Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 6): In the Arms of Family

by Philbrook, Chris

  Becca gave both of them a hug, and thanked them for their help in dealing with Max, and Max’s murderer. Even though the woman was dead and entirely out of control, Becca still felt like she was a murderer. Angie and LaFrenz told her it was their pleasure to be there for her at that moment, and tried to say they were sorry for their loss. There was just no easy way to say it, even though everyone had said it a hundred times lately.

  After that they left. The dark green truck pulled away and headed down the unlit night street towards the on ramp that would take them to the interstate, and to the home they hoped they’d find far up north, away from the urban sprawl of the south. Everyone hoped they’d make it. The two seemed like good people, and they definitely seemed like they deserved safety and happiness together.

  The night after they left was almost entirely devoid of rest. Everyone but little Adam was up late as they packed up all the goods they’d accumulated over the past year-plus. Clothing, shoes, weapons, tools, and the meager food stores they scraped out of the ruined pantries of the city’s fringes. When it was all said and done, there were but three duffel bags, and three backpacks of items worth bringing. It was so little, but seemed like so much.

  After a night of quiet discussion and ten minute long naps in the living room, the sun rose outside, casting a dull bluish-grey light on the world, and the four Ring family members committed to their course of action. Caleb was the first out the door that morning, bringing the bags down the street to the small burgundy minivan they knew still ran. He sprinted as fast as he could under the weight of their worldly possessions. He slid the key in the van’s door, opened the slider and tossed the bags in the back. Once he knew the street was clear enough of the dead for the rest of the family to join him, he waved his pistol in the air, motioning them to come, and they came running. Sophie cradled Adam in her motherly arms as she sprinted as fast as she could in the growing summer morning heat. She strained to carry the heavy little boy. It would be a humid day for sure. When they reached the car all three adults were covered in perspiration. They had dark stains of salty sweat ringing their necks and armpits. It would be oppressive if the sun was powerful later in the day.

  Caleb sat down in the driver’s seat as a handful of undead trotted shakily down the center of the street at them. He looked up at them as he turned the key to the import van, sending the motor into a coughing fit. It roared to life as the trio of rotted dead began to reach out for the hood of the van. In the rear Becca and Sophie piled in, slamming the sliding door shut with a mechanical thump.

  “Go, get us moving!” Becca hollered out loudly at her brother, angry that they weren't already moving. In response Caleb pulled the steering column mounted shifter down into reverse and gunned the gas. The van lurched backwards, sending the women crashing to the floor. Sophie did her level best to protect her small boy, but Adam still let out a painfully frightened screech.

  The hands of the three undead scraped and banged on the hood of the van as it pulled away. Once he’d backed the suburban vehicle fifty feet or so away he spun it in a circle, and put it in drive. One more application of his foot to the gas pedal later the van was speeding away towards the same on-ramp that had taken LaFrenz and Angie away the night before.

  Escape from the city was but minutes away.

  *****

  The motor in the red van coughed and sputtered like the wheezing of an asthmatic. Wet racking hitches dropped the speed of the van immensely as Caleb pressed his foot to the floor, trying to feed the dying beast more fuel, stuffing its belly with rancid old gasoline. Moaning like a hungry beast dying in the desert, the motor continued its death knell, and the van finally died, coasting towards the break down lane on the highway. Caleb put the vehicle in neutral and aimed it towards the off ramp they were approaching. Fortunately, it was the exit they wanted.

  “Fuck,” Caleb said.

  “We dead in the water?” Becca asked as she looked around at the multi lane highway. There were two lanes headed in both directions and crashed and abandoned cars everywhere. Inside most of the vehicles she felt like she’d seen either the bodies of the dead, or undead. It felt like so much danger to her everywhere she looked. Becca felt like she was swimming in shark infested waters, and she was bleeding out.

  “We’re bent. I think there’s too much water or shit in the fuel tank. We need different wheels. Hopefully one of these cars around here still runs,” Caleb said as he wrestled the dead van to a stop near the guardrail. He got his pistol handy from the cup holder and turned to face his wife, little sister, and son.

  “I’ll check the cars around here to see what can start. As soon as I find one, we’ll switch vehicles, and get moving again. Until I wave for you to come to me, or I return myself, stay right here in the van, and don’t leave for anything unless you absolutely have to, okay?” Caleb’s face was dead serious. He was scared to do this and it showed in the new wrinkles of his skin.

  The wife and sister nodded. It was good fortune the small son was asleep in his mother’s lap. Watching his father leave might’ve given Adam too much to deal with, and brought on a sobbing fit. Caleb double checked that his handgun was loaded, and that he had the spare magazine in his pocket before opening the door of the minivan. The door opened and the girls felt the heat of the late day hit them like the fetid breath of the Devil. It had become sweltering since they’d gotten in the car and left the city. The rich bounty of the van’s air conditioning had hidden them from the world’s warmth.

  Caleb took off running down the off-ramp to the road below. It connected to a state route that was only a few miles from Adrian’s town. Had they not broken down it was very likely they’d have reached his fortified home in less than half an hour. But instead the van had given up the ghost, and there they sat. It was nearly ten minutes before the girls spoke again.

  “This van is going to get hot as balls, Sophie. We gotta crack the windows,” Becca said as she felt the first drop of sweat break on her brow. Sophie nodded and looked down at her boy, and his forehead was already starting to glisten. They didn’t have much water left either and at this rate, they’d die of dehydration in the van before long. Becca got up from her spot on the middle bench seat of the van and sat down in the driver’s seat. She turned the key in the ignition, sending the tiny chime back to life, telling her the van’s battery still had some power left in it. She thumbed the window down buttons, looking first to the right to make sure the windows were only down an inch or two. Too low and they risked someone reaching in.

  When she looked left she screamed with every ounce of fear she had. A dead man had somehow made his way to the side of the van without them noticing, and his bloody and torn face was directly against the glass. The electric window left a smudge of decayed, wet flesh behind as it slid down against his face. Becca saw half of the man’s skull exposed to the air from his wounds. It was likely he met his end in one of the many car crashes that day back in June of last year.

  Becca fell backwards out of the driver’s seat and into the space on the floor between the two front seats. An armrest stabbed into her kidneys, making her grimace. Adam woke up from his nap and without even knowing what was happening around him started to bellow. Sophie crawled backwards over the middle bench seat of the van, dragging her son as best she could to get away from the monster scratching at the driver’s window.

  As the two girls backed away, trying to make themselves as small as they could in the van, the undead man slid down the side, peering through the tinted windows and into the back space of the van at them, his white eyes flaring brightly in the sun’s reflection off the glass. To Becca it almost seemed like his eyes were made of an evil white light. The two women tried to quiet their breathing, controlling it as best they could. Silence could save them. Becca rolled over onto her stomach, searching desperately for her backpack with the hatchet in it. If she could get out of the van with it, she could kill the zombie, and they would be safe again until Caleb returned.

 
That’s when the other zombie slammed into the van’s side. Becca looked up as the shattered arms of a woman scratched their way across the tinted glass of the van. The stump of her right limb had a splinter of bone exposed, and it made the tiniest, most disturbing screech as it slid across the smooth surface of the window. Becca’s spine chilled as the noise invaded her ears.

  Becca knew they were fucked.

  That’s when the first gunshot rang out, sending the contents inside the head of the man into the summer heat in a hot pink and grey mist. The skull had evaporated from the power of a projectile, and the headless body collapsed out of view, leaving small bits of ivory colored skull on the window, sliding down the glass slowly. Becca and Sophie were shocked from the noise, but also relieved at the image of the zombie dropping. In slow motion Becca looked to the other side of the van at the exact moment a second gunshot shattered the world, exploding the head of the woman as powerfully as the man’s. She was tossed to the ground as if she were a morbid doll discarded by a petulant child.

  “Fuck yeah Caleb!” Becca and Sophie said in unison.

  Except it wasn’t Caleb who walked up to the van holding the weapon that saved the two women and the small boy. A squat and thick man with an overgrown beard waddled up instead. He was cleaner than he had any right to be which unnerved Becca. He cradled a large hunting rifle in his arm, and slowly cupped his free hand over his eyes to look through the dark glass of the van at the two women. When he saw them, he laughed, and turned to speak to another person the women couldn’t see yet.

  “Hey Ed! Two pretty girls and little boy. I don’t think they have guns! It’s like fucking Christmas!” The man turned back, cupping his hands once more to look in the van at them. The girls heard the rattle of an odd sounding vehicle pull up near them. Becca recognized the engine noise as a diesel. It was throaty, knocked loudly like it wasn't taken care of, and sounded heavy. Becca lifted herself up slightly and saw a station wagon pull up. A taller man than the first got out of the driver’s seat. He was thin, almost too thin, and was clean shaven. Perched on the top of his head was a New York Yankees hat. Becca instantly didn’t like him. Sophie put her mother’s hand over Adam’s mouth, trying to quiet his sobs of fear.

  “Well shit. Are they okay? Do they need help? We can use two more women back at the factory. Is the kid old enough to work? I mean if he ain’t we don’t need another little shit, we can just leave him behind.”

  Sophie let out a stifled gasp and covered Adam’s ears. Becca gritted her teeth as she wrapped her fingers around the strap of her backpack, pulling it close. She felt the weight of the hatchet inside, and hoped it’d be enough to protect her sister-in-law and nephew. She closed her eyes and hoped that Caleb had heard the gunshots, and was on his way back.

  “Hey girls are you alone? Do you need a safe place to stay? We’ve got food and water, and all you have to do is work for it. I mean, if you want to eat really good, you gotta eat some cock too, but it’ll be worth it. I'll see to that myself. Hey Ed I got dibs on the younger one. She ain’t a mom yet. I bet she’s tight as hell!” The fatter man said over his shoulder, grinning ear to ear.

  “Larry, seriously shut the fuck up. One of them is gonna shank you if you keep talking like that, and I won't stop 'em,” the tall man named Ed said as he walked up to the van beside the one he’d just called Larry. He leaned over and cupped his hand as well to look inside at the girls and the young boy.

  “Shit Ed. I’m just letting them know what’s up now. I am sick of taking people back to the damn building and then they find out what’s going on and they freak out and we gotta shoot them there. If we tell them here, then we just shoot them here and take their shit. It’s so much easier,” Fat, bearded Larry explained his actions.

  Thin Ed ignored him, staring in the car at Sophie the whole time. Becca watched as the tall thin man’s eyes slid slowly up and down the length of Sophie’s ringlet curls. “Larry you can have the little one. I like the mom. I bet if we take the kid back and keep him fed she’d fuck the hell out of me as a thank you. Can you hear me in there? Is that a deal? Food, water, shelter, safety, and a piece of my big swinging dick?” Ed’s tone was sinister. He let out a quiet cackle, revealing a dark inner nature he’d kept in check until just then.

  “Fuck off you fucking weirdoes!” Sophie yelled.

  “Oh now that will just not do,” Ed said softly in his sinister voice again. "Looks like more manners need to be taught Larry. Lucky we know proper etiquette." The wraith hovering outside the window reached down out of sight and produced a large revolver. The dark blue steel of the long barrel threatened with silent purpose. He brought it back slowly, intending to smash the window to get inside at his prize. Fat Larry raised the rifle he was cradling slightly, menacing the girls inside.

  From inside the van the girls heard a soft whistle. Ed and Larry spun to look towards the front of the van. Larry’s face never made the full turn. He died with a look of confusion on his face as a bullet ripped the back of his skull off, showering Ed with bits of his chunky friend. Ed’s face froze as two more shots quickly rang out. Becca watched as Ed’s throat tore open from the power of the bullet passing through it. Ed gurgled, coughing up a thick wad of blood out of the new hole where his Adam’s apple had just been. Both men went down and out of view just as the zombies they killed had moments before.

  An instant later Caleb was there, banging on the sliding door of the van. Sophie reached across and opened it, grabbing her husband in an awkward, relieved embrace. Adam was sandwiched between his two parents, and his sobs finally began to wane. Becca joined them, gripping her family tightly.

  “Jesus I heard the shots and came running. Who the fuck were those assholes? I thought they were rescuing you until I saw that tall prick draw his gun.” Caleb asked through tears. He wiped his eyes dry and pulled away from his family, looking around for more threats. His chest heaved, trying to catch his breath.

  Becca answered him, “They rescued us alright. But they said they were gonna dump Adam and take us back to some factory. We could live there they said if we blew them. Fucking assholes.”

  Caleb eyebrows furrowed in anger. Becca watched as his hand tightened on the grip of the pistol. She knew the Ring men had a temper, and right now Caleb was dangerous. If anyone came close to them and he didn’t know them, he’d snap, and they’d die. She’d seen the temper in action before. Caleb turned his attention to the station wagon parked near their dead van. The black wagon’s diesel still knocked loudly next to them. Caleb let out a vindicated laugh and pointed at it.

  “Well fuck them. Let’s take their ride. Grab their guns. See if they got anything else on them.”

  Becca and Sophie took all the possessions from the inside of the van and tossed them into the Mercedes wagon. Becca went through the pockets of the dead men and took their weapons and ammunition. In Ed’s pocket she found a large key ring and that disappeared into her pocket. She was happy to dig the hatchet out of her bag before they left, and smash the small blade into the side of the head of that fucker Ed as he started to twitch, coming back to unlife. Becca spat on his face and opened the passenger door of the wagon. She noticed a rather disturbing amount of bullet holes in the door of the car as she sat down in the luxury vehicle.

  Becca turned to Caleb as he put the car in drive, “I don’t think these guys were popular. You see the bullet holes in this thing?”

  Caleb nodded and pulled the wagon past the dead minivan and down the off ramp, towards his brother and hopefully safety, “Yeah. That tight a pattern and that many rounds means whoever did that knew what they were doing, and had a good weapon. It had to be military. Or someone who served and had a decent rifle, something semi-automatic or better. I just hope they don’t mistake us for them.” Caleb turned and looked at his sister with a serious face.

  Perhaps they weren’t out of the hot water just yet.

  *****

  Only a minute later they knew things were bad ahead. The state route they
were on had businesses near continuously on both sides of the road, and was fairly congested with traffic. More accidents coupled with cars parked at strange angles like roadblocks forced them to slow down. Caleb wound up turning off on a side road that would wind them through an area of small businesses. He hoped it would circumvent the overwhelming feeling he had they were driving right into an ambush.

  Sadly, they were driving directly towards the sounds of gunfire anyway. Caleb stopped the wagon in the middle of the road and rolled the windows down, letting in more of the sweltering heat. He leaned out and listened carefully. Becca watched his face as he analyzed the noises ahead.

  “Those are M4s. I can tell by the report. I think those are the people who shot at this car. If we drive ahead, we might get shot too. I think we need to find another way around.” Caleb slumped in the driver’s seat and slowly rested his head on the steering wheel.

  “What do we do? Is there even another way around?” Sophie asked.

  Becca nodded, knowing what she had to do. “There isn’t. This is the only way. I’ll walk ahead. I’ll stay low, and if they’re the bad guys I’ll come running back. If they’re the good guys, I’ll hoot and holler and they’ll know I’m alive. That way they won’t see the wagon first and start shooting. Worst case, they just shoot me, and you three can escape.”

  Caleb took his sister and her statement in. Her bravery was unreal. It didn’t surprise him. He’d always thought she was the toughest of the whole clan. You can’t be the little sister to so many rough and shitty brothers and not come out stronger for it. As much as he didn’t want to agree with her plan, it was the best idea. Adam needed parents, and if Becca died, they could still escape, and make a life somewhere else. If Becca died though, Caleb knew he might never forgive himself.