The Rotting Souls Series (Book 3): Charon's Debt

by Ray, Timothy A.

  He chuckled. “Get up there and get back to your training. And tell my son he’s in charge of the family til I get back.”

  She hit him in the arm. “I got your training right here,” she said with a snarl on her face, then it turned to a grin. She was soon up the stairs and out of sight.

  He waved to his father as he stepped away and got a similar gesture in return. He could see that his father was still worried about flying them back and anything he could say at this point would just fall on deaf ears. Best to just let the dice fall as they will.

  “They’ll be fine. Let’s get moving. Got a long drive back,” Rosilynn told him. The daylight was beginning to fade from the world and he couldn’t believe time had slipped from them that much. It should have only been four hours tops, but the stops, the battles, had lengthened that quite a bit. He hoped their return wasn’t as eventful. It would take longer to skip Duncan, but he was wiped and just didn’t have it in him to chance it if he didn’t have too.

  He watched as the plane moved out of the hangar and onto the runway. The engines increased in volume and the plane began speeding away from them. They exited the building and got to the Humvee just in time to see the lights of the plane lift off and dwindle in the encroaching darkness.

  “Take it you want to drive?” he asked, throwing Ros the keys.

  “How’d you guess?” she asked with a smile.

  “Guess I know you better than I know myself,” he returned, hopping in the passenger side. “Let’s go home.”

  Chapter 40

  Hackers R Us

  Monica

  Compound 1

  They were already geared up by the time the call came in. “Okay Mom, thanks,” she said and ended the call. “Time to go,” she told them.

  They had told the others that they were going out on a patrol to sweep the area, to make sure that the surrounding woods remained cleared before the arrival of Vitarius’s group. It made sense and no one questioned it; until she got to Matt. He had seen right through her cover story, knowing her better than any of the rest of these people here. And when he saw bullshit, he called it.

  “You can’t lie to me,” the man had said from his bed. He was sleeping in his living quarters tonight and still looked a bit pale for her tastes. She had sat on the edge of the bed and looked him straight in the eyes and told him the same lie again. She hated herself for it, but it had to be done. “You don’t want to tell me the truth, that’s fine, but don’t lie to me,” he had told her.

  She had sighed, kissed his forehead, and left the room with the knowledge that at least one person knew that she was up to no good. Well, he was in no shape to stop them and he knew that. She just had to hope he didn’t call and warn anyone on the approaching jet or things might spiral out of her control quickly.

  They were just climbing out of the tunnels when she heard a plane overhead. “Shit, they’re already here,” she groaned as she leapt the final steps and rushed towards the exit. The others were fast on their heels and together they rushed over to the rear of one of the hangars.

  Naima was out of breath. “You sure about this? It’s not too late.”

  “No going back,” she panted back. “If we want to ensure the safety of those we love, then we have to do this.”

  They were as armed as they could manage and each of them carried an extra bag of ammo and demolition charges. She doubted they could blow their way into the compounds, but if she had no other choice, she’d do whatever it took.

  The plane had landed and was slowing down, but the jet engines only declined in speed; they did not shut down completely. It began turning around, as if preparing to take off. The door opened and standing in the doorway was a young girl she had only seen through the monitor screens. It was Jenn.

  What the fuck?

  She motioned the others forward and she waved to the girl that was descending the stairs. Jenn’s face lit up and she waved back. Then she jumped off the last step and bounded towards them. “You got a refueling truck?” the excited girl asked them. “What?”

  “We thought you were our group returning,” she told her when she saw the confused faces of her friends. “What are you doing here?” she asked, as she directed John and Mark in the direction of the tanker truck. The tanker was quickly driven to the side of the plane and the two men tried to figure out how to hook the hose up to the small jet. She had no clue either.

  They were men, they could figure it out.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your calls. I didn’t think you wanted Sean to know what we were planning,” the younger girl told her as they waited. She was just a little taller, with dark brown hair and pink highlights on her bangs. There was still acne on the young face and she was a little busty around the chest, but her black suit and pads covered most of her thin frame.

  “Why would Sean—?” she began, then stopped. “Wait, you don’t think?”

  “I couldn’t tell you over the phone when we talked, and I tried to get you to stop talking by talking over you, but I think he still got the gist of our conversation. You see, we might have gotten him out of the compound’s systems, but he still has the satellite system we use for our cells under his control. I think he’s been listening in on everything we say. I can’t be sure, but I don’t want to test it,” Jenn explained and she felt the pit of her stomach twist in agony.

  “Then he probably knows we’re coming,” she commented dryly. It wouldn’t stop things, they still had to go. But now the chance at surprise was lost to them.

  “Not tonight he doesn’t,” the young girl smiled. “I made some calls to my people, told them that I hadn’t worked anything out yet and that it might be a few days before we tried. If we leave right now, we might still achieve our goal.”

  She laughed. The men were pulling the tanker away, they had figured it out after all. Naima was hanging back, listening in but not commenting. Vitarius was standing by the ladder, waiting patiently for them to board. “I take it you figured it out?”

  Jenn nodded. “Used one of Ben’s programs he used to hack the 9th compound. He had asked for my help and I found those videos he displayed when confronting Sean last night. I tested it and it works, Sean has no idea he’s vulnerable.”

  Smiling, she stepped towards the ladder and watched as an older man stepped into view. He was slightly overweight and the suit looked horrible on his stocky frame. “Got a blip on the radar. We should go,” the man told them.

  “That has to be our group coming in,” she said, feeling a sudden rush to leave. “Let’s go peeps,” she told the others and John paused before following the others up the ladder.

  “I’m not so sure about this,” the man said as Mark pushed past and climbed aboard.

  They didn’t have time to discuss this.

  “We’ve gone over this. There is no other way,” she stated firmly.

  John shook his head. “If there’s a plane coming in, that means there’s going to be extra guns arriving as well. Maybe we can wait and see how they react. You never know, they might agree.”

  She sighed. She had exhaustively considered that all day. “No,” she said. “We can’t take the chance.” She tried to smile and patted the man on the shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”

  He let out a deep breath. “As you wish,” he told her and followed her to the awaiting plane above. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  She turned on him. “Do you not know anything? You never say something like that! What are trying to do, jinx us?” She slapped him on the shoulder with her fist, a wicked grin on her face. “Get moving Han Solo.”

  “Seriously?” the man asked, stunned.

  “You bet your ass. Right now, we could use all the luck we can get. So either you knock it off or you can stay here. I need a rabbit’s foot not a broken mirror,” she told him severely.

  John shook his head in disbelief. “Want me to find a shamrock too?”

  “Would you mind?” she asked, then turned her back on him
and entered the cabin of the jet. Ignoring the ugly glare she got from her new friend, she went to sit beside Jenn. She had to be brought up to speed on their current plan and now that Jenn had furnished her piece, things were finally coming together. “I didn’t expect you to come all the way here.”

  “He was my friend too,” Jenn told her softly. The jet was cycling up and she felt the plane begin to move. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” She gave the girl a hug and shared a moment of grief before returning to what came next.

  “Well, at least we didn’t have to steal a plane,” Mark offered.

  “Yeah, but they don’t know they can’t use their phones,” Jenn told them. “And if you call them, it might tip Sean off that we’re aware of that.”

  She moaned. She hoped their cover story would be enough to distract them all for a while. Joseph would probably go looking for them. It would hopefully take a while. But the moment he noticed that it had been a ruse, he’d be on the phone to Todd, then the game was up.

  Sean wouldn’t take their disappearance as anything but their imminent arrival. She hoped the plane got them there quickly or else all would be lost.

  “I love you,” she said looking south, sending her love towards her husband. She looked out of the window at the dwindling landscape. “I love you all,” she whispered towards the disappearing compound. She hoped one day her kids would understand.

  The forest below disappeared as they broke through the clouds, their trip north had begun.

  Chapter 41

  Family

  Robert

  Safford, AZ

  He was in the one place he’d thought he’d never see again, a hospital room. He had thought that was a thing of the past. If you ever saw a hospital in a zombie flick, they were always overrun or hiding some monster in a closet. His eyes kept getting drawn back to the bathroom, sure that at any moment an undead creature would come shambling out of it.

  A nurse was taking his blood pressure and he couldn’t help but feel how surreal it all was. “I just don’t understand,” he told her in bewilderment.

  The Hispanic woman tried to smile, but the ordeal that she had suffered the last few days had put a permanent damper on her mood. “The day after the shit hit the fan in the major cities, this very large group of gangbangers came strolling into town firing their weapons at anything that moved. A lot of people died; those that were left, anyways. The rest they rounded up and locked in the Super Center while they cleared the city of the remaining undead,” she explained, drawing a vial of blood.

  “Got someone to test that?” he asked curiously.

  The woman sighed as she took the little vial and looked at its contents. “Habit,” she muttered and tossed it on a tray. “We have a doctor, luckily for you, but most of the rest of the staff jumped ship. Most of them fled before those men had even arrived. Some fled south, others into the mountains, the rest? Who knows? Of those that were freed this morning, more than half of them have moved on as well. There’s a general feeling that this isn’t over, that those men will return. Get while the getting is good.”

  “You’re still here,” he observed. The final pieces were falling into place and he saw the look of despair on the nurse’s face.

  “I’ve got family here. They’re not ready to go just yet,” she told him. “This is our home, we can’t just abandon it. Our family has been in these parts since the Great Depression. They figure, if they can survive that—.”

  “Heh, not exactly the same thing,” he muttered and saw the flinch he caused on her face. “Sorry. I guess I’m just having a hard time seeing the rainbows through the rain clouds.”

  Someone passed by the window outside and he turned in the direction of sudden movement. “Don’t worry, just your guards,” the nurse told him.

  “Guards?” he asked in surprise.

  That actually drew a smile. “Of course, you’re the local hero. Didn’t you know?”

  “I’m no hero,” he sighed. The things he had done since this all begun, from the moment he had driven that butcher knife into his daughter’s brain, had been villainous, not heroism. How could he pretend to be something he knew he wasn’t? He had taken innocent lives, showed no mercy. He didn’t deserve to be put on a pedestal. If anything, they should just let him die.

  It would probably save more lives.

  “You’ll have a hard time convincing anyone else of that. My father has been telling everyone about how you fought in that arena. That no matter what they threw at you, you fought through it. They see you as the one hope they have to drive Renny’s men back, once they return from their trip up north,” the nurse said. “Meanwhile, it looks like you might have some internal bleeding and I’m just waiting on the go ahead to take you into surgery.”

  “Internal bleeding?” he asked, suddenly worried.

  “Hard to tell for sure, most of the main power has not been restored yet. We’re running off backup generators. Afraid the MRI needs more juice than we have to offer at the moment. You’re stable at the moment, but our doctor wants to perform exploratory surgery just to make sure,” she told him, trying to sound confident.

  “Surgery?” he asked with concern. “You’re kidding, right?”

  The woman smiled weakly. “I’m sorry. We have no choice. It seems like you have a broken rib and you might have punctured something. Couldn’t have been anything major or we wouldn’t be talking right now. But if we leave it, it might get worse. Best to fix it while we still can. We might need you again in case they come back.”

  “Why do you think they will be?” he asked, trying not to think about the danger he was in. He hated the thought of going under the knife and inside he was beginning to fall apart.

  “That crazy lunatic found out from some woman that there is an armed compound to the north. He sent a scouting party to find it yesterday, that’s why there were so few of them in town. Once he hooks up with them and turns them around, they’ll be back. They spent too much effort on this town to just abandon it. Especially with so few of us left to defend it,” she told him sorrowfully.

  “Armed compound? Todd?” he asked in confusion. That woman must have been Nina. Shit, his failures were coming back to haunt him.

  What have I done?

  “Todd?” the woman asked him, stopping in her tracks. “Who’s Todd?”

  He sighed and reached for a cup of water. The liquid burned on its way down and he realized that the malnutrition he had been put through the past few days had weakened his health. He was amazed that he had made it this long. “Todd is one of my former co-workers back in Tucson. We worked at the same Wal-Mart together.”

  “Todd Raines?” the woman asked, suddenly interested.

  He was taken aback. How did she know that? “Uh, yeah?” Did she know him?

  “Oh my God, that’s my cousin,” she stammered. “You mean that maniac is out there trying to track him down? You’ve got to tell me everything! I thought that whole Doomsday shit was a joke!”

  He was reeling. What were the odds that he’d run into another family member of Todd’s? Worse, that she was trying to save his life. Now the guilt returned with full force. He began talking, trying to gloss over his part in things, and saw the look of concern on the woman’s face. “So he really built it? Holy shit,” she muttered. He saw something in her eyes, it looked like hope. He couldn’t allow that to nourish itself.

  “Renny and his men are out there looking for him. He has no idea they’re coming,” he warned her. “I don’t know how prepared they are, but if that maniac has enough men with him—.”

  “We have to warn him,” she said, whipping out her phone. A man had come to the doorway and had an anxious look on his face.

  “They’re ready,” the man told her. “The doc says we need to hurry.” Other men were coming into the room as well and had begun unhooking the lines running from his bed.

  He tried to sit up. “Wait,” he told them, trying to hold them off. He was responsible for what was happeni
ng out there. Something in him was pushing to make things right. It was an odd feeling, one that he had thought he’d lost forever. The nurse was busy dialing as his bed began to move against his protestations.

  “Robert! Do you have Todd’s number? I’m trying his dad’s but no one is picking up,” she asked the man that had been guarding the door. The man dug out his own phone and was flipping through it as he rolled past.

  “No. I got Henry’s, but that’s it. Maybe Granny has it?” the man that shared his name had answered.

  The bed was rolling faster now and the drugs that he had been given were making his head swim. “Find my phone! There’s a number in there for Sabrina. She has to be with him by now,” he told them as he closed his eyes. The lights were making him dizzy. He didn’t hear what happened next as the morphine kicked in stronger and he blacked out.

  Chapter 42

  Uninvited Guest

  Joseph

  Compound 1

  “Hey in there!” came a voice from over the wall.

  “Who the hell is that?” Sabrina asked him. They were standing at the bottom of the ladder and the rest of their group was still disembarking.

  “How the hell should I know?” Joseph returned. They had just parked the plane in the hangar and had stepped out to wait for the others to catch up.

  The voice called again. “We know you’re in there, just saw that plane come in for a landing!”

  He growled and began walking in the direction of the voice, his weapon held ready. It was originating from the direction of the gate and he suddenly wished there were more guns to go with him. “Come on,” he told Sabrina and she fell into step at his side. Nick rushed forward as well, his AR-15 looking way too big for him to carry. “Maybe you should hang back,” he told the young boy, but the determined face told him that he was wasting his time. “Right, just like your father. Well then, let’s go greet our visitors.”