Jade was cresting the freeway onramp and she slowed down enough for Mace to climb back on. She hit the gas and started putting distance between themselves and the chasing infected.
Mace looked back at Rob and shook his head, although the slight smile on his face relayed a bit of respect for his courage and lunacy. He turned back and looked at Jade, who kept checking the side mirrors to watch the infected shrinking behind before peering out the front of the bus windows.
“It doesn’t look bad heading South. All the real carnage was stuck in the traffic heading towards the bridges. We should be able to get there fairly fast.”
Jade felt her strength returning. She would pull herself together and remain a force to be reckoned with until the very end.
Chapter 19
They couldn’t travel faster than 30-40 mph due to the accidents and abandoned vehicles, but they could get through easier on the freeway then they had on the streets. They hadn’t gone more than three or four miles before they saw a group of people walking along the freeway. It was a party of six young men of mixed races in their late teens or early twenties, wearing long flannel shirts over white T-shirts and baggy pants, all wearing red bandanas. At the sound of the bus, they turned and began yelling and waving. Jade looked back at Mace, who was scrutinizing them carefully. “Should we pick them up?”
Mace continued studying them, shaking his head. “I don’t think so. We’ve got enough on our plates without taking on any more.”
Jade looked back towards the men and disagreed. “We can’t just leave them. What kind of a chance would they have?”
“That’s not our problem. We need to take care of ourselves right now.”
Biting her lip in frustration, Jade started slowing down the bus. “I’m gonna stop. I can’t just drive by innocent people.”
Father McCann spoke up from behind Mace. "I think that would be a mistake. The sooner we can protect ourselves and create an antidote the better."
Jade was shocked to hear that come from Father McCann. "They’re victims just like us. What does that say about us if we don’t help them?" She glanced at Father McCann in the rear view mirror and perceived a look of sorrow and fatigue in his eyes.
"I’m afraid at this point we can’t afford to take any chances.” He peered out the bus window at the boys up ahead. “It’s crucial right now that we think of the larger picture. I’ve spent my life reaching out to troubled youth, but I believe that right now would not be the best time.” He paused for a second and then locked eyes with Jade, who was studying him in the rear view mirror. “The greater danger will be in those fighting to survive. It will bring some to levels of greatness but also plunge others to the depths of depravity. This is larger than all of us and I have a feeling that to stop now would be a mistake."
Jade looked at him reflectively in the mirror then nodded slowly in agreement. "Okay. But I don't like it. It seems like a death sentence."
Mace thought once again about the words Father McCann had spoken earlier, hearing them replayed in his mind: There is no fairness in who lives and dies.
Jade, who had slowed the bus down to a crawl, began to speed it up again. The young men started yelling. One ran directly in front of the bus and crossed his arms, unmoving.
Jade hit the brakes hard, bringing the bus to a stop a few feet in front of the man, causing everyone to jerk forward unexpectedly. Buster let out a yelp as he was wedged into the back of the seat in front of him. The man cocked his head and smiled at Jade as he ran around to the bus door, knocking. “Please, lady, you can’t leave us out here.”
Those with him milled around, talking low to each other in whispers.
Mace quietly released his gun from its holster, positioning it behind his back, and Rob, seeing it, readied the weapon he still carried.
Jade looked from the man in the door window to Mace, who cautiously motioned for her to open the door. “Go ahead. Just be ready for anything.”
The door opened and the man sauntered in, smiling and eyeing Jade with a slow, full-bodied glance. “Well, now, aren’t you a lovely thing.”
He mounted the steps and turned nonchalantly towards Mace, his smile disappearing. “Hey, man, thanks for stopping. It’s fucking crazy out there.”
As the rest of his group boarded they suddenly pulled out pistols from behind their leader’s back and pointed them at Mace and everyone else on the bus. The leader’s smile returned, showing a flash of gold in his teeth. “We’re gonna take the bus.” His smile widened and he winked at Mace. “Thanks for stopping.” He moved his head slightly towards Jade. “It’s time for all you men to get off, but we’re gonna keep the women.” He looked down to his left at Greg and his two companions and flashed a cold smile at Greg. “You’re gone, they stay.” He continued to look around the bus, stopping at Lisa and Chelsea. “They stay too. My boy’s might like that little thing.” He looked at Yvette trying to hide in her seat in the back. “You too, sweetie, we’ll be sure to take good care of you.”
The others with him started laughing and hooting with excitement.
Mace stayed calm, with the gun still hid behind his back, waiting for the right moment, while Rob, who was sitting in the seat opposite Yvette, was beside himself and ready to explode.
The leader lowered his gaze to the right, where Christy, curled up in a ball next to Father McCann, whimpered. “You can just keep that old bitch; I don’t think we got any use for her.”
His companions laughed harder until Rob screamed in indignation, “Fuck you, Motherfuckers!” and brought the gun up and fired, just missing the back of Mace’s head and the head of the leader, instead striking one of his companions in the shoulder. The man he shot jerked back, bumping into one of the others as Jade pulled her pistol from beside her seat and shot the one closest to her in the side as he went to raise his weapon. The one that had been bumped turned his gun towards Jade as his companion cried out but she fired first, sending his head whipping back as the bullet blew out the back of his head.
The leader seemed surprised by the gunfire and looked shocked as Mace brought his weapon up and fired twice, hitting him with two shots to the chest and he fell backwards, dead. The gunman behind him fired quickly at Mace, the bullet whizzing by Maces ear and finding Yvette, ripping into her shoulder. Rob exploded in fury and began firing wildly, running out of bullets after the third shot but continuing to pull the trigger, cursing loudly. Mace crouched into a firing position as bullets whizzed by and fired three shots at the fourth gunmen, sending him reeling back with two shots to the ribcage.
Lisa, who had been covering Chelsea with her body, erupted in a storm of maternal rage as bullets ripped into the seat next to her. Without even realizing it, she grabbed the gun that Mace had given her and shot the last one still standing through the neck, sending him clutching at his throat as blood spurt out of the wound, until he finally collapsed into the same seat as Christy, facing her, wide eyed, wheezing out pleas for help. His blood gushed all over her, and she scrambled to get away from him, her eyes wild and crazy. She began laughing hysterically, madly, until Mace reached down and pulled him off her. She jumped up, covered in the man’s blood and screamed for help, before slipping in a pool of blood and collapsing on the floor. The man’s gun was next to her and she lifted it, laughing, and put it to her head, pulling the trigger, splattering her brains all over Father McCann.
Rob was in the back screaming for help for Yvette, while Lisa had dropped the gun and clutched Chelsea close to her, rocking her back and forth, covering her eyes. Buster, who had been whimpering under the seat during the violent intrusion, sniffed at the smoke still escaping its barrel.
The three Asian newcomers sat frozen staring at the body of Christy, seemingly paralyzed by the display of violence as Father McCann began praying over the dead and dying as tears and blood blurred his vision. He was covered in Christy’s blood. He wiped the blood and tears from his face, a look of sadness and quiet resolve etched in his wrinkled skin.
> Two of the gunmen were still alive, crying out for help, and Mace walked to the front of the bus, hitting the lever for the front door. The two that Jade had shot were both dead, one lying in a pile on the steps and the second with his arm wrapped around a standing pole by the door, stuck in a disfigured pose, his head cocked looking with a dead gaze at his comrade while a cross bar kept his body from collapsing to the floor. Mace had a flash of déjà vu as he pushed the first one out with his boot and flung the second one after him. As he walked back three feet into the interior of the bus, one of the wounded gunmen screamed at him for help as he reached down and grabbed him by the foot, dragging him and leaving a bloody trail down the center of the bus aisle. When he reached the front door he reached forward and grasped him by the shirt, lifting him while the man yelled out in agony and heaving him out the opening of the bus to the hard concrete outside, the sound of his head cracking against the concrete like the thunk of a watermelon being dropped and broken.
Jade screamed out in horror, while Greg and his companions turned their faces at the act. “What are you doing? My God, Mace, he’s still a human being!”
Mace’s face was twisted in a snarl as he headed towards the second gunman, who was now trying to squirm back down the aisle, stopped by the dead weight of Christy’s body as it lay sprawled across it, blocking it. As he reached for his leg Father McCann rose from his seat, still covered in Christy’s blood. “Stop it Mace! Have you forgotten who and what you are?”
Mace’s temper erupted at Father McCann’s words. “What is the point!? What’s the point in any of this!?” He pointed to the man who was cowering below him, his hands covering his body and face. “Do you really think this piece of shit deserves anything? People are dead on this bus because of him and his fucking friends. As far as I’m concerned he can rot in hell.”
Mace reached down, grabbed his leg, and started dragging him towards the front of the bus. He stopped for a moment, looked up, and addressed Father McCann again. “Everything you told me is a lie. There is no God. God would never allow this to happen.”
Jade rose out of her seat as Mace approached, and as he tried to brush past her, she slapped him hard across the face. “Stop it! This isn’t right! I’m not saying he’s innocent, but you can’t just treat him like a piece of garbage.”
Mace dropped the man’s leg and stared at her intensely, his head popping with fireworks. Jade had a look of slight desperation and sadness and she touched his face gently where she had just slapped him. Her face softened and she forced a smile. “Don’t make me slap you again.”
She had shocked him enough to dissolve his rage for the moment. With her eyes staring deep into his, she reached down and grabbed his hand, bringing it up and placing it over her heart.
“Don’t become like them. Be one that rises to greatness. I love you for the honorable man that resides within.”
She leaned in, kissed him on the cheek, and said in a desperate, quiet tone, “Let’s honor and bury our dead and treat this man for his wounds. He doesn’t deserve to walk away from what he’s done, but he’s also worthy of some compassion.” She looked briefly at Father McCann then looked back at Mace. “Let’s not forget who and what we are.”
Mace stood silent for a second before speaking. He was breathing heavy and trying to regain his wind. “I don’t know if I can control what’s going on inside me…I feel a rage…I feel like I’ve lost my faith…I lost it when I…when Jason…”
She reached up and put a finger over his lips, nodding. “I know. I almost did too. We’ll get through this, okay? Together.”
He looked at her as the rage started to melt off him like snow under a hot sun. “I was just like them, you know. I originally hijacked this bus. What I did to that kid…”
“You are going to make me slap you again, aren’t you,” she said. You’re nothing like them. We needed this bus for our safety and theirs as well. You were trying to save them, Mace.” She reached up and grabbed his face in her hands. “I believe in you. I have from the first day we met.”
From the back of the bus, Rob, who had been listening to the conversation, reloaded his gun, moved to the front of the bus and fired three shots into the body of the last gunmen, who screamed as he saw the gun pointed in his direction. He took a few raspy breaths before surrendering to death.
Rob looked at Jade and spit on the corpse lying before him. “There was no way that piece of shit was going to live. He’s the bastard that shot Yvette.” Rob lifted the gun and pointed it at Jade. “You better figure out whose side you’re on, or I swear to God I’ll kill every one of you.”
He moved the pistol towards Mace and his eye twitched. He looked up to Mace and realized he had gone too far. He slowly and deliberately placed the gun on the floor, never taking his eyes off Mace. The tears started almost immediately and he stood in the middle of the bus, bawling like a scared child who knew he had done something terribly wrong. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Mace walked forward and feeling emotionally exhausted, put his arms around Rob and let him break down, feeling his body heave with the strength of his sobs.
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what’s going on.” He looked at Mace with a look of complete resignation and Mace could feel his own heart break.
“We’ll all get through this. We will.”
Mace looked down at the bodies strewn on the floor and fought the heaviness that tried to envelop him.
He looked at Rob again. “We’re going to pull it together, okay? We’ll pull it together.”
Without saying a word, Mace let go of Rob and walked to Christie’s body, scooping it up and placing it in the seat behind Father McCann. He then hoisted the body of the gunman Rob had shot and placed it in the seat behind her. While Jade and Lisa rushed to the back of the bus to help Yvette, Father McCann rose from his seat and placed blankets over the dead, bowing his head as he gave them last rites.
Yvette was crying out in pain as Jade and Lisa tried to console her. She was scared to death that she had been mortally wounded. Jade put pressure on her wound, which wasn’t as bad as at first appeared. The bullet had cut a good gash through her shoulder, but she would survive. When Jade asked her if there was anything they could do for her, she smiled weakly between tears and said, “Get me to a mall so I can get a new pair of shoes. I’m tired of walking around in dirty socks.”
They all shared a little laugh as Mace took control of the bus again and headed in the direction of the gun shop and the hospital.
Chapter 20
They made it to Grand Avenue in a little under an hour, having to pull over once to move cars to clear their path. They passed a few more packs of survivors, but didn’t bother to slow down or stop. No one wanted to look at the waving hands as they went by, as they were all disheartened or paranoid by the last people they had stopped to assist. The bus was covered in blood, and they all couldn’t wait to leave it and never board it again. The bus ride was mostly silent, except for the occasional humming of Chelsea or whimper from Buster, who was now lying sullen under Lisa and Chelsea’s seat.
Once Mace pulled off on the Grand Ave. exit, he started laying out the plan for the hospital. He needed to think forward and move on from the past. It was what he needed to motivate him and allow him to carry on, and he embraced it and focused entirely on this next course of action.
If his memory served him right, there were three entrances to Kaiser: One on each side and the emergency door in the back. They would need to block the side doors with vehicles, ambulances if possible since they were a little larger, and then they’d enter and leave someone to cover the back door. Once inside, they would have to do a thorough sweep. He thought they might be able to disable the elevators, leaving whatever existed above the first floor to its own resources, at least until they could create a safer atmosphere below. He exchanged cell phone numbers with everyone on the bus, thinking that they might need to separate into groups once inside the hospital, and
they might as well use the phones until their batteries ran dead.
As they drove to the gun store, their spirits remained low as they witnessed the familiar devastation from infection. Abandoned vehicles were once again an issue as they crept through the streets, the bus pushing cars out of the way or driving up on sidewalks to get through the large metal obstacles. They encountered no people, infected or alive at least, as they drove through the streets and pulled up to the gun store.
Mace turned around and quickly addressed those in the bus. “We need to make this quick. Once we get inside, we’re going to grab whatever we see and sort through them later. I want Jade and Rob with me. The rest of you just stay and watch the bus and take care of Yvette. If you see anything, give a honk and we’ll be out immediately.”
Rob smiled as he followed Mace off the bus, and the three of them ran in the open front door, with Mace holding his gun out in front of him in anticipation of any resistance. There was none. The store had already been pretty well ransacked but there were still quite a few weapons in the back that hadn’t been lifted.
Mace grabbed a Brockman .450 Marlin with a scope, a large big game hunting rifle, throwing boxes of ammo in a gun bag for security, shouting out orders on what to grab or leave as he did so. He turned and grabbed another tote back and loaded it with two 12-gauge shotguns and shells, as Jade grabbed a 9mm Kahr and three Smith & Wesson .38’s. She stopped when she saw a small Derringer and slipped it inside her pocket.
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