The Rotting Souls Series (Book 1): Charon's Blight [Day One]

by Ray, Timothy A.

  Two more leapt at them but came up short, falling face first on the asphalt behind them. Her heart pounded in her chest and her hands gripped the dashboard tightly. One hand absentmindedly adjusted her glasses, returning her sight, and relief began to flood through her.

  The mob was falling behind.

  Randall was checking on Jesus, his weapon ready to take another swing if needed. She heard Jeff gasp and returned her attention to the road ahead. Two more zombies had come around the other side of the building and were heading straight for them.

  She flinched as the zombies impacted the front of the truck, making it buck again. The undead corpses flew overhead and the roof crumpled as they bounced off it. The windshield was cracked, but the engine was running and they were still making their way forward. The momentum of the bodies must have lessened the damage to the truck.

  “Get us out of here!” she screamed.

  “What the fuck do you think I’m doing?” he snapped. “Look for cars, dammit!”

  They cleared the Mexican restaurant and she finally had an unobstructed view of the path ahead. For the moment, they were clear; no cars, no zombies. Thank God for small favors. “It’s clear!”

  He grunted in response and jerked the wheel to the right. She stifled a scream as the two right tires lifted off the ground, and for a moment she was sure that they were going to tip over. She turned and saw Randall gripping the side of the truck to keep from sliding, throwing his weight against the tilt in an attempt to force it back down—it helped. The truck slammed against the road and bounced, then finally stabilized.

  She let out a sigh of relief.

  Her blood pressure increased as she watched a herd of zombies streaming in their direction from the store’s parking lot. Some of them had to have been following the sound of their truck, because they were closing in fast. Jeff was trying to push the truck faster, but after taking that turn, it was taking a moment to regain traction.

  The side-view mirror broke off as a zombie flung itself at them, its claws scraping at the window. The face staring at her; the flesh torn free, the eyes blazing, was that of her former boss.

  As the truck broke free and rushed down the street, she began to scream. Even when Jeff assured her they were finally clear, that face continued to stare at her, her mind refusing to let go. She kept screaming, her hands on her head pulling at her hair. The vomit forced its way up and she dry heaved on the truck’s floorboards.

  She could hear Jeff trying to reassure her but she would have none of it. Those eyes continued to haunt her as they journeyed east and away from the horrors to their rear. A shiver ran through her body and a dread began to settle within; they were all going to die today.

  Chapter 18

  Settling in

  Todd

  Compound 2

  “I’d ask if everything was all right, but I don’t think I want to know the answer,” Monica commented, as he walked back into their bedroom. Each of the families had similar size rooms and layouts, almost like an underground apartment complex.

  Even Casey had four bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room—they had to plan ahead. Casey might actually find a girl to bring home someday. Though, the thought of him procreating turned his stomach. One Casey was enough, but three? His wife saw the smile and he only shook his head. Their rooms weren’t large, but they were comfortable; the benefits of being on the design team. Their bags were thrown on the queen size bed, and he knew it’d take some adjusting after being on a California King for the last five years.

  Their quarters were fully furnished and decorated, something that Sean insisted on doing for each of them to try to make them feel at home. A light always had to be on, but it was low wattage to keep the power drain to a minimum. The solar panels could only provide so much before the generators would kick on; and that would drain the exhaustible fuel supply they had.

  He was glad that a gas line had been hooked up to that first compound because he’d hate to have to lug it back and forth every day. When the time came, they’d probably find plenty of gas out there unused, but that made his mind turn to those images on the monitors. He gritted his teeth, shook his head, and tried to banish them from his mind.

  They went, but he knew it wouldn’t be long before they returned.

  He stood there admiring his beautiful wife. They had gotten out of the suits almost immediately upon arriving and had changed back into their normal clothing. She was wearing a canary yellow tank top and blue jeans, her hair pulled back in a medium length pony tail. She’d probably have to cut that soon; his aching heart thought. She was gorgeous and the long hair complimented her looks well. But it was also an easy thing to grab from behind and if a zombie got a hand on it—he shivered at the thought. In the zombie apocalypse, the less there was to grab, the safer you were.

  “I think we lost Linda and Jackie, and Mark is missing,” he told her. He watched as she paused to shift her gaze his way. Her eyes spoke volumes and he knew in his soul exactly what she was thinking. It could have been them.

  He went to her and they embraced. “What happened?”

  He held her close for a moment, not wanting to answer. “We don’t know. Ben says they never left the school Linda worked at. They never made it out of there.”

  “Oh man,” his wife responded, her hand stroking the back of his head. “And the others?”

  “Mark is missing, but the others are on their way,” he told her, still unable to let her go.

  She pulled herself free but kept her arms on his shoulders. “Mark too? What the hell is going on? Are any of them going to make it?” She spoke straight from his heart, as she often did after nearly decades of being together. He didn’t need to answer her, the look on his face told her enough. She dropped her arms and went back to unpacking their clothes. He could tell without looking that she was crying and trying to hide it. “What did any of this matter?” she asked, her arms thrown up in the air. “What good is it to plan if it’s all for nothing, if they still die out there?”

  “What would you have had us do? Nothing? Then we’d be dead as well,” he spoke crossly, his feelings of loss making him angry inside. “They chose to remain in their home cities; they chose not to move closer.”

  She shook her head, her ponytail swishing; he’d really miss that. “Would we have moved? Could we just up and leave our families; our parents? Would you have left Sam behind in Tucson and move out here to the sticks?”

  Even though he knew that he couldn’t have done that, he still felt like it was the logical thing to do. California was one of the most populated regions of their country. What were Linda and Jackie thinking? Earthquakes alone kept him out of there. With all the shit going on in the world, it had never occurred to them they might be living in ground zero? They had all discussed this and they all knew the risk, but none of them had felt the need to move their homes.

  Each had felt secure enough in their belief that none of this shit was ever going to happen.

  “You know the answer to that. Look, there’s nothing we can do but wait and help when we can,” he told her, summing up what he figured would be a very long week. She had begun to pile their clothes into the lone dresser and he felt naked without the rest of the stuff they had collected through the years. He knew none his movies got packed and he was suddenly glad he had backed up his computer files on the desktop in the living room. There were some video files on there at least. Even as his mind went there; he couldn’t believe he was worried about that with so much shit going on.

  He sighed and tried to clear his head. “Did the kids get anything to eat yet?” he asked, trying to change the subject. “How’s Sam settling in? I’m sure her kids are freaking out.”

  His wife cracked a smile and wiped the tears from her face. “If there’s one place they could find in the pitch dark with no directions; it’s the kitchen. I haven’t seen Sam since we got down here. I’m assuming she’s finding everything all right, she hasn’t coming knocking.”

&n
bsp; As if summoned, there was a knock on the door and he turned expecting Sam to be standing there, only to find Lucy instead. She was in her late fifties with short gray hair, her green eyes peering at them through her bifocals. Her face was round, and though she was a bit heavy, it looked good on a woman of her age. She had been the mother of the group since the beginning and everyone loved her. “Just wanted to check in and see how you guys were holding up.”

  “Just settling in,” his wife responded. “We don’t have much to unpack.”

  Lucy nodded. “Yeah, there was hardly any warning at all. Everything just hit at once and before I knew it, Ben was sending out mass text and typing furiously on that keyboard of his. Is it bad out there?”

  “You mean you haven’t gone to see Ben?” he asked, surprised. He figured all of them would have been trying to keep up on what was going on. It was horrific to watch, but the future of Mankind was being decided out there; they couldn’t afford to be ignorant of it.

  The older lady shook her head. “Not sure I’m ready for that yet. The very thought breaks my heart. So much death, it’s too much for me to handle.”

  He wanted to sympathize with her. It was still hitting him in the gut every time he thought of it but he couldn’t not look; he couldn’t not know. He had loved ones out there and he had to think they were okay, that they’d make it, or he’d go crazy. Why hadn’t his parents picked up their phones? Why had his sister ignored his text? The damn thing said she had “seen” them, so why the fuck hadn’t she answered?

  He wasn’t a Christian, so he couldn’t believe he’d see them again in an afterlife. He did believe they’d meet again in another life; he just wasn’t ready to give up on this one quite yet. He didn’t think there was some all mighty being out there watching all of this; he couldn’t believe that.

  There was no divine plan, because if there was, this was one fucked up part of the grand scheme and he wanted no part of it. If a deity had set this shit loose, he’d spend the rest of his life praying he’d get a chance to get revenge on the bastard for all those that were out there dying today. No benevolent God would be so cruel.

  They were silent for a moment, the unspoken thoughts weighing heavy upon them. Lucy finally sighed and said “I will leave you to it then. I’m going to go next door and see how Sam is settling in. You can hear her kids down the hall, she’s going to have her hands full.” Her voice was cracking and he knew that she was excusing herself before she broke down in front of them.

  He thought he heard her sob as she left their quarters. His heart wanted to go out to her, but her family was safe while all their friends and family were out there dying. He went to his wife, who he had seen begun to tear up, and knew that she had to be thinking of her own mother. He put his arms around her and held her close. He hated this. Someone is going to pay, he vowed silently.

  “Mom? Can we go check on the dogs?” Caleb asked from the living room. They had bred and trained German Shepherds for the last two years. They were reliable, loyal, and most importantly, they’d only bark on command. That last had been a deal-breaker when deciding if they should try and breed them here. The walls of the main building were sound proof; the land around it was not. They didn’t want unwanted attention drawn their way without cause; not if it could be prevented.

  Monica broke away, wiping her face, then turned her head towards the living room and told them, “sure, go ahead. Go next door first though, see if any of the other kids want to go with.”

  She had tried to clear her voice, but it was still evident to a trained ear that she was upset. She looked to him for confirmation that the kids would be all right out there and he simply nodded. For the moment, things were quiet in their part of the woods.

  All things being equal; he hoped it stayed that way.

  “It’s okay, we’re safe,” he said, more for his benefit than hers.

  “We may be, but what about everyone else?” she asked.

  “Todd?” he heard Sam call from the living room and Monica smiled, shaking her head.

  Go, she mouthed, pushing his shoulder and turning to the open bags littering the bed. “I’ve got this.”

  He gave her one last hug, then went to go find out what Sam needed. He should have found a way to just get them all to bunk together, maybe he’d have to take a wall out once they knew for sure there was no going home. That was a worry for another day though, there was way too much going on right now to be concerned with something like that.

  “What’s up Babes?” he asked, as he went towards his other wife, trying to look calm while his insides cringed at the horrid mental images that refused to depart his mind.

  Chapter 19

  Stall

  Saint

  Tucson, AZ

  They’d only been driving for five minutes when the truck had begun to show signs of trouble. The engine ran like it was not getting enough gas and as they turned onto Mission, it began to lurch in sporadic moments, causing her already upset stomach to turn. There was nothing but desert to either side, the Palo Verdes obstructing their view of the terrain around them. Anything could be hiding in the darkness. She shivered at the thought of poor David and his transformation into that drooling cannibalistic monster.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked her boyfriend, not knowing much about cars, relying on the fact that he was a guy and should know all this shit automatically.

  He’d been quiet since their confrontation at the store. His eyes were riveted on the road with his mouth firmly set and concentration undeterred by her efforts to get his attention. “How the fuck should I know? This is Randall’s piece of shit, he’d know better than I do,” he replied angrily. They had just barely escaped hell and now their escape vehicle was failing them. Would they ever catch a break? If this kept on, they’d have to find a replacement.

  Part of her wanted them to go back and get her car. Surely, with the food source gone, those creatures had moved on. They could go up Drexel to Cardinal and circle around behind the store, come at it from the west. It felt wrong to leave a perfectly running vehicle back there while traveling in a junk heap like this one. Not to mention the little bit of personal items she had been able to pack, she didn’t even have an extra-shirt to replace the gore-covered one she was wearing.

  She sighed, it was a pipe dream; there was no way she was going to be able to convince them to go to the one place they were sure these monsters were; she’d have to go alone and on foot. Even though they hadn’t traveled far, she winced at the thought of walking back there alone; she’d just have to suck it up and move on.

  Although they lived on the southern fringes of the city, it had not kept this shit from descending on them quickly. It had to be everywhere. How would they cross the southern-half of Tucson safely? It seemed impossible after everything that had happened so far. If it was that bad here, how bad would it be as they pushed through the more populated areas of the sprawling city? She couldn’t let herself think on it or she’d end up throwing in the towel to face the inevitable. She wouldn’t allow that to happen; she was not a quitter. If those things wanted her, they’d have a hell of a fight on their hands.

  The truck surged violently, then sputtered and died. Jeff was struggling to keep them on the road as they began to coast along the deserted roadway. Her boyfriend growled, slamming his fist against the wheel. A weak honk escaping from the hood of the truck. “Shit!” he exclaimed, rushing his hand through his hair, his cap lying forgotten on the floorboards below.

  She glanced out the rear window and saw that Jesus was sitting up, a hand tentatively feeling the back of his head where he’d been hit. Randall had given her a thumbs up gesture after his initial inspection and she knew that the wound was superficial; he’d be fine. Randall was climbing to his feet and the truck bucked as he hopped off the tailgate. Jesus was slowly making his way forward as her hand grasped the door handle and yanked it open.

  She got out and left her boyfriend sitting in the driver seat staring into the night thr
ough the cracked windshield. “It’s dead and we can’t stay here,” she told him, grabbing one of the bags she had managed to bring along and slammed the door.

  She met the other two at the back, watching as her defeated boyfriend finally climbed out of the vehicle and trudged his way to her side. She hated the weakness he was displaying, it did not help her confidence level at all. She wanted to slug him, to wake him the fuck up. They weren’t dead yet and he was acting like they were pigs on a serving platter with apples thrust in their mouths.

  “Your truck really is a piece of shit,” she said, giving the larger Hispanic a dirty look.

  The big guy grinned and shrugged. “The beast got us out of there, that’s what matters.”

  “Well, your beast has been slain. Now what do we do?” she asked the group, hoping that somebody else had a brilliant idea on what came next.

  “We find another car,” Jeff said in a deflated tone; his face downcast. The feeble light given off by the setting sun was still enough to show that he wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes as he shouldered his way past to start the trek down the lonely deserted road.

  Jesus was holding his head, eyes frightened, his mouth grimacing with pain every time he rubbed it in the wrong place. “You need to stop doing that,” she told him. “Why make it feel worse?”

  “It helps remind me that this is real and not some disturbing ass nightmare,” he replied softly, his gaze falling upon her. “I need to get home.” He said as if it was the only thing repeating through that injured brain of his; like a mantra that kept him moving. Would it be any different for her if she was in his place?

  She envied him in that moment as she glanced at her departing, slump shouldered boyfriend. Sighing, she followed after, the two other men walking on either side. She hoped they’d find another car soon; there was no way they’d get out of town on foot. If they were faced with walking out of town, she would rather find a place to hunker down and wait it out. Suddenly being a criminal and knowing how to boost cars seemed like an admirable trait to being a law-biding citizen. How had they gained the edge in this world gone mad?