Carlie Simmons (Book 4): The Gathering Darkness

by JT Sawyer

  “Yeah, but they didn’t have legions of flesh-starved biters wanting to take them down.”

  “There’s always going to be another stormfront to endure, whether it’s the undead or something else. It’s the in-between moments with the ones you love that you have to seize. Otherwise what’s the point in merely surviving through all of this? In the end, love is the solution to most problems—spending time with the ones who matter the most and finding that one love of your life that you would cross an ocean to be with.” Matias thought back to his own family who had disappeared in Arizona during the early days of the pandemic. Though not knowing what had become of them had worn the walls of his soul threadlike, he was determined to see them again even if it meant wading through the sands of time until his days in this world had been served.

  Carlie pressed her lips together and let out a brief sigh. She gave Matias a silent nod and then folded her fingers into each other and slowly turned her head back to the encampment while letting his words percolate through the bedrock of her psyche. She got up and put her hand on his shoulder, giving him a slight squeeze, and then moved down the steps towards the forest to gather her thoughts.

  ***

  In the morning as Carlie pulled on her fleece overcoat around the fireplace in the cramped cabin, Darcy entered with a fresh pot of coffee. She placed it on a sandstone slab beside the entrance and pulled up a chair. “I told you I’d have our answer for you by sunup so here I am.”

  Darcy unraveled a green wool scarf around her neck and loosened her puffy jacket. “Twenty-four of us will accompany you. The remaining fifteen will stay here—they’re mostly parents with little ones or old-timers much creakier than me. There’s also the Crowley ranch southwest of here with a few dozen folks. We trade with them once in a while and they would want to know about what’s going on.”

  Carlie raised her eyebrows and looked over at Eliza, who seemed equally surprised at the numbers who’d be joining them. “That’s outstanding and we sure welcome the help.”

  “When do we leave?”

  “I need to radio back to Lewis and update them on things here. They’ll provide us with a shipment of weapons and gear so I’d say we’re looking at tomorrow at the latest before heading to the dam.”

  Carlie poured a cup of coffee and glanced out the window at a young man in a gray down jacket running beside the pond below. He was waving his arms and yelling as he climbed up the porch steps. “Just got word on the radio from one of our scouts on a nearby hilltop. There’s an eighteen-wheeler heading southeast about thirty miles out.”

  Darcy’s eyes darted along the ceiling for a second and then over to Carlie. “They’ll have to drive over Perkinsville Pass. I know a shortcut that will put us just above that road if you want to get a better look.”

  She swigged down the tar-black coffee and grabbed her rifle. “By all means.”

  Chapter 23

  The wind was whipping through the pine trees above Shane’s head as he and his team crept over a low rise a half-mile from the prison. Everyone spread out along a line of shrubs and lay flat, scanning the facility below. In the distance, just fading into the forest to the north, was a massive convoy of trucks heading along the two-lane highway.

  Shane glassed the guard towers with his binoculars and then looked down to the main entrance below whose gates were open, the only movement coming from a handful of armed men near the entrance booth and a large garage where a fuel truck, ambulance, and van were parked. He whispered down the line to the rest of his team on the right. “The last satellite image I received from HQ indicated that there was a large troop buildup here. That must be the group that just headed out in the rigs. The guys below by the garage must be their resupply convoy.”

  An immense flock of ravens on the other side of the prison kept dipping down from the treetops towards some rotting heap but Shane couldn’t make out the details. “I don’t see any other movement, either in the towers or on the main grounds.”

  “Same here—you think that group that just left was headed for the dam?” said Jared.

  “Could be, but nonetheless, it’s always good to assume that things aren’t what they appear so everyone keep their senses prickly when we head down.” He took one more pass with the binoculars and then looked down the line at his team. “Compton, you stay here and provide overwatch. Everyone else follow me down to the fence perimeter so we can get in closer for sentry removal. After that we’ll split into two groups and comb through the prison grounds. And make damn sure you don’t hit that fuel truck or ambulance. Those are resources we need.”

  An hour later, both teams had made their way inside after using their suppressed rifles to dispatch the thugs hovering around the main gate and garage. They split up and inspected the facility over the next hour and then regrouped near the administrative building.

  “This entire place has been cleared out,” said Kress. “I mean even the blankets and cooking pots are gone.”

  “Yeah, I saw a lot of vehicle tracks and bootprints near the main gate when we came in,” said Shane. “This was a mass exodus. Couple that with the fact that there was very little resistance here and I’d say they sent their entire troop base north to the dam.”

  Jared craned his head around, staring at the cell blocks in the distance and the depressing views. “Who can blame ’em—there are no mountains to look at.”

  Amy stepped back and looked at the hundreds of ravens circling overhead behind the mess hall. “What’s with all the birds?”

  They walked around the edge of the red brick building and peered beyond the fenceline. A hundred yards away on the cusp of the forest was a chest-high pile of mutant corpses. Each one had the same wiry frame but they were in different stages of decomposition from the constant freeze-and-thaw cycles. A few ravens swooped down to inspect out of curiosity but wouldn’t touch the frozen carcasses.

  “Look at all those things—there must be fifty muteys there,” said Jared. “What the hell were they doing with ’em all?”

  Shane opened the narrow gate and walked through to examine the find. He tucked his mouth into his elbow to avoid the stench while studying the immediate ground for tracks. “Not even the coyotes or critters have touched the bodies.”

  As they stood around the frightful mound of mangled corpses, Jared grabbed a long stick and prodded a few bodies, moving their heads. “Each one of these things has had some kinda surgery done to their neck area.”

  “That’s the C4 region that controls breathing and nervous system functions,” said Amy, who was white-faced. “I’ve seen some chilling things before as a paramedic but this tops the charts.”

  “Experimentation on the undead—this Mitchell is a sick bastard alright,” said Shane. “Question is: how many more of these things does he have at his disposal?”

  Shane glanced over to the right of the mound and saw a man’s body perforated with numerous stab wounds—like he had run into a wall of pitchforks. A name tag on his jacket indicated: Doctor Holcomb. The man was lying face-up, his broken spectacles still clinging to his blood-strewn face. “Looks like the life expectancy at this place wasn’t very high.”

  Shane backpedaled with the others as they retreated inside the walls of the prison. Then they headed towards the vehicles parked side by side against a ruptured water tower that was still dripping from the gaping hole in its side.

  “Doesn’t seem like they were planning on coming back here,” said Jared, stepping over the bullet-riddled body of a convict in blue coveralls.

  Shane opened the rear doors of the ambulance while two of his men covered him from behind. The vehicle was fully stocked with trauma supplies, a few oxygen canisters, and paramedic bags.

  “This is a welcome sight.” He closed the doors and walked alongside the immense fuel truck, running his weathered glove along the stainless-steel hull until he got to the gauge panel. Jared had slung his rifle and climbed up the narrow metal steps to the top. He twisted the safety lock on the airtig
ht seal and lifted the round hatch. “Full payload of liquid gold here, my man.”

  “Excellent,” said Shane, looking around the grounds. “Alright, one of our vehicle-based units is inbound and should be here shortly. I’ll have them get these rigs back to Lewis. Let’s scour the admin building and see if we can turn up any pertinent intel they might have left behind.”

  Chapter 24

  Darcy led Carlie and her team back along the mountain trail they had come in on. They trotted for a quarter-mile and then veered off to the right, going around a field of low boulders. Carlie could hear the roar of the monstrous truck in the distance as they approached. Arriving at a rocky ledge that overlooked the snow-covered valley below, the two-lane highway came into view. On the other side of the road was a river whose swift current paralleled the canyon walls around them. The truck was two miles away and would be driving under their location in another minute.

  Carlie motioned to the group to drop low then she squatted on one knee and rested the barrel of her M4 on a stump, sighting in a spot on the highway below around two hundred yards distant. “Matias, you and I are going to pop a few tires on that rig as it slows down around the curve in the road. As soon as it comes to a standstill, we’re going to descend on it and grab whoever’s inside. I need answers on enemy movement in this region and this may be our best shot.”

  Both shooters readied their rifles as the bellowing sound of the truck’s engine filled the valley beneath them. With the eighteen-wheeler rounding the nearest bend, both M4s crackled, taking out the front wheels. The truck careened along the metal guardrail, which nearly collapsed from the force. The rims screeched on the blacktop while rubber shrapnel spewed out from under the chassis.

  Carlie stood up and motioned with a wave for the rest of the group to follow her down the hillside. As the vehicle continued fishtailing along the highway, she heard the groaning of metal and arrived at the gravel shoulder to see the rear of the truck slam into an old-growth spruce tree, the metal crimping like aluminum foil and causing a rupture in the left side. The front end had impacted against a rock outcropping and was lurching towards the river whose current, fed by recent snowmelt, raged a few feet below the mangled guardrail.

  The two burly drivers inside lifted their slumped figures from the cracked dashboard, their eyes trying to focus through the spiderweb fractures on the windshield while they rubbed their bleeding foreheads.

  Carlie and her team along with Darcy and five of her people fanned out along the road, their weapons fixed on the occupants of the cab. Carlie heard some thrashing coming from the crumpled back end of the cargo section of the truck and she motioned for Eliza and Matias to inspect it.

  She grabbed the passenger door and swung it open, fixing her rifle on Brimley, who was stemming the flow of blood from his broken nose. “What the hell, bitch—you just picked the wrong group of guys to fuck with.” He fumbled on the seat to his left for his pistol but noticed that it had been jarred onto the floor between his crusty leather boots and numerous empty beer cans.

  “This is why you boys should wear seat belts,” said Carlie, jabbing the barrel of her rifle into his leg.

  He looked around at the others outside the rig, noticing Darcy and then glancing back at Carlie. “Shit, can you believe our luck, getting held up by a coupla highway hotties,” he said, tapping Butler on the shoulder as the man kept shaking his head, trying to process the words as his skull fracture caused his head to swell.

  Butler glanced in his sideview mirror at the rear of the truck, his eyes widening and his jaw dropping at the sight of the undead slowly streaming out of the fissure “Ah, lady, you just stirred up a fucking hornet’s nest.”

  Before she could answer, Carlie heard gunfire coming from the back of the truck as Matias and Eliza began shooting at the growing menace that had been unleashed.

  Chapter 25

  With the zombies pouring onto the blacktop, Carlie yelled at the others to head to the rear and stem the tide. She grabbed Brimley by the belt and yanked him out, his thin figure crashing onto the pavement. She kept her rifle trained on his head while she placed a boot on his chest. Carlie glanced up at the driver, who had a frostbitten look as he continued staring at the frightening horde to the rear.

  “Out of the truck,” she said.

  “I can’t move. My leg is pinned under the steering wheel. Get me out of here,” he screamed as he saw several zombies making their way along the side of the truck.

  The gunfire at the rear had increased and Carlie found it hard to speak above the din. She looked down at the man beneath her and pressed on his chest. “Answer me first and then I’ll get your friend out. Where were you headed and what were you going to do with all these creatures?”

  The man was squirming, his eyes darting under the truck at the shuffling legs of undead on the opposite side. “We were, uhm, we’re supposed to meet up with the convoy headed this way soon.”

  “How many—how many more trucks are there like this back at the prison?”

  Several creatures were squirming under the truck, making their way towards Brimley, who was thrashing wildly under Carlie’s boot. “Shit, let me go, bitch. Those things are almost at me.”

  She thrust the muzzle of her weapon in his cheek. “You didn’t answer my question yet so it’s either get eaten or get plugged.”

  “What? What?” Brimley said, trying to recall Carlie’s request as the moans of the undead were drowned out by the constant staccato of gunfire to his rear. “We got—I don’t know—thirty more rigs like this with about a hundred freaks in each one.”

  Carlie raised her rifle to shoot an approaching zombie whose pudgy fingers were almost within reach of Brimley’s head when she saw a blur of metal zing by her face as a crowbar flung by Butler just missed her jaw. As he lifted his hand to throw a beer can, she stepped back and fired off a round into the cab, piercing his temple and showering the face of an approaching zombie. Carlie felt a sting of pain in her left leg as Brimley kicked her below the shin with the tip of his boot. It caused her to wince long enough to lower her guard and Brimley lunged up in a linebacker’s assault, slamming her into the guardrail. She instinctively elbowed the man in the side of his head, hearing the cartilage in his ear crunch. This only enraged Brimley further and he punched her in the face twice as she positioned her hand for a throat strike. Carlie tried to hit him but felt her arm restrained. A zombie in a tattered rodeo outfit had grabbed her jacket sleeve and was pawing at her hair with its blackened fingernails. Its rancid breath permeating the cold mountain air around her.

  While she struggled to break free of both beasts, she caught a glimpse of Eliza running up from the rear of the truck as the group backpedaled away from the undead that had overtaken the road. She shielded her face from the next punch from Brimley, struggling to reach down to her belt and withdraw her tactical blade but the weight from the zombie on her arm was too much. As she leaned back on the crumpled guardrail she felt the supports give as all three of them tumbled into the icy river below.

  Chapter 26

  The glacial grip of the water was stabbing through Carlie, trying to rob her core of its precious heat. Her ribs constricted and she had to force herself to breath. She knew from the action of the water that she was kicking her feet but couldn’t feel anything below the waist. The zombie had been swept away but she hadn’t seen what happened to Brimley.

  As the torrent flounced her along, Carlie realized her life would be reduced to minutes if she didn’t get out of the frigid river. Each rock and overhanging tree branch was just out of reach, as if the river conspired to keep her in its frozen clutches.

  A minute later, she was scooped into a bend, slamming beneath a small undercut in the riverbank and grabbing a palm-sized root. Carlie gulped down a breath of air then coughed up a silty mouthful of water. Her vision was level with the incoming ripples of white, frothy water pounding at her body. She struggled to hold on, her fingers shorn of sensation. Then she saw a gnarled hand
grab her jacket. Jammed under the roots was the zombie, now snapping its jaws only inches from her face. Gripping the overhanging branch with her left hand, she reached up and snapped off a banana-sized piece of the oak root and drove it into the eye socket of the thrashing creature, watching the cellophane-like film of its orb collapse and yellow fluid run onto the frozen stick. She forced herself up, her biceps knotting from the intense shivering and her teeth chattering beyond control. She pushed off from the creature and was sucked back into the current, eventually clamoring up a fallen log that was sticking out to the right.

  Carlie climbed over the log and followed its length until she emerged on the muddy shoreline. She collapsed on the ground, her boots still hanging over the edge of the raging waters below. Carlie couldn’t tell how far she had drifted in the current but it felt like at least a mile or more given the swift waters. Her team wouldn’t be able to wait for her hopeful return and, after a hasty search for her, would follow protocols and return to Darcy’s base to make radio contact with Duncan.

  She couldn’t feel anything except the moist exhalation of breath around her lips. Her energy was withdrawing from her limbs and she felt her precious life force contained only within her torso. It would be so easy to simply let go and allow the cold to overtake her, its clutches having already whittled away at her body and now moving in on her psyche. What would it matter now? She could leave this wretched world on her own terms instead of dying one day from the virus or on another mission in some remote hellhole. Her team was well-trained and looked out for each other like a family—they would find another leader. Then her heart raced and her breathing quickened as she thought of Shane, the serpentine coils of trepidation around her heart unspooling. With each recollection of his face, his smile, his hands, she warmed inside, the heat pulsing through her chest. Carlie raised herself up on both elbows and forced herself to kneel, then stand. She leaned against a tree trunk, clutching its branches.