Werewolf Suspense (Book 4): Outage 4 (The Reckoning)

by T. W. Piperbrook

  Tom ran through the snow, his heart pounding as he watched the beasts.

  "Jason! Jeffrey! We're here to help you!" Rosemary tried.

  The beasts studied her. Whether they recognized her or not, Tom wasn't sure, but they hadn't attacked. Not yet. Maybe that meant something. He pushed through the snow, hoping to get close enough that he might make a difference if their demeanor changed. He raised his rifle and took aim at the larger of the two.

  He recalled the toy truck Rosemary had found at the Knights of Columbus. The way she'd cried as she had rolled it in her hand. They were just children. He understood her wanting to protect them.

  As sick as they were, he understood it.

  Still shaking, Rosemary stepped closer to the younger one. She held out her hand. The smaller creature remained motionless.

  "Jeffrey," she said through a veil of tears. "We'll figure this out. I swear we will. I'm not going to leave you."

  The beast cocked its head, studying her. Then it closed its mouth, covering up its teeth. Its arms hung calmly at its side. It didn't snarl; it didn't attack.

  Could they be reasoned with?

  A clanking noise shattered the moment. Tom swiveled to find Kelsey at the top of the ladder, a policeman just behind her. Her shoe had slipped on the rung. She watched the unfolding scene in horror, her eyes wide in the spotlight's glow. Jason growled. Jeffrey opened his mouth.

  "No…" Rosemary hissed.

  The beasts turned to Kelsey, their eyes changing from placid to aggressive.

  Silence turned to snarls as the beasts plunged through the snow and toward the ladder. Tom followed them with his gun, taking aim at the one in the lead. Kelsey frantically descended, but she wasn't far enough that they couldn't grab her, rip her into shreds like they'd done to Abraham, to Tabatha, to Lorena….

  Tom fired.

  The bullet struck Jason in the leg as he lunged, and he lost his footing, plowing over the roof's edge. He tumbled out of sight with a cry.

  "No!" Rosemary shrieked.

  Watching the first beast fall, the smaller beast hesitated for a second before resuming its attack. Kelsey shrieked as it came toward her, its claws slicing the top of the ladder. Another shape ran behind Jeffrey. Was it another beast? Tom didn't have time to find out. He took aim and swallowed. He had to protect Kelsey.

  He fired.

  Too late, Tom saw that the second shape was Rosemary. The bullet struck her in the chest as she ran alongside her son, her arms outstretched in a final attempt to plead with him. She collapsed to the ground in a heap. The beast reached the ladder and clawed at the rungs.

  Tom fired again, striking Jeffrey in the leg, sending him howling and limping away. He retreated to the other side of the rooftop, writhing in agony. Kelsey clung to the ladder, watching the scene in disbelief. It wasn't until Tom screamed that she broke her trance and kept descending.

  "Keep going!" he yelled.

  Tom ran over to Rosemary, his pulse thudding behind his ears. He couldn't believe what he'd done. He couldn't believe he'd shot her. It was an accident. An awful, horrible accident. Rosemary's eyes were glazed and staring at the moon. Blood ran from her mouth in a trickle. Her skin was pale white, warm to the touch. He put his fingers on her neck, checking for a pulse, but finding none. The bullet had been accurate. She was as dead as Abraham. As dead as Sally.

  As dead as the others.

  The smell of smoke, musk, and spilled blood filled Tom's nostrils. Beasts poured through the door. From somewhere on the corner of the rooftop, Jeffrey wailed in agony. Tom picked himself up, knowing he couldn't remain where he was. To stay any longer was to die. He had to run. Heading to the ladder, he climbed over the edge of the roof and onto it.

  A moment of paralyzing fear struck him as he looked at the ground. He gripped the ladder, head swimming, still thinking of what he'd done to Rosemary, and stuck his foot out. He found the first rung. As he descended, a flurry of beasts whipped toward the ladder, sensing a final opportunity.

  "Come on, Tom!" a voice screamed below him.

  He kept descending, ignoring the nausea that crept into his throat. Several beasts shrieked past him, tumbling from the roof in a desperate attempt to get ahold of him. One clawed his jacket as it whipped past, but it didn't break the skin. Tom heard the frantic yells of Kelsey and the officer from below. He focused on their urgent cries, placing one foot behind the other.

  Soon, hands were helping him catch his bearings. He set foot on solid ground, staring up at the roof of the building. Dozens of rabid, enraged eyes stared back at him, glowing in the spotlight's beam. He barely heard the whir of the ladder retracting.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Tom watched the creatures' forms get smaller as the vehicle pulled away from the hospital. He felt someone grip his hand, and looked over to find it was Kelsey. The image of Rosemary's pale, lifeless body clung to his mind. He'd never forget it. He'd never forget what he'd done.

  As despicable as her actions had been, she didn't deserve to die.

  Kelsey wrapped him in a blanket. Given the danger of stopping the vehicle, they'd remained in the control box on the truck bed. Katherine and Silas were in the cab with the driver; Tom and Kelsey were next to Officer Flannery.

  "No one else is alive?" the officer next to them called over the gale.

  "No," Tom affirmed.

  Tom swallowed back tears, the guilt like a lead weight in his stomach. Officer Flannery didn't seem phased by his answer. Like anyone else who had survived the storm, the man must've seen his share of casualties. The wind whipped through the open windows, rifling through Flannery's graying hair.

  "Who's driving?" Tom called.

  "A fireman named Mike Tancredi."

  "Thank God you came when you did," Tom said.

  He surveyed the road around them. It wasn't much of a road anymore. Two days of intermittent snowfall had obscured any semblance of civilization. After waking up in the hospital, Tom had expected to find the roads cleared, the snow melting.

  Instead, the storm had raged.

  Checking his rifle, Tom counted the last few bullets. He hadn't had time to salvage Rosemary's pistol. That was the last thing on his mind. Officer Flannery watched him inspecting three silver bullets.

  "You must be Tom." Officer Flannery nodded.

  "How'd you know?" Tom asked, furrowing his brow.

  "You were the one that tipped us off on the ammunition, right?"

  Tom nodded.

  "When we got the call, I figured you were one of the survivors. I heard about your night at the KOC. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be here right now." The officer smiled.

  Tom tried smiling back, but couldn't manage it. As good as it felt to have saved a few lives, he couldn't help but think of Rosemary, Abraham, Tabatha, and the other people he'd lost.

  "So where are we going? To look for more survivors?" he asked, after a pause.

  Officer Flannery stared out over the dark, snow-capped roads. "I think we've already made our last stop, Tom."

  Tom looked at him with confusion.

  "We haven't come across anyone in hours," Officer Flannery continued, swallowing. "On the way over here, Mike and I made a decision. Whoever was at the hospital would be the last people we picked up. After that, we'd go somewhere safe."

  "But surely there must be others…"

  "We're spinning our wheels out here, Tom. For every person we save, it seems like we lose two more. It's time to hunker down. Mike has a place where we can go. If we want to survive, we need to ride this storm out, however long it takes."

  "It will last another night," Tom said matter-of-factly.

  "How do you know?" Officer Flannery furrowed his brow.

  "One of the other survivors—Rosemary—told us that. And I believe her." Tom swallowed as he spoke the words. "So where is this place?"

  "Underground," Officer Flannery said, his face stoic. "Mike has a bunker. If you'd asked me about it earlier, I would've said he was crazy." He
shook his head. "But not anymore."

  Tom stared at the officer, then at the cab in front of the fire truck. Though he couldn't see Katherine and Silas, he imagined them huddled together, shivering. They'd all seen too many people die tonight.

  They'd been through enough.

  "What about Katherine's and Silas's parents?" Kelsey asked. Even as she spoke the words, Tom saw the somber look on her face.

  "If their parents are still alive, I think they'd want us to keep them safe until this thing is over," Tom said.

  Kelsey squeezed his hand tight. "I think you're right."

  Tom stared out at the eddying snow. The white powder swirled violently, as if intent on claiming their lives. He turned his head as a cold gust of wind beat against his face.

  "How far is this place?" he yelled into the wind at Officer Flannery.

  "We're getting close," Officer Flannery shouted back. "Mike's neighborhood is only a few miles away."

  The fire truck made a slow but steady progression across the white wasteland. Each street blended with the next—covered rooftops, abandoned vehicles, smashed buildings. Tom saw no signs of life. He pictured frozen, curled bodies underneath the snow, people who had succumbed to the storm instead of the beasts. Who knew which fate was worse?

  The fire truck groaned as it churned through a moat of white. He glimpsed the driver behind the wheel, a red-faced man with a chiseled jaw. As if answering his unspoken question, Officer Flannery yelled, "Mike's a good guy. You'll like him."

  They entered a residential road, the buildings closer together, the street narrower. Trees flecked the front yards, many of the branches cracked or missing. The unplowed road was a graveyard of nature and man.

  The roar of the fire truck was loud and unforgiving. In a normal scenario, the noise might've woken the sleeping neighborhood, but Tom doubted anyone was left to be disturbed. The smashed windows and gaping doorways told a tale of violence and bloodshed. It was a story he was all too familiar with.

  Soon, they pulled to a halt at the end of a cul-de-sac. Several raised ranches sat twenty feet from the road. Mike motioned out the window toward a yellow house with black shutters. Curtains billowed out of the broken windows, but Tom didn't see any creatures nearby. It looked like the damage had been done some time ago.

  "Wait here!" Officer Flannery said over the truck's engine. "We'll make sure it's safe."

  Tom watched the police officer climb from the back of the vehicle and jump into the snow. Mike hopped out of the cab to join him. Tom clutched the rifle, studying the vacant neighborhood. A stab of pain made him wince. He turned to Kelsey. She watched him from underneath the blanket. He forced a smile, and she smiled back.

  "Almost there, Tom," Kelsey said, her voice barely audible through the whipping wind. "We've almost made it."

  Tom nodded, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. A minute later, Mike and Officer Flannery trudged back to get them. The hopeful looks on their faces told him they'd found what they were looking for. They motioned to Kelsey and Tom to jump down, then unloaded the frightened, but grateful, Katherine and Silas from the cab. The children gave Tom nervous waves as they dismounted the fire truck, heading for the backyard.

  "Let's go!" Officer Flannery called over his shoulder.

  "We'll be right there!" Tom called.

  Kelsey squeezed beside Tom, heading for the edge of the control box. Before she could leave, Tom stopped her. He handed her the rifle.

  "What are you doing?" she asked.

  "I'm not going."

  Kelsey's confusion was written all over her face. She paused to look after the group heading into the backyard. "What are you talking about?"

  Tom looked down at his leg. Pain radiated through the wound, as if his body was trying to forcibly remove the bandage.

  "I'm sure they'll have first aid kits we can use," she reinforced.

  "That won't matter. Not anymore."

  "I don't understand…"

  "I know how I got the injury, Kelsey." He looked at her with a somber gaze. "I didn't remember before, or maybe I didn't want to. On the way over, everything came back to me. I thought it was cut on a piece of glass from a broken picture frame in the Knights of Columbus hall. Or maybe I just wanted to believe that."

  "You mean—"

  "It was from the creature. It bit me."

  "It got you?"

  Tom nodded.

  Kelsey fell silent as realization kicked in.

  "I'd put you all in danger. Sooner or later I'll turn."

  "You must be mistaken…" she tried.

  "I'm not. I can feel it kicking in, Kelsey. I was hoping it wouldn't." Tom wiped a bead of perspiration from his brow, the first signs that he was losing the battle. Over the past few minutes, his body had grown hotter. His leg felt like it was radiating heat.

  Kelsey bit her lip and shook her head definitively. "We'll help you. We can do something to fight it off."

  "You won't be able to. We both know that." Tom took hold of her. "You, Katherine, and Silas will be safe here. I can't jeopardize that. The bunker doors will protect you from the creatures. From me."

  Kelsey's mouth opened and closed as she tried to think of an argument. "What if you can control it? What if you won't be like the others?"

  "I won't know that until it's too late."

  "Where are you going to go, Tom?" Kelsey threw her hands into the air helplessly.

  Tom gestured vaguely into the storm.

  "You'll freeze out here," she said, grasping for any reason to stop him.

  "I'll survive. The rest of them have."

  Tom smiled as he stared at the rifle in her hands, the one he'd given her. A few minutes ago, he'd considered using it, but his faith had deterred him. He'd only entertain that option if he had to.

  He wasn't ready to give up. Not yet.

  "Take my blanket," Kelsey said, pulling it from her shoulders and handing it to him. It was a last, benevolent gesture. The wounded expression on her face told him he couldn't refuse it.

  "Good luck, Tom," she said, leaning close and pulling him in for a tight hug. Her hands shook as she clung to his jacket. "I can't believe I'm saying this…"

  "Stay safe," he said. "Look after Katherine and Silas. One more night and you'll be through it."

  "I'll look after them," she whispered.

  And then Kelsey was gone, leaping off the truck into the snow, heading back to join the others.

  Epilogue

  Tom watched Kelsey round the house and disappear into the backyard. Before anyone could question him, Tom jumped off the fire truck and started off in the opposite direction, hunched over against the wind.

  The snow tugged at his boots, threatening to pull him under, but he forced himself to continue. He needed to get as far away as possible. He needed to make sure the others were safe. He wiped another line of sweat from his brow. His body grew warmer. Not colder, but warmer.

  He wasn't surprised.

  The night before, he'd watched Abby turn, and she'd displayed some of the same symptoms. She'd also saved his life. It was time to repay the favor.

  He couldn't help her, but he could help these people. He'd remove himself from their presence until they were safely underground.

  He needed to save someone. Having made it to the bunker, Silas, Katherine, and Kelsey would be secure until the storm was through.

  Tom peered up at the sky, picturing Lorena and Jeremy looking down on him. He allowed himself to smile. A few years ago, they'd been a happy family. Though the accident and the beasts might've taken them away, he could feel their presence, as if they were hovering over him, waiting for him to join them. One day, he would.

  But not yet.

  He looked over his shoulder, noting that the fire truck was no longer in sight. He'd been walking for a while, putting several neighborhoods in between him and the other survivors. His tracks marred the white landscape.

  He thought of Jeffrey back at the hospital. He was wounded, but alive. Perhaps T
om would make it back there to help him. Perhaps he'd succeed where Rosemary had failed.

  The moon shone through the clouds overhead, promising a few more hours of night. A surge of adrenaline coursed through him. Or was it something else? He couldn't be sure, but he'd find out soon.

  Kelsey's words came back to him.

  "When life gets bad, it only means you haven't passed the test yet."

  Tom let those words guide him as he trudged through the snow.

  The End?

  I'd originally planned on wrapping up the OUTAGE series at the end of Book 3. As you can see, that didn't happen. :)

  I hope you've enjoyed OUTAGE 4: THE RECKONING. If I've done my job, I've answered most of your questions, and I've even managed to surprise you along the way. Although Tom and Rosemary might disagree, I think the ending is a fitting one. From now on, I'll ignore the nagging voices in my brain, feeding me ideas and luring me to write another book.

  "But there's one more night left in the storm, Tyler."

  "What happened to the survivors in the bunker?"

  "And what will happen to Tom?"

  If the voices keep speaking, maybe you'll find out. :)

  If you enjoyed OUTAGE 4, please leave a review. That will inspire me to get cranking on the next book.

  -Tyler Piperbrook

  October 2015

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  About The Author

  T.W. Piperbrook was born and raised in Connecticut, where he can still be found today. He is the best-selling author of the CONTAMINATION series, the OUTAGE series, and the co-author of THE LAST SURVIVORS. In addition to writing, the author has spent time as a full-time touring musician, touring across the US, Canada, and Europe.