Age of Decay (Book 1): Contagion

by Brian Lamacraft

  “Yeah, lad.”

  The two men went over to the house. Lauren wiped away the hair in front of Gail’s eyes, trying to get a response out of the woman, who was lost in her own reality. The wind picked up a few scattered leaves and moved them through the silence of the empty subdivision. A car with its door open was sideways in the road, its dead driver half out of the seat, tangled in his seatbelt. In the distance, a dog picked at a corpse lying at the side of the road. Although light spring rain began to fall, you could still smell the stench of death. It was a reminder that the world they once knew was gone.

  Chapter 27

  Erica and Samantha came out of the house just as Trevor and Ian arrived. Erica had a smile on her face.

  “I take it you were successful?” said Trevor.

  “Not what I was hoping for, but I got some sleeping pills. These will help her rest once we get a vehicle. Maybe in Hope we can acquire other medications and I can treat her better. It’s hard to say what is going to happen with her. I think her mind is going into a depressive state and sometimes people have a hard time recovering from that.”

  “Damn,” said Ian.

  Erica looked over at Trevor. “It often takes a lot of therapy and even shock treatments to get them to come back.”

  “I won’t leave her. Not after what happened to George. She deserves that much. Hon, how is she?” said Trevor.

  “Not any response. She’s getting worse, I think. I wish we could do more.” Lauren held onto Gail’s hand and rubbed it.

  Erica pulled some bottled water and a few granola bars from her pack. “Found these in the house, not much else there.”

  “It will be enough for now,” said Trevor. “Go see what you can do for Gail. We need to get a vehicle and get out of here.”

  Erica went over to Gail and took out one of the bottles of water and a couple of the pills. “Honey, I hav—”

  They all jumped a bit as they heard the roar of an engine and spinning wheels. It came from down the road. Trevor checked his rifle and went into a crouch. “Everyone by the house, take cover.”

  A SUV came spinning down the road at full speed. Behind it, they could see the reason why. A small herd of dead was following the vehicle. It screeched to a halt near the home Erica and Sam had just been to. Jason yelled from the window. “Everyone get in, they’re all over the place down there and headed this way, let’s go!”

  Ian slung Gail over his shoulder and hopped in the side with the rest of them as Trevor got into the side passenger door. He slammed the door shut. “Go get the hell out of here, make your way to the highway, I’ll tell you where to go.”

  Jason spun the vehicle away from the subdivision and hit the road towards the highway. It was fairly open where they were, although several cars littered the road in some sections and they had to slow down to avoid them.

  Jason glanced behind him to Gail. She sat in the seat with her head flopped back, she didn’t make a sound. “Should have left her,” he said. “Look at her.”

  Trevor began to lose his temper. Who the hell are you to tell me what to do? “What? Leave her to them so she can become their next meal? She can’t fight back. No, there’s no way in hell I’m doing that.”

  “We got lucky, because I found this vehicle. Had we been walking, we would have had no choice. You know that.”

  Trevor glared at his son. “There’s no friggen—”

  Erica spoke up. “For once, I agree with your son. I don’t know if I can save her. We might not find the right medical equipment. Hell, Hope may even be overrun with them.”

  The sped down the highway, away from the chaos. They needed to keep moving away from the groups of dead that seemed to be everywhere they went.

  “Do you think I don’t know that?” said Trevor. “What if there’s a chance. What if you can save her? We all owe it to her husband to do that. She has to have a chance to survive.”

  “Whoa, slow down,” said Sam. “Look at all the cars ahead. It’s a big jam.”

  Jason took his foot off the gas and let the SUV down. Ahead of them, the highway became clogged with vehicles. A truck was overturned in the middle of the road, still smouldering. Several dead bodies covered the road, leaving it streaked in blood and various pieces of debris. One body laid against a blood-covered car door, bullet casings littering the ground near it. Another body lay in a pool of grisly remains near the side of the road. A crow pecked at it before flying off when the car got closer.

  “Dammit,” said Trevor. “Too hard to see up ahead. Ian, you see anything back there?”

  Ian craned his neck out the window. “No, lad, too many cars. Don’t know if we can get through.”

  Trevor turned to Erica as Jason stopped the vehicle “Have a look out there, will ya? Maybe we can sneak through.”

  “Damn, just leave Gail here, Dad. We can make it on foot, find another veh—”

  “Shut up. We will do what I say, is that clear? She comes with us.”

  Jason looked ahead. “You’re going to risk us all.”

  Trevor stuck his head out the window. “Anything?”

  “Yeah,” said Erica. “We can make it around these cars, the side road doesn’t look too bad. Just have to take it slo—”

  Erica was making her way back to the vehicle when the shot rang out. She dove to the grass and readied her rifle, although the gunshot was nowhere near her. Everyone in the vehicle ducked down.

  Trevor and Jason opened their doors, using them for cover. “Everyone stay low, going to check this out.”

  Ian put his arm around Samantha and pushed her down further in the seat. “Bloody hell.”

  Erica took cover behind the smouldering truck. She looked to her right as another gunshot rang out, but even that one was way wide of the vehicle.

  “Can you see anything?” asked Trevor in a whisper. Erica shook her head.

  Samantha winced and covered her ears as another shot impacted a car to the right of them, but the shot was still nowhere close. “Who the hell is shooting at us?”

  Another round plinked into the truck where Erica was, then silence for about thirty seconds.

  A voice called out from a distance. “We know where you are. Those were just warning shots!”

  Trevor crouched by the door looking for the source of the voice. Warning shots? You couldn’t hit a barn door.

  “We don’t want anyone to get hurt. All we want are your supplies. Hand them over, and you’ll go free.”

  Trevor yelled out. “What if we don’t?”

  A shot rang out a mile wide of where he was. “That answer your question? I won’t say it again. Hand over your stuff, and no one gets hurt.”

  I don’t want to kill them, but we have no choice. Don’t know who they are and what they really want. It’s just too risky. Trevor motioned to Jason and moved his finger over his throat. His son nodded in agreement. Trevor estimated the sound of the voice was coming from his right. He made a hand signal to Jason to begin to go left. He would distract their assailants by talking to them until Jason got a clear view of them and had a shot. Their attackers were amateurs, as their shots were not threatening to them, but they couldn’t take any chances. They needed to see who and what they were up against. Trevor indicated to Jason to move out then pointed to Erica to follow him. She began to move out from the cover of the truck. His son was an excellent shot, and now he needed him. Trevor indicated through his hand signals to stay low. Jason knew to use the cars for cover as he moved closer to the source of the voice. His hunting training was to his advantage. He crawled through the grass to another vehicle.

  “Hey, maybe we can barter. Maybe you have something we can use. Come on, there’s no need for violence here.” Trevor leaned back against the door.

  “Just give us your stuff! Mister, you’re running out of time. We’ll kill all of ya.”

  Jason moved between the vehicles and kept his cover. He peered around the end of a sedan and saw one of them, his head exposed behind a vehicle in a crou
ch. The other one that had been talking was near him, but covered by the car. Jason didn’t have a clear shot of him. He turned around and made a signal back to Erica who had moved along with him, but was staying back a bit. He flashed two fingers to her indicating the two assailants. She made her way back to the group and got line of sight with Trevor and flashed the signal back.

  Trevor nodded back to her. “Come on, can’t we just work this out?” he yelled back.

  “I sai—”

  The crack form Jason’s rifle cut him off in mid-sentence as the round from the rifle stuck the other man with him. The exposed top of his head sprayed his brains and blood in a mist as the top of his head disintegrated under the power of the hunting rifle. The man speaking took off from the car, but Jason couldn’t get a bead on him because of all the obstacles. Jason yelled out. “He’s running. Bastard’s running, going right towards the trees!”

  “Ian watch the others.” Might be more of them, Trevor, take him out now! Trevor popped up from his position and weaved around the cars. He made his way to the side of the road and got his weapon trained on the man running. He’s far away, but I’ll get him. Trevor aimed his rifle, and the shot rang out. It slammed into the man’s back and he pitched forward. Damn, not where I wanted to hit him. Trevor and Erica ran up to the man as Jason made his way through the car obstacles. Jason raised his rifle.

  Trevor motioned to him to lower his weapon. “No, don’t. We need to ask him some questions.”

  Erica kneeled by the man. She examined the wound as blood poured from his lower back injury. “Okay, lie still, I’m going to turn you over.” He cried out as Erica began to turn him over with the help of Trevor. It wasn’t a man, it was just a kid about eighteen or nineteen.

  The boy coughed and moaned in pain. “Water…”

  “Kid,” said Trevor. “Why the hell did you shoot at us? You weren’t going to hit anything.”

  “Just tryin to scare you… Get your supplies... Getting hungry out here, those things... killed my brother, my dad...”

  “You were just alone?”

  “Yeah, met the other guy in a store…”

  “Should have thought twice shooting at us,” said Jason.

  Trevor out his hand on Erica’s shoulder. “How is he? Will he make it?”

  “If we had a hospital, maybe. Out here now, I doubt it. He’s losing a lot of blood, and it looks like some type of internal abdominal bleeding, but I can’t be sure of that.”

  The boy coughed and blood came out of his mouth. “Please... Don’t leave me...”

  “We don’t have time for a more thorough diagnosis.” Trevor backed up and drew his sidearm. “Sorry, kid. You threatened us first.” He fired point blank into his head so he wouldn’t turn when he died.

  Erica put her hand on Trevor’s shoulder. “You did the right thing.”

  “Yeah, I guess. Thing is, we should be killing the dead and not each other.”

  He laughed a bit. “Soon we will be just like them.”

  Chapter 28

  Trevor looked down again at the gas gauge. It was almost on empty, and they still had a long ways to go. They had managed to make this far without much trouble, but Trevor didn’t want to have to walk anywhere again with the dead everywhere he turned. Along the highway, he spotted a gas station with a convenience store and what looked like a small mechanics shop.

  “We’re going to pull in here. It looks fairly quiet, but stay alert. Jason, check out that shop over there and look for a screwdriver or anything that will puncture and some pans or a bucket we need to get some gas.”

  “Why not use a hose like the movies?” said Samantha.

  “Well, we could do that with older model cars,” replied Trevor. “But newer cars have a prevention system which makes it impossible to get gas out using a hose. You have to puncture the gas tank or use another system to do it. We don’t have time to fiddle around, so puncturing the tank is a good option. We’ll have enough to get where we’re going.”

  “Yah,” said Ian. “That’s what they do during storms when there’s shortages. Only way to get gas.”

  “Be careful,” said Lauren

  “I’ll stand watch,” said Erica. “Hey, maybe that car over there would be good. I’ll go check it out.”

  “Alright. I’m going to check the store,” said Trevor.

  Erica went over to the car and could see the driver slumped there. She opened the door carefully and the ghoul tried to lunge for her. She calmly stepped back and shoved her knife in the side of the thing’s head to silence it. She popped the trunk and rummaged around in the back for anything that would be of use to them. Scavenger now. Wish I could have saved you, Jess. I’m so sorry. She lifted her head for a moment and wiped away the tears swelling in her eyes. Dammit, you have to stay strong. How can I with so much death around me? I miss your arms, Chris. I miss you.

  Trevor entered the gas station store and was immediately overcome by the stench of death and decay. He wrinkled his nose, and it took a supreme effort not to retch then and there. He pulled his pistol and scanned the store. Most of the shelves were empty, with the odd bag of chips on the floor. The cash register was open and all the money was gone. Like you need cash now. He went towards the back, near the chests were the pop and water were stored. It was then that he saw the body on the ground. The man’s stomach was ripped open and his guts were strewn all over the floor, leaving a red mess. A young woman was bent over him. She wore the typical faded blue jeans with the rips in them and her pink T-shirt was now stained with the man’s gory remains. Her once lovely brown hair was matted against her head. Around the corpse, flies buzzed relentlessly. She turned as Trevor moved and hissed at him as she tore another pieces off of the man’s liver and chewed on it. She stood up and began to move towards him. She held the liver in her hand, and it dripped blood all over the floor as she stumbled towards him. Her arm was torn down the left side, and Trevor could see the bone of her forearm. She opened her mouth and drooled out the side of it. The bloody saliva added to the grime already all over the floor. She reached out with her blood-soaked hand, but Trevor stepped back. He calmly took out his hunting blade and in one swift stroke, stuck it into her left eye socket. He twisted the blade and pushed hard on it. The thing twitched a bit before he withdrew his weapon. The young girl collapsed onto the ground and took a piece of shelving with her as she fell. Trevor wiped the blade on his jeans and collected a few chips bags, chocolate bars, and water that was left in the ruins of the store. He put a hand over his mouth as he stepped over the corpse to grab some more of the bottled water that was stacked there.

  As Trevor dealt with his adversary, Jason went over to the mechanics shop to look around. Towards the back, he saw the mechanic, or what used to be one. The thing shuffled over by the bench, still clad in his work overalls. It turned its head to the side and turned towards him, gurgling sounds. On another bench near him, Jason spotted a ball peen hammer. He picked up the tool and approached the ghoul. Man, I’m starting to love killing you fools. Come and get it! It raised its arm and tried to swing at Jason, but he stepped out of the way of the slow moving creature. He raised the hammer and brought it down on the top of the skull several times. It toppled over, and Jason brought the hammer down again. It was unnecessary, but he savaged the head of the thing until there was nothing left. The hammer and his arms were covered in its remains. He looked around the shop and spotted an old bucket full of parts. He dumped those on the ground and retrieved the bucket. On the bench near where the ghoul had fallen, he picked up a rusty screwdriver.

  Jason went over to the vehicle where Trevor and Erica were standing. “I hope this bucket will help.”

  “Yeah it will,” said Trevor. “I didn’t find much in the store. Looks like it was ransacked. I got a few chocolate bars, a couple bottles of water. I ran into a friend, but I took care of it.” He patted his son on the shoulder. “Since you want more responsibility, you get to drain this car. I’m going to check on the others.”
Trevor smiled at him. “Have fun.” Trevor went over to the vehicle and started checking over the weapons.

  Erica helped Jason with the small bucket as he stabbed the gas tank with the screwdriver. “Your dad cares about you. He has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders.”

  “His only responsibility is to us,” said Jason. “He takes too many risks. It’s like he is out to save the whole flippin’ world.”

  “Maybe he is. We have to start again, try to make sense out of all of this.”

  Jason turned to her. “What? So we are just supposed to start over. Look out there, there’s nothing left. These things roam everywhere. One false step and we’re all dead. Only way to survive is to be tough. I won’t become one of them.”

  “At what expense? You want to drive away everyone you love?”

  “I—”

  “What about that girl you like? Do you want to drive her away from you?”

  “I just want what’s best for her,” said Jason.

  “Yeah, I get that, but you need to listen to your father more. He has more experience than you in this big old world, and he’s got us out of a lot of trouble. You can’t do it all, none of us can. You’re right, one false move and we’re all dead. So don’t go all Rambo on us, you’ll lose.”

  Jason scoffed at her. Like I need a life lesson from you. “Yeah.” Jason picked up the full bucket. “Let’s get this gas over to the car so dear old Dad can save the world.”

  Chapter 29

  Galen Blake sat at the table with his neighbor, Steven Lewis. The two men cleaned their guns and sipped whiskey. Galen lived away from Hope, and he only visited the town on occasion to go for supplies. He mostly stayed tot himself, as he loved the quite life of the country and his log cabin. He had lived in the cabin for a long time. He built it himself and was proud of his accomplishments. Galen had never married, but he was fine with that. It’s not like he didn’t have a lot of women in his life, he did. He just didn’t want to settle down. Galen wasn’t a man to listen to anyone. He did things his own way, and that was the end of it. Outside, he had a nice garden, which he loved tending to, and a well for water.