Stage 6 (Book 1)

by Dylan James

  Then we heard screams in the distance, and I stood up and said, “That could be the others! We have to get out there!”

  I expected Steve to argue but he simply said, “I agree. Take this.”

  He tossed me a flashlight and some tape. This guy was like a walking survival armory. I taped the flashlight to my shotgun, stood next to the door and unlocked it. Ian took Victoria from Steve, and Steve stood right behind me, pistol at the ready.

  I took a deep breath and suddenly threw open the door to see a terrifying sight. The town was overrun with animals! A bird lay on the ground near the cracked window, some of its feathers stuck in the glass and barely twitching. Cats and dogs and horses and all manner of animals streaked through the roads attacking each other and howling and yelping. It was a truly horrifying experience, because since it was pitch black outside we could only see where my flashlight was pointed. We caught only glimpses of how bad it was out there. I looked to the side, to see the door to the girl’s room still closed and seemingly secure. I closed the door and locked it.

  I turned around and said, “We have to get out of here, NOW. There’s animals who I can only assume are Infected running in the streets, probably more birds like yesterday flying in the skies, and all this noise will surely bring more Infected. We have no choice, either we leave immediately, or we will get trapped here just like back in Austin.”

  Ian shuddered, and I couldn’t blame him. It was only a short time ago his own mother had trapped him in a small room, trying to eat him.

  Kevin spoke up angrily, “Then let’s go now! If we just make a run for it we can get to the car, and ...”

  I cut him off, “And then what Kevin? We don’t have enough gas to get anywhere. We’d just get stuck out there somewhere.”

  He retorted, “Doesn’t that Alex guy have some gas? Let’s just to take it from him while all this pandemonium is going on. Then we GTFO and we’re all good.”

  I was about to reply with a biting comment when I realized he had a point. Alex and his gas were really the only option we had. Either that or stay here and get trapped, and there’s no way I was going to go through that mental torture again.

  I made the decision, and said, “Alright, pack everything up as fast as you can. We’re going to go to their room next door, gather them and decide what to do from there.”

  Ian and Steve started packing, while George stood looking kind of shocked in the corner. He started to gather his blanket and pillow, and I moved to tell him that wouldn’t be needed when I stopped. He’s just a kid; let him take his stuff with him.

  Kevin approached me and asked, “Jack man, can I have my gun?”

  I whistled through my teeth and looked over at Steve to see if he heard. Steve had, and grinned and shook his head a little, taking the coward’s way out and letting me give the explanation.

  I replied, “Kevin, if you prove yourself today then maybe we’ll trust you. But we can’t have you going around with a gun after what you’ve done.”

  Surprisingly, Kevin nodded and said, “Alright then, I’ll hold you too that.”

  I grabbed my shotgun and peered out the window. There was still totally mayhem out there, and I regretted this situation. These poor people had never even heard of the Infection before and now it was on their doorstep with a vengeance. I turned around to see all of us ready, Steve had Victoria in the crook of one of his massive arms, and his pistol in the other while his backpack stuffed full of supplies was slung over his back. Kevin was jumping up and down, preparing himself. George was standing in the back, with his pillow in his hands and blanket wrapped around him.

  I looked around at each of them and asked, “You guys ready? Let’s go.”

  I opened the door and holstered my shotgun instantly pointing at any threat. I moved quickly and in a few long strides I reached the girls’ door and slammed on it a few times yelling, “It’s Jack, open up!”

  There were a few excited noises and I could hear my mom yelling for somebody to unlock the door. It seemed that Lucy’s fingers were shaking so bad she was having trouble unlocking the door.

  I heard Steve shout, “Watch out” and I spun to see what slightly resembled a house cat racing towards me at full speed. Knowing there was no way I’d be able to hit it with a shot gun I dove out of the way. It jumped and slashed into the door where I just was, and then hit the ground looking for me. I rolled and got up to see it about to spring towards me when two things happened at the same time: the door opened and Lucy’s face appeared looking flustered, and a bullet from Steve’s pistol slammed into the creature instantly killing it within two feet of Lucy’s feet. Hunter barked ferociously at the creature, and bared his teeth at it. Lucy screamed and hurled herself backwards while we quickly piled into the motel room and shut the door. I could instantly see they had been awake for a while, as everything was organized neat and ready to go.

  I looked around and allowed myself a quick smile, “Nice job guys!”

  Then I got down to business. I tore a wall paper off the wall, flipped it over to the blank side and grabbed a pen off the coffee table. I drew a big circle and labeled it ‘Town.’ Then I quickly drew a few buildings for the others to get a relative sense of what I was talking about, and then drew the motel and Alex’s house.

  I said, “Ok we are here,” gesturing to the crudely drawn motel, “and we need to GET here,” pointing to Alex’s house. I drew a bunch of random things all around the town, roads, and buildings and motioned to them while saying, “Now these are all the things that will be trying to kill us. Here’s what I propose, we have enough gas to get to Alex’s house right?”

  Everybody nodded and exclaimed together, “Right!”

  I continued, “So let’s all quickly move into the car while those of us with guns watch out for anything dangerous. Also, everybody needs to keep watch from the skies because those birds have gone freaking crazy. So we get into the car, and drive straight to Alex’s house.”

  My mom stared straight at me as she asked the group, “And then what?”

  I ignored her, and said, “Once we’re there, we’ll get the gas and get the heck out of here ok? I’m not sure where. Maybe we can try and get out of the Texas quarantine? Anywhere is better than here.”

  There were murmurs of agreement as we heard the sounds of war in the streets. I motioned everybody to the door, and there was some shuffling as things were traded off and guns and weapons were prepared. There was a moment of silence, as we all made our mental preparations for what lay out there.

  Then I said, “Alright. Let’s go.”

  I opened the door and moved out quickly, swiveling my gun back and forth pointing towards the streets. Ian had the keys and bolted to the driver’s seat while my Mom ushered everybody into the car. In about twenty seconds we had everything and everybody loaded into the car, as efficient as any military operation I could imagine. Without incident, I hopped in the passenger door and had a grim thought to myself about calling shotgun. Ian turned the car off and we quickly backed up and headed towards the road.

  Ian flicked on the headlights to see a battlefield in front of us. Animals were sprinting around in the streets fighting not just each other but anything that looked edible. Since in my experiences I had never seen Infected try and attack each other, I assumed that most of the animals were actually not Infected and that only a small % of them were. But those small percentage that were Infected were trying to eat the normal animals and from what I could see that wasn’t going over too well.

  Ian slowly pulled out into the road and turned left, heading towards Alex’s house. The animals weren’t bothering us when we were closed up in the car, thankfully and we all nervously held our breaths as we powered through the turmoil. About fifty feet on, we suddenly saw a group of people with some lights among them, standing in front of a house.

  Shocked that anybody would be out amid all this, I told Ian to pull over near them and I stepped out of the car and asked them, “What’s going on? What’s
happening?”

  They ignored me, crowding around something on the ground, but one recognized me and I knew him as Bob from Joe’s house the day before. He saw me and walked over to shake my hand. I greeted him and repeated my question, “What’s going on?”

  Dimly I heard another car door open, and saw George step out of it from the corner of my eye. I turned and yelled as George suddenly began to sprint in the opposite direction.

  Confused I took a few steps after him when he yelled, “No! I’m not leaving my home!” Hunter jumped out of the car and ran after him, barking madly. They both disappeared into the darkness quickly, to my shock, and Bob completely ignored this most recent predicament. I began to run after Hunter, when I suddenly realized it was hopeless. Hopefully he would be ok with George.

  Bob replied to my previous question slowly, obviously still not sure what was going on, “It’s... Not explainable. You were here yesterday, you saw Joe. He was barely able to move, and some of us were wondering if he’d even recover. Well that scream you may have heard a while back which brought us out here to see this,” he waved his hand at the animals in the streets as he said ‘this.’

  He continued, “We came out and heard a bunch of screams and ruckus from Joe’s house, so naturally we came over to help. But just as we came to the door to see what was going on, Carey, Joe’s wife, came running out and slamming the door behind her, sobbing! We asked her what had happened, and she told us that she had heard some noise while sleeping so had gone up to check on Joe, and that’s when. He attacked her! She says he tried to kill her! So she screamed and ran around the house for a bit before running out here with us and collapsing shortly afterwards. We would have dismissed this, or even gone outside but as you can see...” he gestured towards the door where for the first time I saw what some of the people were staring at.

  The outline of a man inside the house was repeatedly slamming into the front door, splintering it and trying to get out. Bob continued, “Nobody wants to go in there with Joe in this state of mind and Carey isn’t much help either.” With a sinking feeling I pushed my way into the circle around Carey and gazed down to see her bleeding in multiple places from scratches and bites.

  Horrified I backed up, and ran towards the car as Bob called after me, “Hey! Where are you going??”

  I jumped in the car and feeling revolted, I simply said, “Joe was Infected we were right. He got Sally, and they don’t know what’s happening. If we stay here much longer the whole town will be overrun.” I looked at Ian and told him to go.

  My mom spoke up, “Hey, if she’s Infected we need to warn them! She’ll kill them!”

  I turned around and faced my mom and yelled, “They won’t listen! We tried to explain to Alex yesterday and he thought we were crazy!”

  She raised her voice and replied, “Well, yesterday, he didn’t have animals fighting each other in the streets and husbands trying to eat their wives! They’ll understand if we just tell them! And what about George, what do we do about him? What about Hunter!?”

  Ian began to stop the car and I ushered him on and said to everybody in the car, “We don’t have time! We need to get out of here now! George made his decision, we can’t spend time looking for him. And Hunter... Well we don’t have time.”

  As I spoke we heard another bird screech and a person cry out behind us. Grimly I turned back in my seat and said, “We don’t have time. It’s already begun, this town is doomed. Let’s get to Alex quick.”

  Ian hesitatingly started moving the car forward again and the whole car was quiet for a moment. We pulled down the long dirt road towards Alex’s house, and almost as soon as we did we could hear the fighting sounds increase greatly. Screams, human screams began to sound out and shouts as people began to realize something was not right. The one thing first and foremost on all of our minds at that moment, was the thought that Joe must have just gotten out of the house. They weren’t prepared to deal with this. A flicker of doubt crossed my mind as I wondered if I had made the right decision to leave them, to not look for George, but I pushed it away. All that mattered was our survival. Ian stopped the car and I got out. Steve handed Victoria to Lucy, who was becoming used to the routine of baby-sitting by now. Steve and I jogged quickly up the steps to the door, and I took a deep breath and knocked.

  Sounds of someone scrambling inside came, and a voice cautiously said, “What do you want? I warn you, I’m armed!”

  I sighed and said, “Look, Alex, it’s me, Jack, we came by to get gas yesterday?”

  The door remained motionless and he didn’t speak for a moment, and then, “What do you want?”

  I opened my mouth to answer when suddenly I heard Ian shout out, “Jack there’s more of them! The commotion must have drawn the Infected from nearby!”

  I turned to see that they had turned the car around and the lights were pointing towards the town, illuminating a horde of Infected running amid the streets and houses ravaging anything they could find.

  Angrily I screamed, “Turn the damn lights off it will bring them over here!” I turned back to the door and hurriedly said, “Look Alex, we weren’t lying yesterday! The Infected are HERE, in this town! That’s what all the noise is about! And we need your gas NOW! You can come with us if you want but we have to leave!”

  There was a horrifyingly still silence for a few seconds, and then the door opened and Alex looked into my face and said, “I’ll let you explain yourselves again but I’m not promising anything.”

  We walked inside and he led us into the same room as the previous day, where I didn’t bother to sit and immediately said, “Where’s the gas Alex?”

  He replied brusquely, “Now hold on a second, I haven’t decided anything yet. I’m just willing to listen.”

  Irritated, I was about to reply when I heard another scream this time from Lucy, saying “JACK WATCH OUT! THEY’RE COMING!”

  I bolted to the door and peered outside to see a swarm of Infected rushing past the car and heading towards the house. They’d be here in seconds. Panicked I moved back into the living room and looked at Alex, “Dammit come on! Where’s the gas!?”

  Alex took a step back, nervously, and I saw his gaze flicker past a door leading into a bedroom. I moved towards the door and he got in my way, and said, “I can’t let you take the gas Jack!”

  Then pounding on the door, and a shattered window a few seconds later as the Infected tried to force their way into the house. Alex’s attention was diverted, and I quickly slipped past him and shoved him into the wall. He sprang up and Steve moved fast, putting a solid two hundred pounds of muscle between Alex and me.

  Alex looked desperate, and asked, “You’re not going to take it!?”

  Then the door fell flat, and Infected rushed in. Alex looked at these ravaging psychopaths heading towards us, and then looked back towards me, terrified. Steve took out his gun, and violently pulled me into the bedroom and shut and locked the door. Alex screamed a few seconds later and I could only imagine what they were doing to him.

  I turned on Steve and swore, “What do you think you’re doing!? We’re leaving him to die!”

  Steve replied calmly, “He’s already dead Jack, all we can do now is get back to the others.”

  Still shocked, I stumbled around for a bit listening to the ravaging sounds of the Infected as they feasted outside the flimsy door separating us from them. Steve grabbed my shoulders and said, “Quick let’s search the room. The gas HAS to be in here somewhere!”

  He overturned couches, and tore open shelves while I asked, “What makes you so sure?”

  He replied, “Call it a hunch.” I angrily said, “I don’t want to bet my life on a hunch!”

  We could hear flesh-ripping sounds from the other room, and Alex’s screams had died down. Suddenly they started attacking the door, as evidently they had found where we had gone. I quickly searched through the room, not finding anything. Then I had an idea, where could one hide a bunch of gas cans in a bed-room? I ran to the
closet and started tearing clothes left and right. Eureka! There in the middle of the closet lay FIVE three gallon gas cans. Excitedly I dragged them out and called Steve over.

  He asked, “How are we going to bring them all?”

  With a sinking heart, as the Infected began to break through the door, I realized he was right. The most we’d be able to bring would be four cans. I said, “It’ll have to do. Here,” I picked up two and moved over to the window. I unlocked it and opened it, and then gingerly lowered the cans outside. I took a look around and then hopped out, and gestured for Steve to come over. He carefully lowered the cans to the ground just as the door burst open behind him! Shouting, he dove out of the window shattering glass and rolling as he hit the ground. He picked up two gas cans and started sprinting around front, and I blindly followed him as Infected began to force their way out the window after us. As I rounded the side of the house I saw a terrifying sight: Infected were still coming towards the house, obviously attracted by the sounds we were making. Steve dropped a gas can and pulled out his pistol shooting the nearest three Infected to him clean through the head, killing them instantly. Suddenly our car turned, and faced its headlights towards us, and quickly pulled up to Steve who was closer. I ran over to the car as I watched Steve unload his gas cans in the passenger door, and then glance over at me. From the shock on his face, I knew something was wrong just as a hand viciously gripped my shoulder and threw me to the ground. The gas cans dropped and I fell with an Infected on top of me! It flailed about, grabbing my arms and pinning them to the sides while looming in to bite my chest. In sheer panic I found the strength to throw it off of me, and grimaced as it landed hard on the ground. Then, BLAM and a bullet from Steve’s gun lodged itself in its brain, and it stopped moving. Shocked I turned to look towards Steve, who was motioning furiously with his pistol for me to pick up the gas cans. Time seemed to slow down as I picked them up, and the car sped quickly over to me. I opened the passenger door and jumped in, placing the cans on the floor. Tires screeched as we sped off, and I looked ahead to see a scene of destruction. What had been a fine, peaceful town just a few hours before had been turned into a raging, burning village. Yes, burning, one of the houses had a major fire and it was spreading fast. I guess some of the Infected must have knocked over something.