Missy was cursing, leaning away as branches scrapped against her side of the vehicle, partially jabbing in through the open window. I fought to remain upright, my hand back on the handle above my door, as Lewis haphazardly let one hand off the steering wheel to grab Missy by the arm and yank her closer to him.
The Jeep roared forward, spinning up dried wild flower petals, a haze of bugs and snapped grass. Lew punched the accelerator even harder, gunning us through the bumpy, uneven ground.
“Hold on,” he grumbled, letting go of Missy once she was safely lying across the console, and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands again. “I don’t want to get stuck.”
I bounced up and down, sliding partially across the seat until my elbow locked to stop me. The empty soda cans rolled about my feet, rattling and clinking together.
The front right tire hit a hole and the Jeep dipped, clunked, and then popped back up, my head just barely missing the ceiling, before Lew managed to pull us out of the brush.
Another curse left Missy as she started to straighten out, and I feared it was only the beginning. She appeared ready to mouth him off to the next millennium, when I caught the glimpse of something from the corner of my eye, followed by another round of the loud, echoing gun shots.
“Stop,” I screamed on reflex as someone sprinted out of the woods right in front of us.
Missy’s curses were quickly cut off, as Lew slammed the brakes simultaneously, bringing us to a dead stop.
We once again whipped forward and back, as the person halted in surprise only half a second in front of us before yelling, “You’re late,” slapping the hood and turning to fire his gun again.
Nathan.
And he was being chased. A second person cleared the woods and darted after him.
He was flushed, out of breath, drenched in sweat but quickly rounded the bumper, leaning up against the Jeep, pulling the trigger again.
The bullet whizzed over the hood, and lodged into the shoulder of a woman, momentarily having half her body twist backward, before she shook it off and kept running forward.
It was her. The crazed woman from last night.
In the daylight she looked even worse. Her clothes were torn, half hung off her body in rags and were dirt-stained, blood-stained and drenched in a mixture of both and sweat. Her hair, matted against her pallid skin, full of leaves and twigs. Dark, deep purple circles under her black, soulless eyes, and an unsettling dried ring of blood around her chapped mouth only meant she had been feeding.
“Christ, that’s Mora Mcloskey.”
“You know her?” I gasped. I don’t know why that surprised me everyone in this town seemed to know each other.
Lewis was quickly unbuckling his seatbelt then shoved Missy out of the way, leaning across her, reaching for the glove compartment. He pounded it and it flopped open, revealing a pistol.
“Yeah, long story.”
He snatched the gun as Nathan started shouting outside. “A little help here!”
Another bullet fired.
Lewis slunk back and climbed partially out of the window in the span of three breaths. He was half sitting, half leaning on the door frame, twisting his body so he was reaching around the windshield and immediately he started to fire his gun.
Nathan’s shots synchronized with his.
Mora teetered, four bullets lounging into her abdomen, stalling her.
“Get in!” Lew hollered over his shots. “Dee, move over.”
Fumbling with the buckle one-handed, I just got the seat belt unhooked and off me as Nathan swung the door open.
I scooted over as he dove in, his large frame folding up like a jack-in-a-box being pushed back into the box.
His neck kinked to the right to fit his head, his knees pressing against the driver’s seat in a tight squeeze. They were practically squished up to his chest. His long arm pulled the door shut with a bang.
At the sound of it slamming, Lew fired once more, slipping back into his seat. The shot missed. Yanking the Jeep into drive, he punched it forward as the redhead ran at us.
He rammed into her, knocking her over. She fell to the ground with a thud. Almost instantaneously, he shifted the clutch into reverse, threw his arm out to Missy’s seat, peered over his shoulder, and we were moving again. Backward.
His eyes remained fixated behind me, focusing on the upcoming turn and main road. My focus stayed alert on the woman.
I watched in horror as she rose back up, in a swift fluid motion, unbothered.
Five bullet holes tattered the thin, dirty fabric even more, but the wounds inflicted barely stung her. Like a bull, she charged at us again.
Another profanity left Missy, but as soon as Lew hit the turn, he spun the steering wheel, backing us onto the main road. He dropped his arm, spun around, and threw the shifter back into drive. Peeling out, we sped forward, leaving the woman lagging further and further behind, just a lone, hungry predator caught in exhaust smoke and dirt dust. By the time it cleared, we were too far gone for her to bother.
Peering behind me, I watched her run back into the woods in search of new prey, anything to feed her hunger.
“Damn,” Nathan exhaled, glancing down at the gun still in his grip. He popped the chamber open, checking the rounds. From what I could see there was at least one still in there. Sticking his left hand into his front pocket, he reached to grab something. A muscle popped in his jaw though, as he came up with nothing. “That was a close one. If you were any later I’d be a goner. Only got two bullets left.”
“Well in that case, sounds like I was right on time.” Lew had slowed the Jeep now that the immediate threat was over. He kept his eyes focused on the road ahead. “Behind your seat, black bag.”
He nodded, closing the chamber, placing it on the seat between us. Before he let go of it though, Nathan glanced at me. “Does this bother you?”
Zombie wannabes? Yes. Guns? No. I shook my head. “As long as you don’t shoot me, I’m good.”
He chuckled, releasing his grip on his hand and shifted his body, to reach over the back seat. “You look better than last time I saw you.” He grabbed the bag he was reaching for, grunted, and lifted it over the seats, barely missing me. “Speaking of which, why are you even here?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but Lew beat me to it. “I was recruiting her for our mission to find Buck, but there’s been a change of plans. Have you seen Jason?”
Nathan seemed startled, like he couldn’t believe his friend would recruit a fragile girl like me to join them on such a dangerous quest.
It annoyed me. Damn it, just because I was tiny didn’t mean I couldn’t use a freaking gun. I was almost tempted to pick up his pistol and shoot a passing tree just to prove I could hit a target. And not just any target, a moving one.
But I also knew it was juvenile to waste a bullet just to prove a point, and Nathan was the least of my problems anyway. I was just on edge and it was messing with my emotions big time.
“Haven’t seen Jay since we saw him last night. Why what’s up?”
As Lew continued to drive, he filled him in on the latest.
Nathan paused in the act of rummaging through the bag on his lap. “”Oh crap, if Jacob’s flying in, it can’t be good.”
“Exactly.” Lew peered into the rear view mirror. “I figured we’d check where we last saw him and go from there. But kind of have to start from a different path now because of Mora.” He hesitated. “I thought she was treated.”
Nathan found the bullets he was searching for and pulled out a small box, a look of triumph on his face. “She was, was cured too. Or so I thought.”
“Just like Buck,” Lew mumbled, his gaze shifting out the windshield again. We were heading up the mountain, the road inclining steeply. Flashbacks from yesterday of Jason’s truck flipping hit me, that queasiness resettling in my gut now that the adrenaline rush had subsided once more.
“So they both were treated?” Missy commented, her tone contemplative. She s
eemed rather reserved now than she had been minutes before. “Of the others you ran into yesterday, were they treated too?”
“No,” Nathan started, only to quickly correct himself. “Actually, yeah. Lew, wasn’t Meyer Jordan treated for the virus?”
“Shit, that’s right,” Lew exhaled. “I forgot about Meyer. When the CDC tested him, he came up positive. He’s been at my diner a few times since.”
“Did you kill him yesterday?” she asked, thoughtful. I had no idea what she was thinking. My best friend got real random sometimes.
“No. We shot him a few times and then ran. When he spotted a deer, he chased after that instead.”
“How many people did you come across? You know with the virus?”
I sat in the backseat, staring completely confused at her.
“I don’t know,” Lew shrugged. “Not many. Maybe one more. Two tops.”
“Humph,” she replied, drawing a questioning silence. She must have started to pick at her nail polish, because I heard the familiar sound.
“Is there a point to these questions?” Nathan asked, picking up his gun again. Above the bag on his lap, he began loading the chamber skillfully, one bullet at a time.
“Maybe.” Chip, chip, chip. Seriously that nervous twitch she had with her nails was annoying sometimes. “Hold up, a sec, I’m thinking.”
We waited a couple minutes before she continued. Chip. Chip. Chip. She dropped her hands and half-spun to face us. “So Lew, you know how you were questioning whether the mosquitos actually caused the outbreak and how it was possible they could have, if the virus is spreading again?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
“Well, I don’t think we have to worry about it being a different reason. I don’t think it’s an outbreak, at least not like before.” She pulled the seatbelt strap away from her throat, so she could face me and Nathan a little bit more. “Lew said earlier that you guys got together because you wanted to see if Buck was having a reaction to the treatment before causing hysteria in this town again—correct?” She was looking specifically at Nathan.
He was in the act of putting the tote bag back into the trunk, the gun back on the seat. “Right?” I could tell he was just as lost as me.
“Well, that’s what I figure it is. A reaction, not an outbreak.”
He dropped the bag, and shifted forward once more, this time his elbow hitting me in the side of the head. He quickly muttered an apology as I rubbed at my temple.
“How do you come up with this theory?” He asked.
“Because last time there were multiple bodies, this time there’s only a couple. And it’s confirmed at least three of them have been previously treated and cured before relapsing. You know like Cancer sometimes does.”
“Come again?” Lew gave her an odd sidelong glance.
“I mean, maybe it’s like a remission type thing. They were cured, but the virus came back. Like cancer can too. Maybe the treatments only temporarily cured them.”
“Or,” she became more theoretical, “Maybe it has to do with the way the treatments were applied. Maybe one group had a reaction to them. Or there was a bad batch of spoiled medications. Or,” she paused. “I don’t know. Just something along those lines.”
Lew peered over his shoulder at me, as if he thought she was certifiably insane and needed me to verify this for him.
I get my best friend could fly off the cuff easily, curse like no other, whine and complain when she wasn’t in the mood to do something, say inappropriate things at the worse times, sometimes lack common sense in dangerous situations, but she was also the most caring person I know—the reason she got worked up so easily, and had a brain on her that actually was smart—though she didn’t care to have the obvious pointed out.
I considered everything she had said, and realized I was agreeing. “I think she’s on to something. I’m not positive what is causing it, but she may be right about it just affecting those who had already contacted the virus once. It may seem ludicrous to you guys, but you should listen to her. She is the one that guessed it was mosquitos causing the outbreak in the first place.”
“I don’t disagree,” Nathan admitted. “But there’s still a problem with this.”
“And that is?” Missy didn’t take well to constructive criticism.
“It might not be an outbreak, but if we don’t figure out a way to stop Buck, Mora, Meyer—and, well, all the others, how many that may be—there will be an outbreak again soon if they start biting people.”
I just happened to be glancing forward, and I caught the way Lew’s hands tightened on the steering wheel in reaction to what Nathan had pointed out.
My insides knotted more, intensifying the nausea in my gut. Or maybe I was just getting car sick. I wasn’t good in the back seat.
“Nate’s right,” Lew grumbled. “If we can’t figure out a way to stop them, this virus is spreading again. And what if it’s just the beginning, and all the treated are relapsing, not just a small portion of them? Then what?”
“We run like hell from them, hide in a freaking bunker while we blow this town up?”
“Now I see why you and Buck were friends,” Missy said.
“Any other suggestions?” Nathan rebutted, kind of in a condescending way.
“Yeah,” Lew cut in. “We get back in the woods and get our friends the hell out of there before they join the tally and we do what normal people do. We let the government decide what to do.”
He exhaled loudly. “Jay’s already hurt as it is. We aren’t trained for this shit.”
He let go of the steering wheel, reaching for the bag on the center console, grasping it, he held it out toward Nathan and I. “That food you wanted Nate, is in this bag. Eat up. We’ll be stopping in less than two minutes.”
As Nathan took the bag and settled back against the seat, Lew brought his attention on the road again. “And Dee, I suggest even if you aren’t hungry, you eat something else anyway. There’s no time for that sugar problem right now. I can’t take any chances with that shit while you carry a gun.”
“She’s carrying a gun?” Nathan’s jaw dropped.
“Yeah. I mean, I hope. Can you still shoot lefty? I forgot to ask.”
“Not as good,” I confessed. “But good enough.”
“Then that’s good enough for me. Now eat something.”
I peeked into the bag as Nate handed it over. I wasn’t hungry at all, but whatever. Lewis was right. There was no time for my sugar problem.
26
Lew parked the Jeep on an angle, and was the first of us out of our seats. He hurried to the trunk, tossing the book bag over his shoulder. There was one gun still snug against his back in his waistband, the pistol from the glove compartment was just placed momentarily on the rubber mat in the trunk.
He handed rope to Nathan as soon as he climbed out of the vehicle like one of those clowns in the mini cars at circuses.
Nathan shook it out so the entire thing untangled, then quickly began looping it around his elbow and palm, creating a large hoop. He tied it off, tossed it over his head, and the rope slung diagonally across his torso, freeing his hands. Clearly he did this before.
After he was finished, he rummaged through the black bag again still in the Jeep, pulling out more bullets. He stuffed them into his pockets. He also pulled out a large knife, flipped it open, flipped it close and shoved that into his pocket too.
The blade had to be at least five inches long.
Missy and I stood off to the side, keeping out of the way. She was holding onto my arm the way she does when she just wants confirmation I’m still here with her, plus she really disliked guns.
Lew walked past us, and we stepped back even further. He leaned into the backseat, grabbed the food bag we left there, and started pulling out the container of peanut butter though we just ate. He shoved it into an open compartment on his book bag along with some prepackaged crackers and the rest of the bottles of water. Turning, he zippered it up. “Just in c
ase the guys are hungry.”
He moved around us, back to the trunk where Nathan still stood. Reaching in he grabbed the gun he set down, added a full round and offered it to me.
I broke away from Missy’s grip, and tentatively took it. It was heavier than I expected it to be and I really wondered how good a shot I could muster in my left hand with this weight. I wondered about the kickback too. I wanted to fire a test shot, but again, I wasn’t just going to waste bullets just to waste them.
Nathan backed away, and Lew slammed the door closed, facing us. “So, first question. Do we split up or stick together? If we split up we cover more ground.”
I wanted to say we should stick together, that’s been my motto all along, but he was right. If we split up we would cover more ground and that meant we could find Jason faster.
“I vote we split up,” Nathan replied. “You three can stick together, I’ll go off the other way. I don’t mind. Meet back this way,” he glanced at his watch. “Two hours tops. We don’t find Jason in two hours, he’s not in this neck of the woods and we can move further along.”
The three of us remained conflicted but I didn’t hear anyone actually vetoing his vote.
“Then it’s decided.” Nate started to tuck his gun into his waistband too.
“No,” Lew argued, shaking his head. “We need to stick together. You have the rope and I have the first aid kit, and at one point we both might need the other. Plus someone needs to be watching your back too. We’ll just have to walk fast to cover more ground. I’m also not opposed to running.”
“Oh, hell no,” Missy retorted. “I’m not running.”
Lew clenched his jaw, “Fine—no running. Let’s just get going.”
He turned, and started to walk away. We quickly followed behind, like his little ducklings, counting on him to lead the way.
We walked for a long time.
The strap of the sling dug into my neck, scratching me with each new step. I rolled my shoulder back and forth trying to readjust it constantly. My hand was still throbbing but at least I couldn’t do anymore damage to it. And I was more concerned about my other hand anyway. My palm was sweating, my grip slipping. I was nervous about dropping the gun or misfiring when I needed to use it. Thankfully we haven’t had to use it.
Dead Friends Series (Book 2): Dead Friends Running Page 18
