rooms until he found the locker room. It only took a few minutes to find a pair of leather gloves in a locker with a heavy jacket and motorcycle helmet inside. Guess I might not burn off my hands when I deliver these little beauties he thought as he installed cotton wicks he’d torn from the t-shirts.
Caleb went back and checked the police cruisers until he found one with the keys still in the ignition. Crossing his fingers, he turned the key and was ecstatic to hear the engine turn over. He quickly set his box of Molotov cocktails on the passenger seat and headed east on Fourth Street, relieved to see Gloria had listened to him and was gone. He turned south on Campbell Ave and then left on Second Street until he was as close as he could get to the hotels with a vehicle unseen. A quick look at his watch told him he had little time before sunrise.
Running all out carrying the box seemed the best idea because of the darkness. Once in the center of all the cars and trucks, he modified his plan and pulled out the screwdriver from the box going vehicle to vehicle stabbing the fuel tanks until the gas was pouring out to his satisfaction. He made it back to where he’d left the box and was picking it up when he heard the silenced shot fired at him from the hotel. It impacted the car next to him, high and to the right. Frustrated, he grabbed a couple of bottles and moved to better cover behind a truck, sparks flying from the shots hitting the metal body as he worried about the gas he was standing in. Carefully, he lit a bottle and heaved it against the hotel wall. He could see a single shooter wearing night vision goggles when he tried to tear them off after being exposed to the bright light of the Molotov cocktail going off near him. More un-aimed shots were fired into the dark parking lot amidst shouts to not shoot, as he retreated the way he’d come. He stopped and fired up the bottle and threw it towards the parking lot. It immediately was as bright as day, with the gasoline burning quickly along the concrete before the first car went up, sounding like a bomb, and instantly followed by the other vehicles exploding, sending shrapnel into the side of the hotel and those out on the walkway.
Infected from across the street and from every direction were drawn to the fire. The survivors on the second floor did not get a chance to breathe easy as the hotel lower floor began to burn, flames quickly licking up the side of the building. The ladders made it to the ground the same time the first infected made it on the scene, drawn by the fire and their noise and shrieked up to them to come down and join them. Behind the hotel those in the other hotels began to drop their ladders and run for their vehicles, afraid of a similar fate happening to them.
Caleb cursed as he watched the gang start to get away, and then began to laugh as they got tangled with even more hordes of infected coming from the south and west. He sat and felt the stress drain from his shoulders as he sank into the seat of the cruiser. Bullets tore through the windshield, the bullet holes leaving it appearing like a huge spider web between bullet holes. Five heavy trucks that were able to plow through the hordes were heading for him. Quickly slamming the door, he fired up the cruiser and did a one-eighty, gravel flying as the car’s rear-end fishtailed. The streets were filled with infected coming his way, blocking his escape as he turned south in desperation, over the curb and across a dirt lot, throwing up a screen of dust behind him. He continued south towards a railway yard filled with hundreds of railway cars. The cruiser was bouncing into the air then bottoming put as he crossed the field. He could hear gunshots as the gang fought back against the infected and he began to relax a little, then the tracers started to fly past the car on its right and above. Caleb tried to hunker down behind the steering wheel to make himself a smaller target. The cruiser hit the slight embankment alongside the first set of railroad tracks and he was airborne, he landed straddling the next set of tracks and felt parts of the underside of the car get torn away before he hit the next set of tracks and was slammed to a dead stop. He hit the dashboard an
d sat disoriented for a moment; he felt dizzy and he heard ringing from all directions. He gathered up the energy to look back and could see three sets of light heading in his general direction. He cursed his foolishness for not bringing his M4 with him as he staggered from the car and tried to run towards the nearest railway cars, only to feel himself running slightly to his left instead of where he was aiming. He tripped on the tracks. He stopped to try and figure out a plan. In the distance he could hear the pandemonium from the hotel as the second hotel caught fire, illuminating thousands of infected and the flashes of gunfire. The three sets of lights heading towards him now looked like six sets, as the dust clouds settled slightly.
To the south he could see a long train of railway cars, they had to have been at least a mile long as he staggered towards their protection from the advancing trucks. He tried to climb up between a pair of boxcars and fell back to the ground nauseous. Confused he sat there for a moment then unsteadily got on his hands and knees to crawl under the train. His relief upon getting to the other side of the train was short lived as he felt his vision beginning to look like he was looking through a tunnel. He pulled out his 9mm and sat clumsily, waiting impatiently for the trucks to get to him, then he heard another truck heading towards him from the south, with no barrier to slow it down or stop it. He sat there confused; the truck had no lights on and was heading straight for him. The other trucks had slowed to a crawl as they crossed over the train tracks.
Infected World Trilogy (Books 1-3): They Only Come Out At Night Page 73
