by Phil Maxey
As the conversation was playing out in his mind, two of the men broke cover and walked forward, leaving the concrete lot behind and moving onto the dirt.
“I see him!”
A shot blasted against the collection of rocks and boulders Joel was behind, making him duck lower.
He could smell the blood from his own shoulder and that of the dead man just twenty yards from him. Each pulling him further from his humanity.
“Go! Leave me!” he shouted to the men who were almost upon him. Splinters of stone flew into the air as another blast from a gun impacted what he was hiding behind.
“Ah… found you, vamp.”
Joel looked up at the wild eyes of a man who didn’t realize he was looking at his own death. Joel sprang forward as the scourge took him. His hands, the nails of which had extended becoming claws, tore into the man’s chest, and the man fired off his gun into the sky. Before he had even hit the floor, the large canine teeth, which now protruded from Joel’s mouth, sunk into the man’s neck. As the sweet blood flowed into Joel’s mouth, he sensed the other man nearby, and swung his prey around, so the next gunshot hit his dead victim.
With one simple push the dead man’s body flew through the air, slamming into the other man who was trying to reload his shotgun. Before the shell even slid completely into the barrel, Joel was upon him, drinking from his body.
Other gunshots rang out, but Joel didn’t care. His mind was a haze of hunger and rage. Once the second man was drained he looked to the two remaining men, who observed the scene of carnage in front of them with wide eyes. They both looked at each other, then ran to the RV.
Joel watched the headlights switch on, then sprinted forward, tearing up the ground in a beast-like gallop towards his target.
The RV’s engine roared and it accelerated towards him, then veered off into the desert, its twin beams bumping up and down as they tried to navigate back to the road.
Every part of Joel cried out for more feeding. There could never be enough. But he found he wasn’t moving. Instead, he just watched as the large vehicle bounced back onto the road behind him and surged away into the night.
He fell to his knees as his eyes reverted to their normal human state, not out of exhaustion, but out of guilt.
As his heart rate slowed, he got back up and looked at the still-burning fire and the two pickups nearby.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Marina looked out of her fourth-floor room’s window at the parking lot and the new vehicle parked outside. It was a dirty white pickup, with a number of boxes and equipment she couldn’t quite make out in the back. She was fairly sure it wasn’t there the night before. She wondered if that meant there were new people at the hotel.
She looked back at Jess who was sleeping, and Flint who was also sleeping by the bottom of the bed.
She picked up her handgun, putting it in the back of her pants and took a few steps towards the door, when Flint’s head shot up. He looked up at her with eyes she couldn’t say no to. She sighed then picked up the leash, attached it, then walked with him out of the room.
“How’d I end up with a dog?” she said, standing in the corridor. Voices came from the room next door, where Bill and Evan were staying. She knocked on the door which was already partially open.
“Come in,” said Bill.
Marina walked into the cramped room with two single beds.
“Coffee?” said Bill, sitting on the bed, gesturing toward Evan who was pouring some from a small pot into a plastic mug. He then looked towards Flint. “Come here, boy!” Flint walked to the older man, his tail wagging enthusiastically.
“That sounds great.” She nodded towards the window. “I think there’s a new truck out there, anyone know where it’s from?”
Bill shook his head. “I saw it there too. If there’s new arrivals I haven’t seen or heard them.”
Evan handed another mug of dark brown steaming liquid to Marina, who sipped it. “We should probably go look.”
A softer knock came at the door. “Is that coffee I smell?” said Anna. She walked into the room warily, then quickly sat on the single chair against the wall. There was a slight pause as everyone absorbed how she looked. “I know, I already look like one.”
“What? No, you’re not going to become—”
Anna held up her hand. “Let’s not pretend. So, any coffee?”
Evan got back up and started to rummage through his backpack for more of the brown powder. “Err… sure.”
“There’s a new pickup out back,” said Marina.
“Really? I haven’t heard anyone. But then I’ve been a bit out of it, since… well, since last night.”
Marina took a few more sips of her coffee, then handed it to the doctor. “Here, have mine. I’m going to check out downstairs.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Claire from the doorway.
Marina went to walk out of the room but then stopped, looking back. “Is Joel awake yet?”
They all shook their heads.
Soon, Marina and Claire were back down in the lobby. As they walked to the side entrance, Marina looked across at the chaos of furniture that was still stacked against the door to the basement, trying to remember if anything looked different. She thought it didn’t. They then both walked out into the bright morning sun, and then further, the short distance to the pickup.
Marina looked in the driver’s side window. There were smears of blood on the red leather upholstery which looked fresh. She pulled the unlocked door open and looked around the cabin. A small plastic penguin dangled from the rear mirror, and paper maps lay scattered across the opposite seat. She reached across and opened the topmost. A rough pencil line stretched from Phoenix to Salt Lake City. Which was also ringed, with the word ‘Sanctuary’ written next to it. She dropped the old map to the seat and walked to where Claire was examining the contents of the cargo bed at the back.
“Looks like a mobile generator, with a few cans of gasoline. They also got some food, and a few guns,” said the older woman. Claire looked around the parking lot. “Seems strange they would just leave all this stuff out here.”
“Whoever all this belongs to, is on the way to Salt Lake City.”
“Why there?”
Marina shook her head. “No idea.” She looked at the empty lot, and then back up at the hotel. The blinds in Joel’s room twenty feet above were closed.
*****
Even with the blinds completely closed, Joel felt as if the beams from the sun outside were somehow reaching him. His mind flickered in and out of a dream-state. One moment he was replaying his savagery from a few hours earlier, not quite believing it actually happened, to months earlier, when the situation in LA was reaching a crisis point…
He looked up at the bright lights flashing past overhead.
A redheaded woman came into his view. “Is he infected?” she screamed at the man on the other side of the gurney.
“I don’t know, I just found him like this!” Came the reply.
“His blood pressure’s dropping!” Came another male voice.
Joel tried looking down at the third person who had a grip of his wrist. As the screams and groans filled the air around him, he realized he could feel his heart stuttering, and whatever had already taken tens of thousands in the city where he lived and worked was about to take him too. Vague sounds and words wafted through his mind, such as ‘crashing’ and the lights around him grew intensely bright, then fell to an intense bottomless black.
He sat suddenly up like he had just emerged from the ocean, taking a deep intake of air into his lungs. He was in a room, with no other living people. Just the recently deceased. The air was full of an aroma, meaty and sweet. He swung his legs around, being aware of the tag on his big toe, but ignoring it nonetheless, and looked to where all the food must be that he could smell, then frowned on realizing how absurd a notion that was.
He presumed in all the commotion they must have wrongly thought he had died and placed
him with all the other dead. For a moment, he envied those around him.
He dropped down to the cold floor. He was feeling strong. Better than he had felt in days. He looked at his arms and legs, expecting to see the cuts and bruises he had been dealing with, and instead, just saw smooth skin looking back at him. He ran his hand across where the previous lacerations were and felt only undamaged skin. There wasn’t even any scar tissue. For a moment, he wondered if he’d been in some kind of accident, and maybe the whole people-eating-people thing in the streets, and the loss of his family, was just some horrible dream.
His stomach rumbled.
So hungry. How long have I been here?
A bang came on the door at the far end of the room. He waited for it to open, but nothing happened.
“Hello?” he said, walking towards it.
Another knock boomed out. There was something on the other side. Someone who wanted to get to him. He backed away as the impacts increased and the door rattled in its frame.
Joel awoke in his hotel room. Someone was knocking at his door. “Yeah?” he croaked in their general direction.
“It’s me, can I come in?” said Marina.
He sat up against the headboard, dragging the single sheet higher. “Sure.” As she opened the door, he looked down quickly at where he was shot, then relaxed when he saw barely a mark left on his skin.
As soon as she entered she could smell the blood. She quickly closed the door behind her, so not to let the odor escape.
Joel noticed her agitated movement. “What’s the problem? Everything alright?”
She moved past the bottom of the bed and looked out at the pickup below. “You brought that here, didn’t you?”
“Yeah… I went for a little walk. Needed to clear my head. Found it abandoned.”
She looked back at him angrily. “That’s the story you’re going with? This room reeks of blood!”
He looked away from her.
“You promised you would be honest with me. So, what is it? Bullshit? Or you going to tell me how you really got that truck?”
“I came across some people. Five guys. They had guns. They wanted to take mine. Things went sideways. Now I have one of their pickups.”
“You…” She swallowed, not liking the idea of what she was about to ask.
“Yeah, but two got away in an RV. If it helps, it was self-defense.”
“But you went full vamp on them?”
“Yeah…”
She sighed, then looked back out the window. “I found a map in the front. It had Salt Lake City ringed, and something about ‘Sanctuary.’ You hear anything about Salt Lake City when you were in LA?”
“No.”
“Maybe we should check it out.”
“That’s some detour.”
“Yeah, but if it doesn’t work out, then we just head due east to Nebraska anyway. If there’s any kind of communities still functioning up there, it has to be worth us looking.”
“For months, I’ve not heard anything on any frequencies, government or otherwise…”
She sat on the end of the bed and looked down at the floor. “Civilization must have survived somewhere. The scourge couldn’t have taken everything.”
Joel nodded. He couldn’t see any reason why not to head north. “Okay, Salt Lake City it is.”
She turned to face him with a smile.
“How’s the doc?”
Her smile faded into something more glum. “She knows she’s probably infected. I hate to say this, but maybe it will be a good idea to keep her separated from the rest of us.”
“I’m sure she’ll understand.”
“How you going to explain the pickup outside?”
Joel smiled. “Well, like I said, I found it abandoned.”
She got to her feet. “If that’s the case, you might want to open the window and air out this room.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
It didn’t take much to convince the others of the change of destination and, by noon, they were back on the road, now with an extra vehicle.
As the hours progressed, the landscape passing them alternated from subtle craggy hills surrounded by flat beige vistas, to hills infused with green bushes and small trees, back to flat panoramas, which made most of the occupants of the four-vehicle convoy feel as if they had been transported to another world.
Empty towns and truck stops devoid of any life, human or otherwise, slid by as they passed into Utah. Eventually, as it reached late afternoon, Joel considered whether they should stop at the next sign of civilization.
He looked in his rear mirror at the truck just behind his own. Anna was driving it, with no passengers. Marina had offered to ride with her, but the doctor politely turned her down, saying there was no point risking anyone else.
“There’s some kind of military base or something coming up. Maybe worth checking out?” said Marina to Joel. She kept her voice low as Jess was sleeping in the back seat.
“How far are we from the next town?”
“Not far. The base is at the start of it…” She studied the map closer. “Looks like there’s a small airport at the base as well.”
Joel clicked on his radio and told everyone they were soon going to turn off.
They moved up a hill. To the side of the road, a large sign built onto a rock plinth proudly announced the large red brick building to their left was the ‘National Guard Armory.’
Joel led the convoy down a side road, and then into a deserted parking lot in front of the impressive templelike building. The engines stopped and most got out.
“Why we stopping?” said Claire, standing next to her pickup.
“Weapons,” said Joel, looking at the double glass doors of the entrance.
Marina walked to Anna, who was still sitting in her vehicle. “How you feeling?”
“I’m not a vamp, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Her words came out with more bitterness than she had planned. She sighed. “Sorry, I’m okay.”
“Fancy exploring this place with me?”
Anna smiled and opened the door.
The rear door of Joel’s pickup opened, and Flint jumped down minus his leash, immediately followed by Jess.
“Hold on, don’t run off!” said the little girl to the dog, who was bounding around in circles.
Most looked at Joel, waiting on his verdict on whether the area was safe or not.
“Any vamps?” said Marina.
He looked at the secure-looking building. “Those walls are pretty thick. There could be anything inside.”
“You mean you can’t see through walls?” said Claire sarcastically.
“No.” He looked to the others. “Make sure you’re well-armed. Stay—”
Kelly walked away with her grandmother, Hardin, and Evan. “On the radio. We know,” she said.
Bill hung back with Mary near the pickups.
Marina looked at her daughter. “Stay close to Bill and Mary. We’ll be back soon.”
“Ohh…” The young girl frowned, crossing her arms.
“I know you want to run around, but we don’t know what’s around here yet.”
Jess nodded.
Marina and the doctor walked up to the main doors with Joel.
He put his hand on the smooth metal handle. “What are the chances that it’s unlocked?”
“Zer—”
Before Marina finished, Joel had pushed the door open. “Well, what do you know.” He sniffed the air inside. There was no obvious smell of blood.
They all walked into a clean lobby area, with a counter, framed pictures, and a flag on the wall behind it.
Anna walked up to the tall rectangular sign on the wall with a floorplan of the building. “They should have a medical facility, if it’s okay, I want to spend an hour running some tests.” She looked back at Joel.
“If there are no vamps here, you got your hour, but then we need to be back on the road.”
She nodded, then checked what direction the
medical center was, and moved off in that direction.
“I’ll go with her,” said Marina.
“Just keep that gun of yours ready.”
Marina nodded and followed the doctor down a corridor to their left.
Joel examined the floorplan for himself. ‘Arms room’ stood out. It was in the basement, in the center of the plan.
He headed down the right corridor, until he found the wide staircase that descended under the structure. He took a step, then stopped, instead clicking on his radio. “Kelly? You seeing anything wrong out there? Over.”
A few seconds of static passed until the young woman’s voice filled the empty corridor. “Nothing around the side of the building. We’re heading towards the airport buildings now… Over.”
Anna climbed the wide staircase to the first floor, ignoring the elevator. She looked at the signs on the walls, detailing which office was where, and moved left, soon arriving at a set of double doors.
“Found it?” said Marina behind her.
“Err… yeah.”
“What is it?”
Anna couldn’t take her eyes from the dark red stain that was smeared across the small windows in the doors.
“I’ll go first,” said Marina, taking her gun from her belt. She leaned forward and looked through the glass. Another corridor stretched out on the other side, although the floor of this one was strewn with gurneys and fallen medical equipment. She placed her weight on the left door. “Wait here.”
“I have a theory. I think I’ll be safe, even if there is a vamp in there.”
Marina looked at her, not quite understanding.
Anna pushed the door open and walked into the corridor.
Marina followed. “Wait.”
They both walked slowly along the corridor, looking into empty offices, until they got to the doors marked with the words ‘Ward 1-2’. Anna was more interested in the opposite door though, which was entitled. ‘Laboratory.’
She pushed the door open, while Marina was looking into the wards, and walked into a good-sized room with counters on most sides and two rows of them in the middle. There was also a body. She momentarily froze on seeing the brown shoes, black socks, and gray pants just visible on the floor at the end of the second row of counters, but then walked forward. Peering around the last counter confirmed what her nose had already confirmed, that this was a dead person. A male, roughly in his fifties, lay at an awkward angle with one arm bent behind him and another by his side. A large chunk was missing from the side of his neck, and his lab coat and shirt beneath were now largely dark red, regardless of what color they started out as.
