by Phil Maxey
“Yeah,” said Joel.
There were no glasses on her face. She didn’t need them anymore.
They were walking down a two-lane road which led into the nearby town.
She sprinted forward fifty yards in the blink of an eye then sprinted back, skidding to a stop next to him. “I have this like… energy inside me that wants to be let out… and… I can hear—” She cocked her head and leaned forward listening to the night around her. “— everything.” She jogged forward and caught up with him.
“It takes some getting used to. The hunger will come in phases. But that first time is tough.”
“What was it like for you?”
A flash of discomfort appeared on his face.
“If you would rather not talk about it…”
“By that time, LA was lost. Those that could, had left the city, fled to anywhere where there were less people. They thought that meant the scourge wouldn’t get to them. Anyway, me and some others stayed behind, trying to keep some of the hospitals going. Protect who we could… I didn’t know that I had changed. I had seen people be infected, I had seen people die, and I had seen vamps, but I still didn’t know the connection between all of them. Eventually, we gave up and we all decided to leave. It was night. There were maybe five vehicles, each one containing one of the people I worked with, and their families. I was with this LAPD guy and his family. I was sitting in the back with his son. He was about the same age as… He was about ten. And he was showing me some comic book, telling me the story, when it hit me. The thirst.”
“You killed the kid?”
“I would have done. Except Alex shot me and dumped me out of the car. Alex was the boy’s father.” I woke up twice as hungry a few hours later on the outskirts of the city, with a throbbing pain in my chest. “Luckily, I was near a small farm.”
“And you fed first on an animal?”
“Yup.”
“And then from then on you could resist feeding on humans?”
“Mostly…”
“It makes sense. The virus must change according to the first infusion of new blood it gets from the host. Then that new shape is…” She swallowed and held her stomach. “I think I need to feed soon.”
“You will…” He could sense the snorting of the wild deer a mile off.
He looked at the dark, low, block shapes of buildings in front of them and the wilderness beyond. “There are some—”
She surged forward, vaulting a fence, and ran across a gravel parking lot then disappeared into the absolute darkness of the fields behind a row of stores. Joel could hear the small herd of stags and doe stampeding away, then the sound of the weakest fall to the ground as a predator descended on it. By the time Joel had caught up to Anna, a dead deer lay on the grass in front of her, its neck broken, and her lower jaw was drenched in blood.
“I killed it quick, so it wouldn’t suffer…” She plunged her teeth back into the creature, then came back up for air.
“Feel better?”
She nodded.
“Good, because that feeling of contentment? You’re going to have to learn to make it last.”
She nodded and fed again.
Joel turned and looked at the small town ahead of them.
They’re watching.
“What is it? Vamps?” said Anna, noticing Joel’s concern for what lay a few miles ahead of them.
“I don’t know… something.”
His radio burst into life with Marina’s voice. “Joel? You got to get back here. Claire’s taken Kelly!”
Seven miles to the south, Claire looked across at her still sleepy granddaughter, patting her on her leg, then pulled the blanket up across her. “I’m going to keep you safe. From now on, it’s just you and me. We don’t need them. They’re just going to get us killed.”
The pickup bumped as she drove along the deserted country road.
She shook her head as if a fly had just flown between her lips. “Did they think I’m going to be told what to do by one of those things.” Her head swayed between the concrete being illuminated by the pickup’s headlights and her granddaughter, who was murmuring things under her breath. “We’ll find a nice little place somewhere. Miles from anything or any—”
Way off in the distance, human-shaped shadows, hundreds, spanned the road and darkness beyond. Claire saw them and, after momentarily slowing, the pickup accelerated.
“Mom…”
Claire’s eyes remained fixed on the things she hated. The things that took her son, and husband. The things that she was going to run through with her pickup.
The figures that were bathed in shadow held their ground as the pickup sped towards them. “Hold on, just got to take care of—”
Kelly’s enlarged canine teeth sunk into her grandmother’s neck. Claire froze, her hands stuck fast to the steering wheel. “You have to stop… Kelly… stop…” As Claire’s blood pressure fell, her hands dropped to her lap, and the pickup veered violently to the side of the road and flipped, tumbling through dirt and rocks multiple times, until eventually coming to a halt.
Despite the older human body inside being dead, the vamps swarmed like vultures upon the upside-down crumpled wreck.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Joel and Anna arrived back at the armory in a fraction of the time the opposite journey took. He ran past Marina who was waiting in the parking lot and went to move to his pickup, when he stopped and looked out into the darkness.
“What is it?” said Marina.
Anna walked forward, straining her eyes to see what Marina could not.
“We need to get back inside,” said Joel.
Bill and Mary appeared at the main doors.
“What can you see?” persisted Marina.
“Vamps… a lot of them,” said Anna.
“Can Evan be moved? We could make a run for it,” said Marina.
Joel opened the back of his pickup and grabbed an armful of weapons. “There’s no time.”
One of the main doors swung open and an out-of-breath Hardin appeared. He waved his hand towards the airport. “Vamps… coming from… runway.”
Everyone looked towards the west.
“I see them,” said Anna.
Joel ran inside with the guns, while Bill and Mary moved to Bill’s pickup and, between them, with Marina’s help, lifted a heavy container from the back of it into the gloom of the main hallway.
Joel ran back out. “Inside! They’re almost here!”
Anna ran back in, while he jumped inside the driver’s seat of his pickup, started the engine, and drove it forward so it was blocking the main entrance. He jumped out, closing the door behind him and looked out into the night. As he scanned across the landscape, he could feel the vibrations through the ground around him. Dark humanoid shapes, less than a mile off in all directions, were tearing up the ground, thundering towards the building.
“Come on!” shouted Anna, standing at the door, her rifle in her hand.
He ran inside, and they bolted shut the two sets of doors. Somewhere within the building a window smashed.
He pulled his M4 rifle from his shoulder. “I’ll check that out, you get upstairs.”
Anna nodded and was out of sight, moving up the main staircase in an instant.
The reinforced glass doors started to rattle, and the sound of countless scrambling hungry things filled the air.
Another explosion of glass echoed out elsewhere in the building, and Joel reached out with his senses to locate the intrusions. He ran to the main hall and opened the door, then looked up at the windows. All were still secure. Running across the large space he entered a corridor of doors, which led to small offices.
There was only silence around him, but he knew in his gut he was not alone. He walked forward slowly, when the slightest of noises drew his attention to the closed second door on his right. Moving in front of it he fired two shots through the wood. Before he could fire again, a vamp tore through the splinters and was on top of him. It
s claws flashed past his face, but he swiped the rifle upwards smashing into the thing’s jaw, knocking it backwards into the room, then put another two bullets into its head. It crashed against a filing cabinet and fell to the floor.
A cool breeze washed across him from what was left of a window. He moved quickly into the small office and lifted the metal cabinet in one move across the gaping hole. As soon as the heavy piece of furniture settled, something angry slammed into it from the other side, knocking it back into the room. Joel fired into the dark, the shots illuminating not one, but tens of blood-stained blue-and-purple faces, all intent on getting inside.
Clawed hands burst through the broken window breaking more glass. He fired again and again, each shot accompanied with screeches and growls, but the vamps kept coming. He quickly realized that his wasn’t the only sound of gunfire as the clatter of another battle was coming from the first floor.
He turned, running through the dark corridors until he was back at the main hallway to the entrance. The heads of a group of vamps all flicked towards him. Some snarled as they moved in his direction. Screams, some human, echoed from the floor above him.
Have to get upstairs.
He let loose with the remainder of the rounds in his rifle and put down five vamps, while another four clawed at the air to get to him. He slammed his rifle into the head of one, stunning it, then dropped the rifle, and pulled a large knife from his belt, and stuck it into the chest of another.
Teeth sunk into his arm, which he ignored, pulling the blade out of the vamp, and swiping it across the throat of another, then plunged it into the skull of the first.
He staggered forward, climbing the stairs as quickly as he could and onto the first floor. A trail of vamps lay dead across the carpeted floor, while at the end Anna and Marina stood, both covered in sprays of blood. He ran to them.
“Are you hurt?” he said to both. More gunfire came from within the ward.
“I’m okay,” said Marina. Anna nodded then noticed the wound on Joel’s arm.
“It’s nothing,” he said.
They all moved into the ward. Evan was awake and firing, with Bill, Mary, and Hardin, at the vamps outside.
“Anyone hurt?”
“We’re fine,” said Bill, moving his rifle from one target to another.
“How’s everyone doing on ammo?”
“I’m almost out,” said Marina. She walked and crouched under one of the beds, where Jess was huddled.
“Me too,” said Bill and Hardin.
Joel noticed Evan talking to Bill, and Bill trying not to listen. He walked closer to them. “What is it?”
“He used to be a pilot,” said Evan.
Bill shook his head. “I flew crop dusters for my father when I was barely older than you are now! But that’s not the problem.”
Scuffling came from the corridor. Anna pushed open the ward doors, walking out and started firing again. Marina briefly hugged her daughter then followed her.
Bill moved closer to Joel. “From what I saw of what’s at the airport, they’re six-seaters. With two more and the dog, we might have problems getting off the ground, and we won’t be able to take any extra weight. No guns, no water, nothing.”
“It might be our only—”
“Joel!” shouted Marina as her gun fired off.
He burst out of the double doors, and instantly charged into two vamps that were bearing down on the two defenders. One fell back against the wall, but the other quickly recovered and sliced across his chest. He grimaced, grabbing its throat and slammed his knife up through the bottom of its jaw. He then quickly turned and pulled another vamp from Anna and Marina, sliding his knife into the side of its head.
Anna got to her feet, helping Marina do the same. Both the doctor and Joel noticed the lacerations across Marina’s face and hands.
She looked down, then shook her head from the thoughts which were beginning to run away in her mind. “Doesn’t matter.” She looked at Joel. “We can’t stay here.”
Anna held up her hand gun. “I’m out”
“Same here,” said Marina. She felt around her back to the samurai sword in its sheath residing there.
“There may be a way to get out of this, but it’s going to be a one-way trip.”
“If we stay here we die,” said Marina.
“Then we need to get to the biggest plane on the runway, and hope Bill can fly it.”
For a moment they both looked at him in silence.
“It’s not the best of plans.”
More noises came from the ground floor.
Joel looked at Anna. “Grab clean syringes from the lab, and the silver suitcase.”
“You’re going to have to tell me what’s in that at some point.” She ran into the lab, grabbed a small cardboard box of syringes and the suitcase, then rejoined them outside. They then ran into the ward and closed and bolted the double doors. Noises came from the stairs at the end of the corridor outside.
Joel looked at those inside the large room. “Listen up. I’m going to try and lead them away from the airport, to clear a path. When you see it clear of vamps, get to the plane, get it started, and I’ll catch up. Leave everything here apart from the guns you have, but drop them to the ground before you get on the plane.”
“Who’s flying us?” said Hardin.
“I am…” said Bill.
“You?” exclaimed Hardin.
Joel stepped towards the former mayor. “Hey, you want to die here? Then stay.”
Hardin frowned, then swung his rifle back around to the broken window.
“We move into the other ward, through the office, and take the back stairs to the exit on the back of the building. I’ll go first, Anna takes the rear. We all clear?”
Before anyone could respond, the double doors shuddered as more than one vamp slammed into them.
Flint stood and growled.
“Come on, let’s go,” said Joel.
Most ran past the beds towards the other ward.
Joel kneeled next to Jess. “It’s okay, Flint will keep you safe.”
Jess stood.
“Keep a firm grip on his leash,” said Marina to her daughter.
Joel moved closer to Marina. “You okay?”
She nodded. “For now.”
“If you’re infected, there might be a way to help. If we get out of this, you need to talk to Anna.”
Confusion flashed across Marina’s face, but Joel was already moving through the ward, and catching up with the others. She, Jess with Flint, and Anna quickly followed.
Joel could sense the movement throughout the building as flashlights from those behind him swept across the shadow-infested back stairwell. He quickly led everyone down the single flight to a door. They paused on the stairs as he pulled it open and looked into the darkness. He then held it open and beckoned everyone down and into the darkness. Once they were all through, he ran past them to the single external door.
He peered through the small glass window. “Looks pretty clear. The airport is to the left. I’m going to go out, make a fuss and hope they all pay attention. Give it a few seconds, then run for it. When you’re ready, let me know on the radio.”
Bill handed him his handgun. “Should have half a magazine left. I wish you luck.”
Joel gripped the older man’s shoulder. “You too.” He then opened the door and ran outside.
He looked towards the airfield, it looked clear. He ran towards it. As he emerged from the back of the building, a group of vamps spotted him and charged in his direction. Using a parked car as a barrier, he split the group in two by jumping onto the vehicles hood, then roof, then trunk, and ran towards the parking lot taking the vamps with him.
As he skidded to a halt next to the pickups, he tried to keep track of the movement ahead and behind him, but instead gave up and readied himself as the fury of razor-sharp teeth and misshapen faces roared his way.
When the first got within fifteen feet he fired off his first round
, hitting it perfectly in the forehead. Just as it hit the ground another vamp trampled over it and met the same fate, falling on top of the first.
He sensed scurrying behind, and one leaped clean over Bill’s pickup almost landing on top of him. He turned as the creature sliced through the air, narrowly missing his throat. Two more booms filled the air and it dropped at his feet.
Before he could turn again, clawlike nails sliced across his back, sending a burning sensation across his body. He whirled around as two vamps slammed into him. As he grappled to keep their claws away, he managed to fire off the last bullet in the handgun, and one of the vamps fell back, but the other sliced across his face, knocking him against Bill’s pickup. Ignoring the pain, he recovered just in time to see another claw fly towards his head, which he ducked under, grabbing the vamp by the back of its head and driving it through the pickup’s windscreen. Before the vamp could pull itself clear, he drove his knife into the back of its skull, then quickly turned and finished the other wounded vamp off.
As other hungry beasts scampered towards him, he climbed up onto the pickup’s roof and looked towards the airport. Small red lights sparkled in the darkness, and over the chorus of growls he could make out the aircraft’s engine.
“Yes!”
His radio burst to life with Marina’s voice. “Come now!”
He jumped down, wincing as he hit the solid ground, and went to move towards his pickup, but a flood of vamps emerged from the main entrance of the building and smothered his vehicle, tearing parts off of it as they flew towards him.
He set off running as fast as he could, blood running from the various wounds across his body, leaving a trail across the ground. Even though he was moving faster than most people could run, the vamps were still gaining on him.
As he pushed his body through the pain that was trying to claim his mind, the single-engine plane was slowly turning in a small circle, becoming aligned with the runway.
He desperately looked back towards the hundreds of vamps that were now just a few yards behind him.
I can’t do this… I can’t lead them towards the plane…
He knew what he had to do. He started to slow as the plane rolled forward. Just as he was about to completely stop, a pattering sound came from the shadows and Flint flew through the air, his teeth slicing through the throats of two vamps. Joel ran forward and scythed through another, while Flint did the same. He looked at the dog, then began running again, Flint running with him. “Come on!” he shouted to the animal as the plane began to pick up speed.
