“Did you see that back there?” he asked her.
“See what? I’m still not able to turn my head very well.”
“There was a group of…” He thought for a minute. “Hell, I don’t know what they were, but they scared the bejeezus outta me.”
“If they scared you, I’m just as glad I didn’t see anything.”
She had dismounted and was working on taking off her helmet when the automatic doors leading to the lobby whirred open.
“Look out!” Bob screamed at her. He was half-on, half-off the bike, looking behind her. She started to turn, but Bob grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her behind him and the Harley. She landed in a heap, banging her still-helmeted head off the pavement. She got up in time to see her new friend Bob with one guy under his arm and another lifted off the ground, Bob’s right hand wrapped around the man’s neck. He moved like a cat as he strode toward the front of the lobby. He threw the guy under his left arm toward the doors that were opening and closing erratically. The guy he had by the throat was making a strangled shrieking noise.
She made it to her feet in time to see two more people streak out from the hotel. They didn’t look right; they were changed somehow. He kicked out at the first one as it charged toward him. He connected and it rolled away to his left. The second, however, slipped inside the kick and was mauling Bob. He turned toward her and made direct eye contact even as another one of the things bit into his arm.
“Go! Get the hell outta here! Go! I can’t hold ‘em off much longer.” He wasn’t trying to win the fight now; he was trying to give her enough time to escape.
She jumped on the bike and hit the starter. The engine roared to life. She kicked it into gear and smoked the back tire for a second before it caught hold and rocketed her back onto the street.
She was sobbing as she drove back up the road they had just come down, tears coursing down her cheeks. She slowed and stopped; ignoring the pain, she turned and looked back at the hotel. Buffalo Bob was still standing his ground, stomping, throwing, and throttling the things as they attacked him. As she watched, he went down to a knee, and then disappeared behind the crowd that had grown to cover him completely. Turning back, she saw more of them ahead of her at the intersection where Bob had maneuvered around them earlier. She ground her teeth and loosed the beast’s horses directly at the approaching horde.
Jay’s skills on a bike were a bit rusty, but this maneuver she had ingrained into muscle memory with constant practice over the years. She pushed hard against the left handlebar and accelerated. This threw the bike into a steep, hard left turn. When the bike was leaning over, she just touched the rear brake, throwing the bike’s ass into a slide, then immediately gunned the throttle while applying just a little front brake. This righted the bike at ninety degrees from her original direction. This all happened in an instant. The really hard part of this maneuver was at the end. It went against all of the mind’s preconceived thoughts. If done right, you exited the maneuver headed in the correct direction. If done incorrectly, the centripetal forces would throw your body off the bike as it reversed its lean—a body in motion and all that jive. These thoughts never entered Jay’s head. It was as the old saying goes: “It’s as easy as riding a bike.”
She made it past the group, oversteering only a little, but it still had her heart in her throat. Even though it had been several years since she owned a bike, her body and reaction time did not let her down. She slowed and let the adrenal gland compose itself; the burst of adrenaline had given her the urge to pee. No time for that now, girlfriend. She settled herself back into the seat and took stock of her situation.
Chapter 3
Day 1
East Shore Estates
North Myrtle Beach, SC
Auddy
“What the hell, Danny?” Auddy threw up her hands in frustration. They were fighting; the stress of learning to live with someone was like that. They had moved in together at Danny’s place and Auddy was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Like most people who’ve been single for an extended period of time and lived alone, they were both used to things being a certain way. Auddy was of a mindset that when you finished using a cup or glass, you rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher. Danny wasn’t. Auddy was mad because she thought he was leaving the glass sitting next to the sink just to piss her off. In reality, Danny was fine with letting a few dishes accumulate before loading them into the dishwasher. He wasn’t being obtuse or purposefully poking the bear, as it were; it was just how he was.
Auddy stomped off to the bedroom and slammed the door. Danny looked up from where he was in the middle of a game of League of Legends. He was completely at a loss as to what had brought on this outburst. He shook his head and exited his game. He got up and went after her.
Auddy was beautiful. She looked a lot like her mom: five foot seven, long and straight brown hair tastefully highlighted, blue eyes. But the two things she had inherited from her dad’s side of the family were her butt and her attitude. Whenever she complained about her butt, her dad would say, “Women around the world would kill to have your butt.” It was very shapely. Her attitude, on the other hand, could take some getting used to. Danny stood five feet six inches tall, maybe six and a half. His temperament was even keeled, but like most men he loved to be right.
Neither of them had broken the news to their parents about moving in together. They’d decided to try it out for a while before making it public. Their parents were a bit old fashioned to their way of thinking, and both were a little apprehensive about telling them. Danny knocked lightly on the door. There was no response. He knocked again and cracked the door a bit. Auddy was lying on the bed and ignored him. She huffed and turned to face the wall. He walked across the room and wondered if it was smart to cut through the obvious tension. “Hey Panda Bear, what’s bugging you?”
She rolled over, her eyes red from crying. “Like you don’t know.”
“I don’t, I really don’t.”
This elicited another huff from her to show her disbelief.
He tried again. “I’m serious, Auddy, I don’t know what I did. Did you say something and I didn’t respond?” She just stared at him.
“What?” he said, a bit exasperated.
“I’ve asked you a hundred times to put your dishes in the dishwasher. Are you dense or are you doing it to piss me off?”
“You’re being ridiculous.” He just didn’t get what the big deal was. “Why are you blowing up over this? Are you doing it just to pick a fight?”
She sat up, ready to launch into the melee, when the lights flickered and went out. She flung herself back down on the bed. “Great, just great!”
Danny got up, opened the nightstand next to the bed, and pulled out a flashlight. He turned it on only to find it wasn’t working. He banged it against his hand a couple of times and got up to go to the kitchen to see if there were any batteries in the junk drawer. “It’s probably just a transformer or something. They’ll have it fixed soon, I’m sure.” He said this over his shoulder as he cautiously made his way across the room, arms outstretched to keep from running into something.
He found some batteries and got the flashlight working. He located his phone and went to the browser to look up the electric company’s website. Then he noticed that he had no bars.
“Hey Auddy, you have any service?” he called into the other room. He heard a bump, then some muttered cursing, as she found her way to the living room.
“Nope, I got nothing.”
“Huh, I knew the Wi-Fi would be down, but why would we lose cell service? The outage must be pretty widespread to knock out the cell towers.”
They went to the window and looked out across the driving range that was their backyard. Danny’s condo was in a gated community that boasted a world-class golf course. All the lights were out as far as they could see. The clubhouse where he worked as a golf instructor, the driving range floodlights—all were dark.
Handing Auddy the flashlight,
Danny said, “Stay here. I’m going to run up to the clubhouse and see if they know what’s going on.” He grabbed his key off the coffee table and headed for the door.
“Wait,” Auddy called to him. She went to the pantry and retrieved a pack of candles. She opened it, put two onto a saucer, and lit them. Then she crossed the room, kissed him, and handed him the flashlight. “Hurry back.”
He kissed her again. “Sorry about the dishes. I’ll try to remember.” He turned and went out the door.
The clubhouse was only a couple of football fields away, but he decided to drive up there. They might need him to make a run to the store for flashlights or something. He was the newest addition to the staff and was still trying to make a good impression. He had lived there on and off for four years. His grandmother owned the condo and he stayed there while pursuing his dream of getting his PGA Tour card. It hadn’t happened yet, and he wondered if it ever would.
He was good looking, athletic, maybe a bit on the small side, but that was why he wasn’t trying to be a pro football player. He had dark hair and dark eyes that Auddy said were the reason she fell for him.
As he drove, he could have sworn he saw a group of people running through the eighteenth fairway. What was that about? He pulled up to the back of the clubhouse. Bill would be at the pro shop at this hour; he would know what was going on. Bill ran the driving range at night. He was a hundred years old, or so it seemed to Danny. The old man sat there, collected money for golf balls, and sold a golf glove or two, maybe a shirt if he was lucky. Mostly he watched the cable news station and bitched about the government.
Danny got out of the car and shined his flashlight around the area. No one was around, which was odd. Normally a few guys would be hanging around. The power hadn’t been off long enough for the usual crowd to have dispersed already. He went to the door that led to the pro shop. He opened the door, and as soon as he stepped across the threshold, he smelled a peculiar odor. God, what is that? Has a sewer backed up or something? The stench almost made him gag. He shined his light toward the counter where Bill usually sat. What is that? He couldn’t make it out in the distorted beam coming from his flashlight. What? Is that a shoe? He called out, “Bill?” The foot sticking out from behind the counter didn’t move. “Bill? Quit messing around man, this isn’t funny.” Oh man, the lights went out and Bill fell and broke a hip or something. He quickly walked up to the counter and around the end. When the beam of his flashlight landed on Bill, Danny sucked in his breath and backed up quickly. Bill was torn apart. His upper body looked like a bear had attacked it. He was sure it was Bill, because the body had on bright yellow pants. Bill was always wearing something like that.
Danny went to the phone and picked up the receiver. No dial tone. Huh. He turned and headed for the stairs up to the main floor. Mr. Dietrich, the night manager of the restaurant, would know what to do. He took the stairs two at a time and arrived at the front desk in under a minute. The smell here was worse. He could now identify the smell—it was of feces, and something else. He rounded the corner and found Mr. Dietrich on the floor, bent over one of the wait staff. He looked up, the bright light shining in his opaque eyes. A piece of bloody intestine was hanging from his lips. He opened his mouth wider than Danny would have ever thought possible and let out a shriek that reminded Danny of a barn owl, only much louder, and much scarier. Danny turned and ran.
Chapter 4
Day 1
Westbound Route 9
Charlestown, WV
Jay
She and Ryan talked about what to do in these types of situations—well, maybe not quite this extreme. He always stressed that decision making during a crisis amounted to quick response to simple yes-or-no questions that you had to ask yourself. She heard his voice in her head: “Get past the immediate danger, then reevaluate, sweetie.” The fact that she could see no immediate threat gave her a chance to do just that.
The temperature was still in the high seventies, the stars were out now, although dimmed by the city lights. She checked the fuel gauge and was relieved to see the tank was nearly full. The urge to escape the area was almost overwhelming, but her brain was telling her to find a place to hide out until she could make a better plan, or at least until she could think clearly. Everything she’d done to this point was purely reactionary crisis mode. The only place she could think of that was somewhat secure was her Pro-Print office. The decision made, she sped up and concentrated on her driving.
Jay saw several more packs of the crazies in the hour it took her to get back to her office, but she steered clear of them using the bike’s speed and maneuverability. They were fast, but they did have their limits, thank God. She wasn’t aware of consciously coming to the conclusion that the crazies acted like packs of animals and not groups of people, but the more she saw of them, the more she was convinced that they were definitely no longer acting like people.
The other spaces in the strip mall that housed her office were all dark. She drove the motorcycle just fast enough to keep it upright, ready to gun the engine if needed. The windows of several of the offices and stores were broken. Thankfully, the front of her office was intact. Whoever had broken out the windows of the others apparently had no interest in fingerprinting. Jay rode the Harley right up on the sidewalk and parked in front of the dry cleaners next door. She shut off the engine and remained seated, listening. She could hear what sounded like cats fighting a few blocks away; the warm wind carried the sound to her. The ticking of the hot engine cooling brought memories of her dad. He’d bought her Harley 125 when she was a kid, and they worked on it together, changing the oil, cleaning it. She shook off the memory and patted the bike on the gas tank wistfully.
The office was as she had left it. Jay closed the blinds and turned on the small lamp on the receptionist desk. Putting it on the floor behind the desk to reduce the light, she immediately lifted the phone’s receiver. Dead, but the light on the answering machine blinked at her. Rather than installing an expensive phone system at the satellite office, Dick had opted for an old-fashioned, read cheap here, answering machine.
She hit the button and listened. Dick’s voice rattled out of the speaker. “Jay, things are going crazy. Governor Thompson has declared a state of emergency shutting down all public transport and roads. I tried your cell but couldn’t get through. I hope you get this. If you do, my advice is to hunker down and stay where you are. Hopefully they’ll get a handle on this quickly and things will settle down. I’ve been asked to return to duty as a trooper. If I can, I will get one of the officers in Martinsburg to check on the office. Get some water and food if you can, and remain inside at night. I’m hearing some unbelievable stories about gangs of people roaming the streets attacking anyone they come in contact with. Keep an eye out for a state trooper. If one shows up, go with them. Stay safe. I’ll call again when I have more info.” The machine beeped and a second message kicked off. “Jay, this is Dan Stanton of the West Virginia State Troopers. Dick Davis asked me to get this message to you. We have dispatched a trooper to the casino and to your office. Stay put and when you see the vehicle, approach the officer with your hands up. They have your description and will take you to safety. I’m sorry to tell you this, but Dick was killed earlier tonight. I’m sorry for your loss—good luck.” With that, the trooper disconnected.
Dick could be an asshole, but he had always been a good boss and friend. She felt the tears well in her eyes and her chest heave. No! I can’t lose it; I have to remain in control. She wiped her eyes and went to the minifridge she kept in the other room of the office. She pulled open the door to find it full of bottled water and a stash of Snickers bars—another of her guilty pleasures. Rather than grab a bottle of water, she went into the bathroom and turned on the faucet. The water was still working. She closed the bathroom door, turned on the light, and grabbed a cup. The water looked fine and smelled fine. You’re being ridiculous, what would be wrong with the water? She drank greedily, filling and draining the cup tw
ice more.
She sat down on the toilet and leaned against the wall, closing her eyes, trying to think… Okay, the messages on the phone were obviously made a couple of hours apart. The trooper may have already come by here but I can’t be sure. My best bet is to gather all the water I can in case it stops working. Then turn out the lights and wait. The motorcycle outside is a beacon for anyone coming by that someone is inside. I have to bring it in here. She tried to remain calm, but her thoughts jumped from one bad scenario to another. I need a weapon beside the stun gun and pepper spray. She remembered there was a pawnshop just across the intersection from the strip mall. There was no way she would go there tonight, but tomorrow a quick trip over there to buy a handgun would be first priority.
She filled every conceivable container she could find with water. It seemed a bit overkill, but you never knew. After filling the last of the three trash cans with water, she turned off the lights and went to the front door. She separated the blinds and peeked out into the night. Seeing no one, she unlocked the door and slipped out. She stood stock-still, listening. The first thing she noticed was the shrieks and gunshots. They seemed distant, but those shrieks were so unnatural. It sounded like an animal being tortured. It wasn’t hot enough for her to be sweating, but she nonetheless felt the heat of her scalp rise, the sweat beads forming on her brow.
The Harley was just ten feet away. It would only take a minute to push it to the front door. She opened the front door all the way, looked down at the stopper to locate it, and pulled it down with her foot. Even before she looked up, she knew she was in trouble.
Apocalypse Family (Book 2): Family Reunion J Page 3
