“Okay,” he said finally. “I’m sorry I lost my shit. I’m more mad at myself. Dan’s not himself, and combine that with his natural ability to be a pain in the ass, I should have expected this. I guarantee when we find him, I’m going to kick his ass from one end of this state to the other.”
“Stand in line, dude,” Matt replied. “What are we going to do?”
“What about the cars in the lot across the street?” Rosa asked, squeezing her way into the kitchen. She grabbed a box of granola bars and a few bottles of water. “It’s almost noon, and the kids need to eat.”
“Jesus,” Chris slapped his forehead. “They have to be starving!”
“They were too afraid to ask,” Rosa shot an accusing glance across the room. “Some people have been screaming at each other all morning!” She spun on her heels, and cast Joe an angry look before making her way into the living room.
“Welp,” Joe sighed. “I’m in trouble. But that is a good idea. I can probably hotwire some of those cars out there. Shouldn’t be too hard to get ‘em going.”
“That’s a start,” Chris said. He turned to the stove for his sixth cup of coffee. “By the way, where’s Lexi? I haven’t seen her all morning.”
Matt and Joe sighed, glancing at each other as if trying to decide how to answer.
“She’s in the other apartment standing watch,” Matt said.
“As soon as she found out, that little girl hasn’t taken her eyes from the road. She really loves that man like family,” Joe said.
“He is her family now. We all are,” Chris said, sipping from his steaming cup, his back still turned to everyone. “Besides, I get what she’s going through. He’s been a class A asshole the last few days, but he’s still my brother.”
“So,” Anna said. “What are you thinking? Get as many of those cars started and we all go searching?”
“Absolutely not,” Chris spun to face everyone again. “We have a good idea where he went. Joe and I will head out as soon as he can get one of those cars started. If we find him, we’ll bring him back after a major ass kicking. If we don’t, then we’ll regroup tonight and decide how to proceed tomorrow.”
“Alright,” Joe said, zipping up the front of his heavy coat. “I’ll go out and see what I can do.”
“Be careful,” Chris said. “We haven’t seen any zeds since we got here. It’s odd, and these days odd usually means dangerous.”
“Buddy,” Joe smiled. “Lexi has her eyes on the street. That girl can shave a tick off a rats ass. With her watching my back, I think I’m good.”
“Don’t drop your guard,” Chris warned. “She’s good, but she’s only one person. And she’s got her mind on other things.”
“I know. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”
“I’ll be out in a few to keep you covered,” Chris said, swallowing down the last of his coffee. “I want to check on the kids before I come out.”
“Take your time, buddy. I’ll be fine.”
“I wish I had your confidence,” Matt said.
“Too much confidence can get people killed,” Chris said, staring at both men. “We’ve already lost too many, I don’t want to bury anyone else.”
“Yer right,” Joe exhaled. “I shouldn’t be so flippant.”
“You shouldn’t use big words like that either,” Chris smiled. “It doesn’t sound right coming from you.”
Joe opened his mouth to reply, but said nothing. Instead, he shifted his weight to one side, lifted his leg slightly and let out a fart that sounded like a trumpet blowing under an inch of thick mud.
“That sound better?” Joe smiled as he turned and marched toward the door.
“Joe!” Anna gasped, disgust written across her face.
“Dude!” Matt snapped, drawing his shirt over his nose. “Check your undies for skid marks, man!”
“Controlled demolition my friend,” Joe said, closing the door behind him.
“Hey Rosa,” Chris called through the house. “No more oatmeal for Joe!”
“That was not Joe!” Rosa gasped, walking into the kitchen. She halted mere inches into the room, her eyes growing wide as she started swatting the air away from her nose and cursing in Spanish.
“You’re the one sleeping with the man!” Matt said, his eyes reddening.
“Well,” Rosa smiled, still brushing the rancid air from her face. “I guess everything about Joe is huge!” She winked at Chris before retreating.
Chris shot a look over to Matt, then to Anna, and back to Matt. “On that note,” he started.
“The truck’s back!” Lexi shouted as she burst into the apartment.
“I’m going to kill him!” Chris snapped as he started toward the door.
“No!” Lexi spat. “Something’s wrong! Joe’s pointing his gun at the truck!”
Chris locked his jaw as his heart began to race. He grabbed the Smith and Wesson rifle Dan had left behind, quickly checking the magazine as the others watched him and waited.
“Lexi,” he ordered, his voice cold as steel. “Get to the window and cover us. If I nod at you, you light that truck up like it’s the goddamn Chinese fucking New Year. Got it?”
“If Dan’s in the truck—” Lexi trailed off.
“Joe’s pointing his gun at my truck,” Chris snapped as he started down the stairs. “Dan’s not in there and I’m going to find out why! Matt, watch the stairs. Anyone but me or Joe come back up–”
“They won’t,” Matt interrupted, hefting the Saiga semi-automatic shotgun.
“Get everyone armed,” Chris said as he flew down the stairs and out into the late morning sun.
**********
Joe stood stark still, his Desert Eagle pointed directly at the pickup’s windshield. The bright sunlight reflected off the glass, blocking Chris’ view of those inside. Flakes of snow carried on the wind hit him in the face, but did little to quell his burning anger.
The engine cut off, the still silence of the winter morning overtaking the otherwise deserted street. Chris trained his rifle on the driver while side stepping until he had a clear view inside the cabin.
A man he did not recognize sat behind the wheel, his hat and scarf partially obscuring his face. His eyes followed Chris defiantly, but his hands never left the wheel. A woman sat next to him, her hands raised into the air. She also wore a black wool hat, with a scarf wrapped around her face. Her reddened eyes moistened, fear dancing across them. Between the two of them sat their weapons, out in the open as if placed to be seen.
“I’m not here to cause trouble,” the man said, his voice muffled by the thick scarf.
“I don’t give a damn what you’re here for,” Chris shouted, gripping his rifle tightly. “I want to know why you are in my truck without my brother!”
“We’re here to tell you what we know,” the man replied, his hands tightening on the wheel. “But I’d appreciate it if you and your friend lower your weapons first. We’re not here to do any harm.”
“Our weapons are right where they need to be!” Chris spat. “You don’t have the luxury of deciding how our talk is going to go. I am not in the mood for a chit chat. If I don’t hear something in the next thirty seconds that keeps my finger off this trigger, someone in there is going to have a really bad day!”
“If you kill us, you’ll never find out anything. Please, be reasonable!”
“This is as reasonable as I’m going to get!” Chris shouted, his body trembling with rage. “I only need one of you alive to talk!”
“Buddy,” Joe cut in. “Dial it back a bit. Let’s hear what they have to say.”
“Twenty seconds.” Chris leveled his sights directly between the man’s eyes. “Don’t toy with me.”
“Please!” the woman pleaded. “We came here to help!”
“Ten seconds,” Chris leveled his voice, his finger slipping into the trigger guard.
“There was an accident!” the woman cried out. “The truck spun out and the man driving was hurt. But the others ca
me and took him.”
“What others?” Chris demanded, his finger moving away from the trigger.
“We don’t know,” the man answered, his voice low and angry. “But we’ve seen them before.”
“Chris,” Joe called from behind the truck. “She’s telling the truth about the accident. Looks like one of the snow chains came off and chewed up the back end. She’s dented from tailgate to door. This was a bad one.”
“Who took my brother?!” Chris shouted, his voice still shaking. He swallowed hard as moisture stung his eyes and blurred his vision. “Was he…alive?”
“He was when we saw him,” the woman replied. “But he was in really bad shape.”
“We found our way here using some directions we found inside the truck. I don’t know if it means anything, but there’s something about driving past a tap-dancing zombie singing show tunes,” the man said.
“Definitely Dan,” Joe said.
“You’re going to tell us everything,” Chris said, lowering his weapon slightly. “Right down to the first time you saw these other people. I want to know everything. Don’t lie to me or I promise you that you won’t live to regret it.”
“Look,” the man said. “I get that this wasn’t the best way to meet, but we have nothing but friendly intentions. So just hear me out. My name’s Eric, and this is my wife Linda. We were on our way to her family in Canada when we stopped to try to find some food. We saw a deer and went off to try and get some fresh meat. Never did see it again.”
“Is there a point to this story?” Chris said impatiently.
“Let me finish,” Eric said. “We got back to the road in time to see this big wrecker sitting next to our car. You know, one of those big state ones. We got this bad feeling about the two guys looking through our car, so we hid in the woods and watched them. They hitched up our car and they disappeared. We thought that was the last time we would see them.”
“A few days later,” Linda chimed in. “We saw a different truck, it said IDOT on the side.”
“Wait,” Joe interrupted. “IDOT. As in Illinois Department of Transportation? They’re a long way off if they’re out here.”
“That’s what we thought too,” she replied. “But the next time we saw them, they were dragging this poor old man to their truck. It looked like one of the guys injected him with something and the old man went limp. They threw him into that truck and disappeared.”
“How did you avoid them?” Chris asked, lowering his rifle.
“By sticking to the woods,” Eric said. “Stopping at a house here and there, but never too long. We were hoping to find some kind of car and get the hell out of here. But no real luck.”
“I have to tell you, that one’s a bit hard to swallow there friend,” Joe said, holstering his pistol. “Since those black-eyed monsters showed up, those woods are deadly.”
“Black-eyes?” Eric asked.
“Oh man, are you behind on current events.” Joe smiled.
“Okay, enough,” Chris ordered. “For right now, I’m going to believe you. Only because I really have no choice. You will not bring your weapons outside that truck, and you will be frisked before you’re allowed in the building. You’re going to tell me every last detail you know, right down to the color of their underwear. I’ll warn you though, we’ve lost some people very recently. One of those people was because I let someone in that I shouldn’t have. Don’t make me regret this, or I promise you that you will beg to be hog tied to a zed by the time I’m done with you.”
“I promise you, we are here to help in any way we can,” Eric said, stepping out of the truck. “But honestly, as soon as we’re able I want to be back on the road and out of here. Something about those people scares me to the core, and I don’t want to be around to find out why.”
“You help us and you can take your pick of any of those vehicles across the street. Joe will get one going for you.”
“Sounds like we have a deal,” Eric said.
“Lexi,” Chris shouted, not taking his eyes off the stranger. “Stand down. They’re coming up.”
“Are you sure?” she called back.
“No, but I think they know the consequences well enough if they step out of line. Tell Anna to come down, we have someone who needs a bite check.”
“I’ll tell her,” she called back.
“I didn’t even see her up there!” Eric gasped.
“Yeah,” Chris sighed. “She’s good at that.”
“Can she shoot as good as she hides?”
“Trust me,” Joe said. “You don’t want to see what happened to the last guy that hurt someone she cares about.”
“I know we just met and all,” Eric started. “But once this frisking business is over with, please tell me you have coffee in there.”
“What’s the point of surviving the apocalypse without it?” Joe replied.
“I like you guys already!” Eric laughed. “So, what’s with this black-eyes thing you were talking about?”
“We can get into that once everyone’s inside,” Chris said, scanning the street for any movement. “I want to get out of sight for a while. We’ve made too much noise as it is.”
“I haven’t seen anything to worry about,” Joe chimed in. “Nothing out here but ice and snow.”
“Come to think of it, we didn’t see any zombies on the way here either,” Linda said. “It’s kind of weird.”
“Weird is the name of the game these days,” Chris said. “But right now I need to find my brother. Everything else can–”
Anna burst out the door, interrupting Chris mid sentence. She ran out into the snow, wearing only her jeans and a sweater. Her face beamed, a smile stretching as far as it could with tears streaming down her red cheeks.
“Chris!” She shouted. She waved what appeared to be his phone in her hand as she closed the distance between them. “Chris!” she repeated breathlessly.
“Anna?” Chris replied with confusion. “What’s wrong? Why do you have that thing? It’s useless.”
“I had it on the charger in the bus!” she said excitedly. “I charged it and it works!”
“Well, yeah,” Chris replied, shooting Joe a what the hell look. “It will power on, but there’s no service.”
“Look!” she almost screamed, shoving the screen to his face.
His eyes widened, his heart quickening as he looked at the screen. The rifle dropped from his hands, swinging free from the strap over his shoulder. He took the phone, shaking his head as his eyes began to overflow.
“You alright, buddy?” Joe asked as he stepped closer to his friend.
“Is something wrong?” Eric asked, looking over to Linda. She shrugged and turned her attention back to Chris.
Chris ignored them all, silently reading and rereading the weeks of messages scrawling across the small LCD screen. His hands shook as he swiped through every one again and again, each time feeling an overpowering happiness when he saw the most recent message had been sent within the last few days.
“Are you shitting me?!” Joe laughed as came up behind Chris and read over his shoulder. “Hell yeah!” he cheered, throwing his arms around Chris in a huge bear hug.
Chris couldn’t speak, even after Joe released his lung crushing hug. Chris smiled, trying not to allow his emotions to overwhelm him as he tapped out a message on a phone he never thought he would find use for again.
Jason?
Chapter 27
The hangover crept across Jason’s brain. A pressure built behind his eyes as the dull thud of a well earned headache began beating its way through the inside of his skull. He pushed the cheap plastic chair backwards and away from the desk, resting his head against the cool white wall of the tiny office he had retreated into.
He stared at the wall across the office, his eyes tracing the halo a surprisingly ornate desk lamp cast on the dingy paint. A long crack cut a path across the wall from one corner of the floor to the opposing corner on the cheap drop ceiling. The room was dea
thly still, the silence broken by the refrigeration motors as they clicked on and off mixing with the low buzz of the single hallway light just beyond the locked office door.
Jason closed his eyes and tried his best to quiet the jazz band in his head. He hoped the sleep he needed so desperately would take him to blissful unconsciousness, if only for a few short minutes.
Despite the near crippling exhaustion gripping his body, he could not find sleep. The conversation with Murphy played over and over in his mind.
He’d leveled the pistol at Murphy’s head. The faces of every undead man, woman, and child he’d put down at Pendleton flashed through his mind as his finger drew back the trigger. He wanted to kill Murphy for every person that had died since that first night.
The trigger clicked, the firing pin snapped forward, and in a flash of superheated gas and burning gunpowder, the bullet slammed into the wall beside Murphy’s head.
Murphy simply stared at nothing, the torture in his eyes as easy to read as a neon sign in a dark cave. He didn’t flinch when the bullet sizzled past his right ear, nor show any emotion at all when Jason pressed the hot muzzle of his Beretta against his forehead.
Titan lay on the floor where Murphy had ordered him to stay. His teeth bared at Jason, a terrifying growl erupting from deep within the animal’s chest. With a single word from Murphy, the dog would kill Jason where he stood.
Yet Murphy did nothing. He sat still, his eyes staring out through the windows and into the darkness beyond. Jason pressed his weapon harder against the man’s forehead, wanting and needing him to react.
Murphy closed his eyes, and smiled.
At that moment, Jason realized why Murphy told him everything. He looked into the face of a man who had lost not only his own family, but set off a chain of events that ushered in the deaths of millions of people across the globe. He was a man carrying a crushing guilt like no one else in history had been forced to carry.
He was a man who wanted to die.
Jason’s rage ebbed as his rational mind started to process the truth. Murphy had no way of knowing what he was doing. He was a pawn, used by the very people who’d created the infection.
This Dying World (Book 2): Abandon All Hope Page 27
