by Maxey, Phil
“We will.”
They were soon on the road that ran into the town.
Jim briefly looked across to Reg. He needed any conversation to distract him from the fact that his town was now just a memory. “How’s Mary?”
Reg nodded. “She’s getting by. Leaving the farm wasn’t easy…” He forced a smile. “But you know Mary, she’s intent on going back when all of this blows over.”
Both men knew that nothing would go back to how it was but uttering those words somehow would make the situation worse. Homes and businesses started to appear on the side of the road.
Jim gestured to the vehicle’s radio. “Keep trying him on the rad—” He saw it out of the corner of his eye and tried to swing the steering wheel to the left to avoid impact, but the vamp was too quick and a blur smashed into the side of the pickup, making it swerve across the narrow road. He struggled to gain control as they veered left and right. Stones flew up as the cruiser skimmed the front of driveways and walls. After narrowly missing a parked car he drove back onto the road.
Jim tried looking around them, while keeping his eyes on the road ahead. “Can you see where it went?”
Reg looked over his shoulder. “I think we left it back there.” He swept his hand through what was left of his hair. “Boy, that was a close—”
The window next to him smashed as the clawed hand of a vamp dissected the glass, sinking deep into Reg’s face. Jim desperately tried to grab Reg’s arm, and pull him closer, but the creature’s hold on his friend was too strong, and the vamp started to pull Reg out of the window. Jim slammed on the brakes, picked up his shotgun and got out, running around the front of the vehicle. The frenzied creature was still trying to force Reg out of the too small a gap, when it looked up at Jim, and the double barrels facing it. Its face contorted into a smile, before Jim fired and destroyed the distorted head that used to be human.
Jim looked around at the deserted homes and the boarded up shops that heralded the start of main street, then ran to his friend.
Reg’s eyes were distant and devoid of life. Three large puncture holes resided in the side of his skull. Jim sighed, trying to resist the weight of losing another friend was having on him. He put his hands under Reg’s upper torso and pushed him back inside the pickup, then ran around to the driver’s door and got back in. He drove the short distance past the shops and pulled up outside the hotel. Shadows and darkness vied to cover the street around him as the last vestiges of light crept slowly away.
He looked up at the windows on the second floor, then picked up the radio. “I’m at the hotel. His car is still here, but there’s no sign of him.” He didn’t think there was any point in telling them about Reg. He grabbed his and Reg’s shotgun and his flashlight and got out.
Flint barked from the back of Joel’s car, making Jim jump and almost fire off a round.
He took a deep breath. “You almost gave me a heart attack, Flint.” Jim walked up to the dog. “Where’s your owner?”
The dog barked once more then stopped.
“Well if he’s not here, I’ll come back and get you out, okay?”
Jim turned around, trying to see if there was any movement around him. His heart was still beating faster than he liked.
He quickly made his way to the hotel and pushed the front door open. “Joel?” he shouted into the gloom. There was no answer. He made his way across the creaking floorboards and looked into the back office. Claire’s radio was still sitting in its usual spot.
Where the hell is he.
He ran into the foyer, and up the stairs, and then the other set of stairs. By the time he reached the top, his heart was pounding in his ears. He shone his flashlight at the old door in front of him and pushed it open. A figure cloaked in shadow was standing near the open window.
“Joel?” he enquired, raising his light’s beam and illuminating the back of a man he hardly knew, but recognized as Todd Bray. Jim started to back away down the stairs, when the thing in the attic turned and, in the blink of an eye, charged at him, its face lost within a gaping mouth. Jim fired off a blast and tried to pivot but, instead, missed the step below and fell. As he tumbled he felt muscles tear and bones break, and all the time he was thinking of where the creature of the night was. Eventually, he sprawled out onto the wooden floorboards of the first-floor landing. His head throbbed, and his foot rested at a wrong angle, illuminated by his flashlight a few feet away.
All the pain crying out from his bent limbs were nothing compared to what he felt in his chest. He clenched his fist, but it was no good as the thing reached the bottom of the stairs, seemingly taking its time in getting to him. Jim’s heart reached a peak then stopped.
As Jim died, the creature hovered above him, almost in disappointment, then moved past and continued down the stairs.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Joel opened his eyes.
Did I pass out? Can’t stay here… have to get up.
Pushing his hands down into the ground, he was relieved to be able to push himself back against the wall just a few inches behind his head. The pain still flushed through his nerves, but it was at least now bearable, unlike before… He wondered when ‘before’ was.
Left the radio in the car… Flint… damn. Bet that dog’s broken out by now.
Another far more important fact then jumped into his mind.
“Claire shot me!” His words came out just as scratchy as the last time he tried to talk.
She knows. Kelly must have told her. Do they all know? Is that why no one’s come back? Would Marina leave me here to die?
He tried swallowing and quietening his mind to the fury of questions, none of which the answers to would help right now.
He let his fingers drift across his chest again, this time even slower than last time.
Scar tissue. Good. Must be healing.
“Bill’s!” he screeched into the darkness around him. The reason he stopped bringing the mast down, and what he saw in the desert came back to him with such an impact that he had to catch his breath.
“Have to get out of here…” His words came out between wheezes, but hearing his own voice helped him find some strength in his arms and legs, and he pulled his feet towards him, while pulling his head upright.
His head swam, and for a moment he wasn’t sure that his feet were below him, or if he had managed to stand or not. He reached out to the wall next to him, which was cold, but not as cold as when he first entered the confined space. With the generator being turned off in the hotel, the freezer room was soon becoming just a room.
His stomach rumbled, which made him smile.
“Least that still works.”
He staggered forward until he fell against the door, which hardly shook with the impact.
So how am I going to get out of a freezer room.
He scanned the walls, stopping when he saw a small box with a sign above it. He moved closer to it, trying to ascertain what the printed words said, but even with his improved vision, he could hardly make them out. Instead he fumbled over the box, until he found a small latch, and inside a handle, which he instinctively pulled.
A loud clunk came from a mechanism deep within the door, and it sprung open a few inches. With it came the distant sound of Flint barking.
Joel pushed the door and immediately regretted the extra effort as stabbing pains rippled across his chest and back. Ignoring it best he could, he walked forward through the kitchen, clattering into some of the left behind pots and pans, and out into the dining area.
He went to move straight for the foyer and front door, but instead something made him stop at the base of the stairs. Looking up revealed a faint glow of light on the landing above. He slowly walked up the creaking steps, then instinctively ducked as a shotgun blast disintegrated half of the wooden bannister just above his head.
“It’s me! Who’s up there?!” said Joel as loudly as his dry throat would allow.
“Joel?”
“Jim? Don’t shoo
t me, I’m coming up.”
Joel walked up the remaining steps, buttoning his jacket up and looked across at the body of a man he had come to admire, laying awkwardly, with his back up against the wall. Joel went to walk towards him then stopped. Jim’s heart was different. It was stronger.
It’s happened.
Joel walked forward and kneeled. “How you feel?”
Jim forced a brief smile, his top lip curling up slightly, as he opened and closed his mouth. “Hungry.”
“I know, you’ve changed.”
Jim looked up at Joel with bloodshot eyes. “How you know that?”
“Well for one thing, you wouldn’t be just laying here if you hadn’t and, secondly, because I can hear your heart beat is stronger.”
Confusion washed across Jim’s face, and then in an instant was gone. He pointed his twelve gauge squarely at Joel’s chest.
Not again.
Joel raised his hand.
“You’re one of them? I mean… you’re like me?”
“I changed, yeah, but I’m not like you… at least I don’t think I am.”
“Keep talking, son.”
“I got infected during the first few weeks of the outbreak. When I changed, it just happened, and I didn’t know what it was, or why I was so damn hungry.”
“Get to the part which convinces me not to pull this trigger.”
“I don’t know why, or how, but for some reason the virus didn’t affect me like, well, everyone else, I’m still me.”
“So, you don’t kill? You don’t need blood?”
“I still need blood, but I’ve managed to get by on animals…” It was a lie, but that was preferable than trying to heal again after another blast from a shotgun.
The implications were obvious on Jim’s face. “Can I survive like that?”
Joel shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Jim smirked. “Yeah, what’s the chances of both of us being special. Not… very… likely.” He closed his eyes. “I can smell the blood on you, it… smells like candy.” He shook his head, trying to shake the urge. “What happened to you?”
“Got jumped by one of them. What happened to you?”
“I came here looking for you. Found something else instead. Funny thing was, when I changed, the thing lost interest. Guess they don’t kill their own kind.”
“Not unless there’s nothing else to feed on.” Joel looked down at Jim’s foot. “Good news is, give it an hour and you’ll be able to stand on that ankle again.”
The sentiment didn’t have the desired affect Joel wanted it to, and Jim stayed rooted to the spot. “I can’t go back, Joel. I’m not putting those people in danger.”
“Hey, we’ll find you animals to feed on, we’ll find blood.”
“And what if I lose myself in this… hunger. Jessica is in that school, would you want me there if you had a kid?”
The answer was plain on Joel’s face, despite him trying to hide it. Joel looked down. “Then what are you going to do?”
Jim smiled. “Just because those things out there have lost interest in me, doesn’t mean I’ve lost interest in them. You still got the TNT?”
*****
Marina looked down at her sleeping daughter and shook her head. She could feel tears welling in her eyes and rubbed them.
What is all of this going to do to her?
It had been a question she’d postponed asking herself since she left Denver. Just surviving was more important, but reaching Bellweather forced it back on the agenda of things that needed to be addressed. Images of Russell rolled through her mind, and the last time she saw him. They’d had an argument, worse than usual, and she had packed up some stuff, including things for Jess, and left during the early hours. She’d spent the next few days driving across the state, and the adjoining one, to her sister’s. They could have flown, but she wanted the time to think, and anyway it gave Jess a glimpse of the country. She was worried what all the glitz and glamour was doing to her young mind, and wanted her to realize there was more to the United States than LA.
She wiped away the tear that was lingering on her cheek and wondered if she would ever see her husband again. She still loved him, despite his failings.
He was a great… is a great father.
She sat on a nearby desk, and looked at the dark unknown which existed beyond the blinds that had been pulled down over the windows, and thought about her next move. It was obvious staying in the small mining town wasn’t a long-term option. Most of the population were either dead, dying, or vamps, and she had no doubt she would be next if she didn’t move on. But to where?
She picked up one of the two burning candles and walked over to the large map of the country that was pinned to one wall.
Swinging the candle near to where they were in Arizona, she moved it left and studied California and her former home. Joel had already told her of how bad things were in LA. She then moved the flame right, across the state she was in, eastward.
Russell will want me to find somewhere safe.
She held the light near New Mexico.
“Too difficult to survive.”
North of that was Colorado, and she didn’t particularly want to travel through that area again. She then looked further east to the central states. Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska.
Low populations, but still plenty of sources of fresh water and remote areas. We need to head east.
She reached up, taking the pins from the four corners of the map, and pulled it off the wall, then folded it as neatly and quietly as she could. Once it was small enough, she slid it into her back pocket. She wasn’t sure how much use it would be as it only showed the main highways, but the glossy paper felt like hope.
She looked back at Jess and nodded. She wasn’t going to find Russell, that was a dream she couldn’t afford to hang on to. She needed to get them both away from the scourge.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A lone sedan weaved and swayed, its headlights forging a path through desolate mountain roads.
“So, your dog’s one as well then?” said Jim, glancing to the backseat where Flint’s eyes glowed slightly in the dark. His demeanor grew momentarily sad. “The scourge takes animals as well…”
“When Kelly and I were out the other night, checking on some livestock, we came across a mountain lion that had changed, and er… it didn’t really look like a cougar anymore.”
Jim took deep breaths, doing his best to control the burning inside him which was pleading for him to find sustenance. To find blood. “What do you mean?” He pushed the words out.
Joel could tell his friend was fighting the urges, and wasn’t sure how long he could hold them back. “The virus had changed it physically, its features were snakelike.”
“Right… so that’s what I’ve got to look forward to.” Jim looked across to Joel. “But not you. You’re immune or something?”
“I don’t know…”
“Joel, you could be the key to this whole mess. Did you tell the CDC?”
“That was before I changed. And by time I had, everything had already gone to hell in LA. So, I—”
“So, you just took off.”
“Yeah.”
“And now you don’t want to tell anyone, because they might put a hole in you?”
Joel’s mind returned to the freezer room a few hours earlier, and the shotgun blast. “Yup.”
“That’s what I believe they call a conundrum…” Jim’s fists clenched. “Being a vamp really… stings… who would have thought,” he said between straining.
“You going to make it to the mine entrance?”
Jim nodded. “We’re almost there, just pull up a hundred yards ahead.”
Joel brought them to a stop and was already aware of the flickers of movement in the darkness around them.
“All aboard the train to vamp central,” said Jim. His eyes flickered, and he clenched his teeth. “I… I can feel them around us.”
Something hit the car, making i
t sway and Flint started to growl.
“Wait here, the TNT and wiring are in the trunk. I’m going to get it, and get back in. Then connect everything up and you should be good to go.”
Jim nodded.
Joel got out, quickly closing the door behind him, so Flint couldn’t follow, and ran around to the trunk and pulled it open. A rustling came from the bushes just a few yards behind him.
I know you’re there, dumbass.
The thing screeched and flew towards him, he picked up the M4 from the trunk, turned and tore it up. It fell to the ground in the rear lights of the car.
Joel slung the semi-automatic rifle across his back, then looked at the options in front of him.
He grabbed the plastic container, and the bag containing the wires and detonators, closed the trunk and quickly got back in.
“Should have everything we—” He realized Jim was not moving anymore and was just looking out the side window, his face shrouded in shadow.
“Jim?”
There was no response. Joel placed his hand on his shoulder. “Jim?”
Jim slowly turned. His eyes were black as the darkest night.
“Jim!” Joel shouted.
The black dissolved in Jim’s eyes and he blinked a few times. “What happened?” He looked around himself. “I felt like I was falling, like I was being swallowed by the cold…”
Joel unlatched the lid on the box that contained the TNT and started connecting the wires to make the whole thing usable. “You never told me if you were married, Jim. Or if you have children?”
Jim wiped his hand over his face. “Err… yes to both. My wife passed before any of this started, and my daughter, she’s well, she should be in NY with her husband.”
Joel feverishly twisted and connected metal contacts to the plasticine-like explosive material. “When was the last time you talked to her?”
“About a month ago, when we lost contact with everyone else.”
“And how was she.”
“Not in NY anymore… they had escaped upstate to a cabin they had. You almost done, I don’t think I’m going to be me anymore if we wait too long.”
