“Don’t be. We’re safe…for now.”
Embarrassed at his display of emotions, he wiped at his eyes and cleared his throat. “Where are we going?”
“I thought you might know,” Novak chuckled. “I’m just the driver.”
“Well, before everything went to shit, Hartman said something about evacuating to Corpus Naval Air. Hell, I guess we can head for there.”
“Do you know if he made it out?” Novak asked.
“I didn’t see him.” Jim sighed as he tried to control the elation he was feeling. They had just survived the most nightmarish scenario he could ever imagine, and he was still having to convince himself that they were actually flying safely above all the danger below.
“I guess we could take a trip to the coast,” Novak jokingly said. “Maybe catch a few rays or catch a few waves.”
“You think anyone is still left there?” Jim asked.
“I don’t know, but I guess we’ll find out.” The pilot flipped down his helmet visor and angled the nose of the craft down a bit, picking up speed as he did.
Chapter 9
San Antonio Central Police Substation
“I have some here,” Shondra called over to Vincent. She was kneeling down next to a small compact vehicle that was parked in the lot of the Central Police Substation. Vincent was scanning his surroundings as she fed a hose down into the gas tank of the car.
“There should be gas in all of the city cars that are here,” he told her as he surveyed the near-empty lot. Several of the cars appeared to have been looted; their doors sitting open and their interiors ransacked.
“I’m surprised that the guys with the take-home cars didn’t swipe them,” she said. She then sucked on the end of the hose that she was holding until she got a stream of fuel in her mouth. Spitting it out, she exclaimed, “God, that’s horrible!”
“I’ll do the next one,” Vincent said as he glanced back at her. “I’m sure a few of the guys took their city cars home. I would have.” He raised his rifle and looked through its combat scope. The magnification on it allowed him see over towards a nearby college campus and the elevated freeway just beyond it. Directly behind that sat downtown itself. Several reanimated corpses were lumbering around by the college, and although Vincent was worried about them, the zombies hadn’t noticed the scavenging duo.
Siphoning the gas into a plastic fuel canister, she nervously looked around as she wiped her mouth. “I’m hungry,” she said.
“Me too.” He continued to focus on the zombies and prayed that they weren’t detected. “Once we get enough fuel, we’ll figure out what we’re going to eat. We just gotta be careful with the food we have left.”
“I’m glad we decided to leave that office,” she stated. “I think we’re doing the right thing by leaving the city. Sooner or later, our luck was going to run out if we stuck around here.”
Vincent sighed. Although he and Shondra had decided to leave the safety of the architect office—after an all-night lengthy and heated debate—he wasn’t as confident as she was about venturing out onto the open road. “I just hope that things down south aren’t as bad as they are up here.” He was referring to the decision they had made to head down Interstate 35 towards the southern rural areas of the state.
“It can’t be any worse than here,” she said. “Moving into less populated areas will definitely lessen the chance of anything bad happening to us.”
“You’re right. I’m sure we’re doing the right thing.” He stepped back towards her and lowered his rifle slightly. “We just gotta find more food and water.” Knowing the inherent dangers involved with scavenging a landscape full of murderous corpses and enraged infected people, he dreaded having to poke around convenience stores and supermarkets.
“I’m sure there are lots of stores that still have stuff in them,” she said. “We need to grab some shaving razors too.” She looked up at him, pointed at his face, and smiled. “You’re looking a little rough there. Your five o’clock shadow has turned into a beard that doesn’t know if it wants to completely grow out or not.”
“Me?” he chuckled. “What about you?” He raised his rifle again, and as he peered through the scope, he said, “I wasn’t going to mention it, but your legs were feeling a little prickly last night. Shit, I was gonna shave them with my pocket knife.”
“Uh, you better get used to it baby. I don’t think women will be having the luxury of shaving their legs anytime soon.” Gas began to spill out of the canister and she quickly stuck the hose into a second fuel jug.
“Damn, this end of the world crap is going to suck,” Vincent complained. “I was always a ‘leg man,’ and knowing that you’re gonna have as much hair on your legs as I have on mine…well, the thought is just too much to swallow.”
“Then you better learn to swallow,” she jokingly said.
“Now I have to make sure I get some razor blades…for you,” he countered. “I need to make a grocery list and put ‘razor blades’ at the top of it.”
“Oh, that’s so uncool,” she growled. “Well, since we’re on the issue of personal hygiene, I wasn’t going to mention it before, but you need to put mouthwash on that list too. I wasn’t going to say anything, but—”
A series of loud explosions bellowed out from somewhere to their north, startling the two.
“What the fuck is that?” Vincent exclaimed as the deep booming and thudding echoed off of the walls of the police station.
“Where is that coming from?” Shondra asked.
“Like from the north somewhere. I wonder what it is.”
“It sounded like bombs,” she said as the sounds of the blasts receded.
“Bombs?”
“Yeah, bombs. During a couple of training exercises I got to see some bombs get dropped…and that’s the way they sounded…just like right now.”
Vincent stood on the tips of his toes as he tried to see what had caused the explosions.
“You’re not going to see anything silly, those explosions were miles away.”
“But that means that someone is still around here.”
“Maybe.” Shondra noticed that the gas had stopped flowing. “Okay, this one’s dry.” She closed the lid on the canister and began to pull the hose from the tank.
“You gotta be kidding me,” Vincent said.
“No, I’m serious. Apparently this one only had a little fuel in it. The next car might have more.”
“No, not that. Check it out. Look.”
Shondra looked up and saw Vincent pointing in the direction of the street that ran in front of the station. A beat up news van was slowly driving past them.
“What the hell?” she said.
“Hurry, get your stuff!” Vincent said excitedly. Let’s see if we can catch up to them!”
Shondra picked up one gas canister and Vincent grabbed the other. Running back to the cruiser, they placed the fuel in the trunk and Vincent jumped behind the steering wheel. As they drove through the parking lot they saw that the college zombies had also seen the van. They were ambling into the street as they began to follow the battered vehicle.
“Look, it’s turning to get onto the access for the freeway,” Shondra noted as the van accelerated down the southbound access road of the elevated freeway. “I don’t think they’ve seen us.”
“They’re getting on the freeway,” Vincent said. He picked up his pace and tried to catch up with the vehicle.
The van entered onto the interstate and was greeted with a scene of carnage and destruction. Mangled and burnt out vehicles were scattered over the road and undead were roaming amongst the wrecks. The asphalt around some of the vehicles had been scorched black from the fires—melted and charred frames marking the pyres of the unlucky.
“Try the sirens,” Shondra suggested. Looking over at her, mainly with surprise on his face, Vincent thought about her suggestion for a moment. The dead on the freeway had already seen both vehicles, so making a little noise wasn’t going to hurt anyt
hing.
“Shit, I might as well.” To make sure that the van would notice them, he also flipped on his police lights when he activated his siren.
Startled by the blare behind her, Magda glanced over at the outside mirror and saw a police car right behind her. “What the hell?” she said aloud. She began to slow, but not knowing the intentions of the people in the car, she was uncertain about coming to a complete stop.
Shondra grabbed the public address mic and switched the siren off. “You in the van, pull over. It’s alright, we’re not gonna hurt you.”
“Why would you say that?” Vincent asked as he looked over at Shondra.
“We don’t know what they’ve been through…or who they’ve had to deal with.”
“Guess you’re right,” Vincent sighed.
Not wanting to get trapped up on the freeway, Magda decided to exit onto a surface street and took a lane that would carry her down off of the freeway. As she started to make her way down a ramp that separated away from the main roadway, she came upon a burned up truck—smashed and on its side—and a small vehicle with its front end crunched into the underbelly of the truck. The exit was completely blocked.
“Shit!” Magda yelled as she saw that she could go no further on the ramp. Bringing her vehicle to a stop, she nervously eyed the police car in her mirror.
Stopping his car about 10 feet behind the news van, Vincent and Shondra exited their car and Shondra crossed over to Vincent’s side. Fighting the urge to approach the van as if he was making a traffic stop, he tried keeping his hand away from his holster.
“Hello,” he called as he walked up to the driver door.
Magda looked out of her shattered door window and saw the approaching man. She noticed that he wasn’t wearing a police uniform—well at least not a police uniform shirt—but she did see that he had on dark tactical-looking pants and a gun belt. His dingy brown pullover added to her confusion as to who he was.
“Hi there,” he said as he walked up to the van. When he finally saw who he was talking to, he smiled and chuckled. “Hey, wait a minute…you’re the news reporter.”
“Uh, yeah, that’s me,” she said. “And who are you? Are the both of you cops? You don’t look like it.”
“Oh…yeah, we’re both police officers. I’m sure you can’t tell by the way we’re dressed, but we’re cops.” He looked over at Shondra, half-expecting her to introduce herself to the reporter. When she didn’t, he said, “I’m Vincent and this is Shondra.”
“Hi Vincent, Hi Shondra.” Magda continued to sit in the driver’s seat, not feeling safe enough to get out of the van just yet.”
“Please forgive me for my appearance,” Shondra said as she gestured at the baggy jeans and oversized shirt she was wearing. “Where are you coming from? Were you at a rescue station or anything like that?”
“No, I’ve been on my own. I was at my house until the power went out. That’s when I decided to leave…and try and see if I could find anyone else.”
“Why would you want to leave your house?” Vincent asked. “It wasn’t safe there?”
“No, it really wasn’t. There were a bunch of those things running around in my neighborhood. And they were just busting into peoples’ homes. I know it’s not safe outside either, but at least here I can drive away. In my house, I’d be trapped.”
“Have you seen anyone else out there?” Shondra asked. “Anyone alive?”
“No, just a bunch of those things.” Feeling like she was being interrogated, Magda decided to ask a few questions herself. “And you…what’s your story?” She opened the door and stepped out.
“Well, we escaped from a rescue center…or evacuee center…whatever it is you want to call it,” Vincent said. Without realizing it, he stopped his recollection as he gauged the woman in front of him. He couldn’t help but to notice that the reporter seemed shorter in person—much shorter. He quickly determined that she was all of 5 feet, 3 inches tall.
“Is there something wrong with me?” Magda asked. “You’re staring at me like I’ve got a horn growing out of my forehead.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s just…well, you look a lot taller on T.V.”
“Oh, and I guess I look fatter too, right?”
“No, not at all,” Vincent said with embarrassment. He did notice that she had a very stocky, athletic appearance about her.
“Well, if I look shorter, it’s because I’m not wearing my plats. Anyway, so what happened then?”
“So, we were assigned to protect one of the rescue centers and it got overrun…we barely made it out of there. We had one other person with us, but unfortunately”—he sighed and paused—“he got shot by accident by some Army guys.”
“You saw Army guys?’ Magda queried, not even bothering to inquire about their deceased compatriot.
“Yeah, guys from Dallas…National Guard troops.” Shondra answered. “They said that there were some people still left on Fort Sam and that they were actually working on the disease….trying to figure it out. They were cool enough to leave us some fuel and some rifles.”
“And why didn’t you go with them to the fort?” Magda asked with amazement. “I would have gone with them instead of staying out here.”
“They said that they didn’t have enough supplies at the base to be rescuing people,” Vincent explained. “They said that they only had enough food for the people assigned there. And get this…if things weren’t crazy enough…they also said that the mayor tried to force his way onto the fort, and while doing so, they shot his helicopter out of the sky.”
“The mayor…is he dead?”
“From what it sounds like…yep….he’s dead,” Vincent said.
“That’s why we haven’t ventured over there,” Shondra added. “It sounds like they’re serious about not letting people onto that fort—dead serious. We don’t want to end up like the mayor.”
“Why would they kill the mayor?” Magda asked in disbelief. “That doesn’t make any sense.” After pausing for a moment to think on what Vincent had just told her, she said, “Oh, did you guys hear like a big explosion coming from somewhere up to the north?”
“Yeah, we did,” Vincent said.
“So I guess there are some people left in the city.” Magda looked down at the asphalt and placed her hands on her hips, taking a second to gather her thoughts. After several moments, she looked back up at the two and she asked, “So, what were you planning on doing? Where were you going to?”
“We’ll, we were staying in an office…an architect’s office,” Vincent said. “After the power went out last night, we figured that we couldn’t stay there too much longer, so we decided that we would leave there and try to maybe go south…down Thirty-Five and see what we could find down there.”
“Why south? Why not up north…towards Austin?”
“We had to fight our way out of the architect’s office,” Shondra said to Magda. “There were too many of those things showing up. Seems like if you stay in the city, the chances are high that they’ll show up and surround you…eventually. We figured if we went north towards Austin, we would just be heading into another place where there’s a high population of those things. But if we headed south…well, there aren’t lots of people down there. We could find another place and wait and see if any kind of help comes.”
“I guess that makes sense…kinda,” Magda said with an uncertain tone. “But killing the mayor…now that doesn’t make sense at all.” She was still having a difficult time trying to believe Vincent’s story about the mayor.
“When has anything made any sense since all of this started?” Vincent posed.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” As Magda was about to say something else, she saw several zombies standing at the top of the ramp. She raised up on the tips of her toes to get a better look at them. Her eyes widened with fear and she said, “Shit, looks like they followed us down.”
“See what I mean,” Shondra said. “We never even have time to catch our breat
h before those bastards are on us.”
“Okay, I suggest this…we’ll pile all of our gear into your van,” Vincent said. “I’ll back up the car and clear a path, and the two of you will follow. When we get back up on the freeway, I’ll bail from the car and jump into the van. Sound good?”
Although Magda was concerned about throwing in with two complete strangers, it beat having to survive this on her own. She nodded in agreement. She then turned and ran back to her van, jumping into the driver’s seat. Shondra and Vincent darted over to their car and began to transfer their gear over to Magda’s van.
“Let me stay in the car with you,” Shondra pleaded with Vincent as she loaded the last fuel canister into the news van.
“No, you gotta stay with her. I’ll be just fine. Anyway, what’s to keep her from hauling ass with our stuff if we’re both in the car?”
Noticing that he had placed his rifle in the van, she grabbed it and shoved it towards him. “Then please take your rifle.”
“I’ve got my pistol. Anyway, if anything does happen to me, I don’t want you to be down one rifle down, okay?”
Shondra began to feel frightened—dread filling her with uncertainty. “Come on, let me ride with you,” she begged in a trembling voice. “If she runs off, we can just chase her down.”
Vincent could sense Shondra’s fear. He glanced over his shoulder to look at the approaching reanimated bodies. About a dozen were dangerously close to them and a much larger group was starting to make their way down the ramp. Where the fuck do these things keep coming from? He reached out to her, taking her hands and pulling them into his chest.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you, Vincent,” she sobbed. Her eyes were brimming with tears.
“I promise, nothing is going to happen. I just want you to be safe. Trust me. Now we gotta hurry, they’re getting closer.”
“I don’t think I could make it if something were to happen to you.”
Drawing her closer to him, he said, “Nothing’s going to happen to me. Now hurry and go get into the van. Hurry.” He released her hands and made his way back to the car, racing against the ghouls. He was barely able to shut the door before the first zombie began to slap at his window.
A Glimpse of Decay (Book 3): Lost in Twilight Page 19
