Dropping the jar, he stared down in disbelief at the shaft, wrapping both hands around it, feeling the sticky warm blood flow over his fingers and down his back where the sharp head protruded. He looked back up at Kim, who had another arrow notched and ready, no trace of mercy whatsoever in her cold eyes. Clint dropped to his knees and vomited violently, searing pain radiating from the wound throughout his torso. Pleading for mercy in a faltering voice, he saw her lower the bow and his hopes rose that he might yet live. Then he saw her draw the huge Bowie knife and advance toward him. He felt the impact but, curiously, no pain as she slashed the heavy blade across his throat from right to left and back again. His face slapped the ground hard in a puddle of blood and vomit and he tried to call out for his mother as his vision faded into eternal darkness.
Kim rolled him onto his back and bent down to slash open his belly and castrate him, then stepped around him and prodded Doc Henry with the toe of her boot. His body was still twitching when she did the same to him and threw the bloody mess into his face. She turned her attention to Dave, lying on a bedroll in the grass. His face was peaceful and content. An empty morphine syringe was still in his hand and his sightless eyes were open, staring blindly up at the sky. Still she performed the same ritual on his corpse.
She quickly searched the bodies and the crude camp, gathered up any weapons and ammunition she could find, stuffed Doc’s bag with what drugs and medical supplies there were and faded back into the woods, leaving the three bodies to whatever fate befell them.
. . .
“I was worried sick about you,” Kate scolded Kim, holding her at arm’s length by the shoulders after hugging her tightly. She stared at her bloody hands and the spatters on her clothing. “Where were you?”
“I knew those renegades had to have a camp up the road, so I decided to have a look. I was right.”
“You went off by yourself!” Jake reproached her. “I thought we all agreed that no one goes off anywhere alone! Why on earth didn’t you at least tell someone what you had in mind? We could have sent someone with you!”
“I didn’t want anyone else around,” Kim stated calmly. “I knew what I needed to do and I didn’t want anyone to try to stop me from doing it.”
“Kim? What did you do?” Kate asked quietly, looking her in the eyes.
“Not nearly as much as they deserved,” she shrugged. “There were three of them there, drunk and bragging about raping and torturing us when they took the farm. When I heard that, there was no way I was going to let them live. That is never going to happen again!”
“All right, Kim, it’s okay. You killed all three?”
“One of them was laid up with a bad leg wound,” she shook her head. “He overdosed on morphine. But it sounded like the rest of them are planning to hit us, probably today.”
“We’re ready for them,” Pete assured her. “If nothing else, we can hold them off long enough for reinforcements from Hollington to get here. They’re fools if they think they can take us.”
“Maybe,” Jake said, a hint of doubt in his voice. “Maybe they’re that desperate. You said the supplies in this area are drying up; maybe they need to hit us. Based on what the Kays saw by the old stead, there may be forty or more of them. Forty infected, I wouldn’t even worry at all, but forty armed men; that’s another story.”
“We heard two grenades go off in the old house,” Kate interjected, “booby-traps set by Kim, and a number of screams. Brooke and I wounded a couple others on the road pretty badly and Kim left three dead behind her, so I’m thinking closer to thirty.”
“Still, thirty men with guns,” Tom declared, “that’s a formidable force, even with backup from Hollington. The infected just charge forward blindly. Armed men firing from cover could give us a pretty rough handling.”
“We could take a lot of casualties,” Jake agreed. “That’s not acceptable. We need to all draw back to the main house, behind the barricades and keep up a careful vigil. Unless they have some heavy weaponry we don’t know about, those railroad ties will stop any bullets. With a cleared killing zone all around the house, they won’t be able to get close enough to toss explosives or firebombs before we can cut them down. Once the shooting begins, Hollington will send out a party and take them from behind, just like we’ve planned.”
“And if they don’t hit us today, I will hunt them tonight,” Kim thought, keeping that bit of information to herself.
“Should we get word to Hollington that there could be an attack today?” asked Tom.
“I’d like to, but since we don’t know for sure when they’re going to hit us, I’d hate to have anyone caught in the open if they’re nearby. At the sound of the first gunshot, Hollington will know there’s trouble.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Pete declared. “I’ll pass the word and get everyone into position.”
“One more thing,” Jake stopped him. “If they do attack us, none of them get out of it alive. These people mean to rob us, kill us, and do even worse things to the women. They can’t ever have another chance, even if we have to hunt them down and kill them one by one. They all die.”
Everyone nodded and a disturbingly malevolent smile spread across Kim’s face. She’d never planned any different.
Chapter 22: The Bandit Attack
Bernie ran headlong up the road in a blind panic. Only minutes before he was sitting on a guardrail taking a breather after walking steadily since daybreak. He rested there for about twenty minutes and, just as he lifted the water jug to his lips to drain the last few ounces, he saw Tad and the remnants of his band barely a hundred feet back down the road. Tad stopped for a moment, surprised, then rushed toward Bernie in a stumbling, loping run. Bernie dropped the water bottle and the tire iron he was still carrying and ran, hoping he could gain enough distance to lose them. Fifty yards along, he risked a glance back and saw Tad raising a rifle to his shoulder.
Terror-stricken, he stumbled and fell just as Tad pulled the trigger and he could hear the bullets whiz past above him. Petrified, he stared back, watching as the infected lowered the barrel of the rifle until it was pointed right at him, then saw the frustration in Tad’s face as he fired the last round in the magazine, kicking up a small chink of pavement three feet to Bernie’s left. As Tad hurried to change magazines, Bernie found his footing and began an adrenaline-fueled dash, tears streaming down his cheeks as he mouthed a prayer he’d not uttered since childhood.
A sharp turn in the road put some trees and brush between him and his pursuers and he spotted a car at the side of the road further along. Sobbing in hope and desperation, he raced for the car, begging God to let him reach safety. Three bodies lay in a grassy clearing off the side of the road and he recognized them as his former partners. He gave them no more than a glance before jumping into the Suburban. Thankfully, the keys were still in the ignition. He started the engine and, tires spinning and tossing dirt and gravel out behind them, roared down the road away from the nightmare vision of infected with guns.
Angry and frustrated, Tad roared and shouted an obscenity as he saw the car speeding away, then stopped and puzzled over what just happened.
“F-fuck,” he said uncertainly. “Fuck!” He had no idea what the word meant, but it felt strangely satisfying to say so he repeated it several more times, finally shouting the word at the top of his lungs. He caught the scent of blood as the light breeze blew into his face and he rushed forward to find the three fresh corpses laid out like a macabre feast for him. Pouncing on the nearest one, he tore into the belly, already ripped open by Kim’s knife, and began to feed on the soft tissues within. The rest of the band was only a few moments behind him and soon, all nine infected were feasting on the unlucky bandits.
. . .
Bernie drove recklessly, foot pressing the gas pedal firmly to the floor, fishtailing around a curve, struggling with the wheel to keep the vehicle on the road. He barely maintained control as he pulled out of the curve and spotted a large farmhouse atop a hill and h
ope surged within him. His vision suddenly became obscured as Eve put a bullet through his radiator and steam billowed out from under the hood. She fired a second time and flattened his left front tire. He lost control of the big SUV and it spun in a complete circle and slammed, nose down into a roadside ditch, the airbag dazing him but saving him from serious injury.
He was just beginning to come to his senses when the driver’s door was torn open and strong hands pulled him from the vehicle and tossed him face down to the ground. He felt a heavy boot on the back of his neck as more hands searched his helpless body, rifling through his pockets, frisking his torso and yanking off his shoes.
“Alright, you can get up on your knees, but one false move and you’re dead,” Pete told him, an M-4 pointed at his face.
“I got no weapons,” Bernie sobbed. “Please! They’re after me! I need help!”
Pete looked at Tom who held up Bernie’s small pocketknife and told him he’d found nothing else to speak of during the search. Pete nodded to Vickie, who came up behind their prisoner and cuffed his hands together behind his back.
“On your feet! Walk to the house and remember that your life depends on you not doing anything stupid!”
“Y-yes sir! Yes sir!” Bernie blubbered and clumsily got to his feet and headed for the front porch.
“Up the stairs and inside,” Pete ordered, prodding him with the rifle for emphasis.
Once they were all inside, Carolyn shut and bolted the door and Bernie was forced to his knees again.
“He was one of them,” Kim said angrily, drawing her knife and quickly advancing on him. “He was one of the ones we tied to the trees!”
“Hold on, Kim” Jake admonished, touching her wrist. No other man could have stopped her, but she sheathed her knife and stood watching, arms crossed over her chest.
“You got a name?” Jake asked, looking down at the handcuffed man.
“M-m-my-my name is Bernie. Bernie Levin.”
“So, what’s your story, Bernie? And it better be good if you expect to survive the next five minutes.”
“I was with them, yeah, I admit it! But I didn’t have no choice! Look at me; I’d never make it on my own! I wouldn’t last a week by myself! I had to go along with them!”
“You go along with them when they kidnaped women, too Bernie?” Kim growled menacingly. “Didn’t have a choice there either, Bernie?” meaningfully emphasizing his name.
“Oh, God, no! I swear! I never hurt a woman! Never! I don’t even like women! I mean, I don’t go that way! Look, I was just their whipping boy! They laughed at me, slapped me around, and when they didn’t have any women, they used me instead! I couldn’t get away; I could never survive on my own! They did things to me and if I tried to resist they beat me until I couldn’t stand up! I hope you kill them all! I hope they all get eaten! Please! I don’t want anything to do with them!”
Kim’s face twisted into a sneer as her fingers tapped the grip of her Bowie knife.
“You said they were after you,” Pete spoke after a moment. “Your gang is behind you?”
“No! Worse than that! Infected! Infected with guns!”
“What are you talking about?” Jake squatted down to look him in the eyes. “Infected don’t use guns!”
“That’s what I always thought! This one did, though! I was looking right at him! He had a rifle and he put it to his shoulder and he sighted along the barrel and he shot at me! He fired a burst on full auto! Lucky I tripped and fell or he would have cut me to pieces! He had to stop and change magazines or I would be dead meat right now!”
“What the hell are you saying?” Vickie shouted. The infected have never used weapons! Not of any kind!”
“I’m telling you, it was an infected! I’ve seen enough of them I know how to recognize one! This was an infected with an automatic rifle!”
Jake stood up and walked a few steps away from Bernie.
“It’s not possible, is it?” Pete asked him.
“I don’t know. I don’t know! We’ve seen how the alphas were getting smarter last fall. Over the last few months, who knows? I think he really believes he saw an infected fire a gun at him. Can we take a chance on dismissing it?”
“Maybe I should interrogate the little man,” Kim said in an icy voice, again drawing her knife. “I’ll find out the truth.”
“Put that away, Kim! Kate, will you please take her to another room?”
“Okay, Jake. Come on, Kim. We’d like to keep this one alive. For now,” the last she said while looking down at a terrified Bernie.
“Good God,” Carolyn muttered. “I actually thought the worst was behind us. If they start using guns, how do we stop them? Can we stop them?”
“They can’t all be able to use guns,” Jake said. “Maybe some of the alphas have, I don’t know, evolved enough to figure out how to use them.”
“This is bad. This is very, very bad,” Tom put in nervously. “Even if only a few of the alphas can use guns, they could lay down covering fire while the drones charge in. This is bad.”
“Don’t assume they have that kind of ability, Tom. Just because he saw one alpha use a gun, it doesn’t mean they have any grasp of strategy or tactics,” Pete reasoned. “So it saw people using guns and aped what it saw.”
“Changing magazines? If it figured out how to do that, then it’s still learning,” Tom countered. “What are they going to figure out tomorrow, or next week? They can only get more dangerous as time goes by.”
“Time is the key factor,” Jake said. “Look at the state they’re in now compared to last summer, last fall. Clothes are rotting away, their bodies look diseased, covered with sores. How many of them have worn through their shoes and are barely able to walk on bloody stumps that used to be feet? All this happened over the course of one year. I’m thinking that if we can make it through this next winter that will pretty much spell the end of the infected. We didn’t do a lot of moving around this last winter, except for a couple of trips up the same roads to Hollington, and we saw dead infected by the hundreds, by the thousands. This just might be their last gasp.”
“All we’ll have to worry about then is renegades,” Kim, who’d only allowed Kate to move her as far as the doorway, said quietly and all eyes turned to Bernie.
“How many are there left in your gang?” Jake asked him.
“I don’t know, exactly. There was something like forty of us altogether before they raided the farm, the one I’m guessing you guys abandoned. They found me and Lou tied to the trees and just left us behind. Lou got eaten and I don’t know how many got killed at the farm, but there was a lot of them missing when they came back. Then Clint and Dave and Doc on up the road. I don’t know.”
“Roughly thirty, then,” Jake supposed, “give or take. They aren’t to the south of us anymore; Kim saw to that. They can’t come at us from the east because they’d have to go right by Hollington to get to us, so that leaves the road to the north.”
“Ted said there was an old track running to the west,” Pete offered. “It hasn’t been in use for years and a lot of it is overgrown, but we can’t rule that out.”
“Alright, two most likely directions are north and west then. I’m thinking if they have any brains at all, they’ll hit us from the north and maybe come from the west then once they’ve got our attention focused, probably late in the day when the sun will be in our eyes from that direction. Kate, I want you and Tom upstairs at the back of the house. Kim, Carolyn, in the front bedrooms. Pete, you and I will move the machine gun to the north side upstairs and you and Hannah will man it and Vickie will take one of the other windows. Eve and Liz, watch the south side, just in case. I’ll try to coordinate and send people where they’re needed. Don’t expose yourselves unnecessarily and don’t try to be heroes. Remember; we’re just trying to stay alive now. Once we beat them back, we’ll figure out our next step.”
“What about him?” Kim asked, motioning toward Bernie, her hand again fingering the hilt of her
Bowie knife.
“Tie his legs together and cuff him to the radiator. That should keep him out of trouble for the time being. We’ll decide what to do with him later.”
“See you later… Bernie,” Kim smiled ominously once he was securely bound.
. . .
Time ticked by slowly, monotonously as they waited for the renegades to make their move. At least one person remained on guard at each station, giving everyone a chance to stretch, grab a bite to eat, take care of personal needs. Jake and Vickie were sitting at the kitchen table with Hannah and Liz, having coffee and leftover donuts Hannah had made the day before. He’d escorted Bernie to the bathroom a few minutes earlier, after making sure that there was nothing in there that could be used as a weapon, then cuffed his hands in front of him and allowed him to join them at the table. Bernie wolfed down a donut, sheepishly explaining that it had been nearly two days since he’d eaten anything at all, his supply of granola bars long gone. Hannah cut two slabs of homemade bread and slathered them with honey, putting them on a plate and setting it in front of him. He dug in gratefully, smiling, thanking her over and over.
“So, what kind of people are we dealing with here, Bernie?” Vickie asked.
“They’re bad people,” he answered around a mouthful of sweet bread. “They deserve whatever happens to them. I’ve been with them for almost five months and I’ve seen enough evil to last me a lifetime.”
“I saw the burn marks on your arms,” Liz said. “They did that?”
The Complete Lethal Infection Trilogy Page 43
