The Salvation Plague | Book 2 | The Mutation

by Masters, A. L.

  “I guess. Hear the news?” Sten asked.

  “What news?”

  “Bout them rovers going around stealing,” he answered.

  “Yeah. Harry Anderson just told us,” Jared answered before Anna could. “How did you know?”

  “I have my ways,” was his only answer.

  “We heard there were massive herds of biters moving out into the country,” Anna told him, leaning over Jared a little.

  “Yeah. We ain’t worried about them,” he said, nodding to the mutant heads on pikes. “Humans are what we need to focus on right now. We can’t let them get a foothold in our area or we’ll never get rid of them.”

  “Would you consider a partnership with us? We set up a kind of exchange of services with the Rolling Hills Civil Defense League.”

  “Harry’s outfit? He finally got his rangers, huh?” Sten said with a smirk.

  “What?”

  “He asked us first. I said no.”

  “You mean we were second choice?! What the hell?” Jared said.

  Sten shrugged.

  “Jared, it still benefits us both,” Anna soothed while rubbing his leg. He didn’t like her feeling like she had to make his widdle feewings all better. He did like the leg rubbing though; perhaps he could get her to do that again later, when they were alone.

  “I’ll escort you through,” Sten said, jumping in the back seat.

  “Wait!” Jared said, but it was too late.

  “Faen! Why didn’t you warn me you had one stashed in here?” Sten said.

  He was pretty calm considering Stewart was breathing all up in his face right now.

  “That’s Stewart,” Bradley said. “He’s a good one.”

  “Hey Stewart,” Sten said evenly.

  Stewart nodded once and backed away from Sten. Sten turned his back and sat down. “Watch the little ones,” he said, giving Jared déjà vu.

  The dump truck moved, and the large, newly constructed gate opened. Jared drove through slowly and the roads this morning were clean and clear of chalk. The little ones hadn’t gotten out there yet apparently. Little had changed from their first drive through. People were back. They were working outside. Kids ran around behind their mothers. Everyone was armed.

  “I think I’ll take you up on your offer of partnership, with a few conditions,” Sten said.

  “What are they?”

  “One, don’t try to use us to do your dirty work. I won’t allow it. You need help, ask, but don’t ask for anything you aren’t willing to do yourself.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Jared promised. Sten nodded at him in the rearview mirror.

  “Two, I am the leader of my people. They do not take orders from anyone other than myself or my second. So, if you request some of my people, you will get one of us to lead them.”

  “Okay,” Jared agreed.

  “Third, do not question our methods. We have been fighters for a long time. We took out those that you call muties without firing a single shot. My people wouldn’t take kindly to you trying to instruct them in their own ways. That said, we do like to learn new things from people worth learning from.”

  Jared wasn’t sure how to take that, but Bradley was smirking so it couldn’t be good.

  “That’s fine,” Jared said. “Now, a condition of my own.”

  Sten pushed his long hair behind one ear and raised an eyebrow in question.

  “Anna is mine.”

  Sten raised his head and laughed, and everyone else snickered. Even Stewart grinned.

  He narrowed his eyes. He was actually serious. He considered how injured he might be by teaching Sten a violent lesson, if he had to. He figured he might be able to take him, but he’d probably end up with some broken limbs. It’d be worth it though.

  He looked over at Anna and saw her flushing red. He grinned at her and squeezed her thigh. He was a little surprised when she kept quiet and only covered her hand with his. He had expected some kind of indignant pronouncement. Cool.

  “We’ll be coming back through in an hour or so. We’ll have a trailer,” Bradley told Sten.

  “Ring the bell,” Sten said, and Jared caught his wry look in the mirror before he jumped out.

  ◆◆◆

  They continued to the old, deceptively pleasant looking farmhouse. Jared and Anna knew better, of course. He pulled in the driveway and saw the familiar snowball bushes. He shivered at the memory of being attacked here last time.

  The grass was tall and the blackened body, if it was still there, was hidden. He didn’t like that, at all. The porch was still cozy-looking, with the rockers and the decorations, but upon closer inspection everything was covered with a layer of dust and pollen. Spiders had spun webs on the furniture, and birds had been making their homes under the roof. He was sure the woman of the house would have never allowed all this before. He was also sure that her corpse was lying in the house somewhere, and it was past caring about cleanliness.

  He swallowed back his disgust and studied the giant, busted-out picture window. It was a shining mouth full of jagged teeth. A gaping black maw that held who knows how many terrible things inside.

  He drove determinedly past it to the chicken pen. The chickens were still clucking away in their yard, and they had even more grass and vegetation than before. The recent rains had kept their water supply adequate. He was glad they hadn’t died of starvation or dehydration. He had been worried that they would have been hunted down by muties already.

  “Anna, why don’t you and Hank and Fletch try find something to put the chickens in and check the outbuildings for other useful stuff,” Jared said. “Bradley and I will take Stew and get the trailer hitched up.”

  “Okay. Be careful.”

  “Be careful yourself, doll face.”

  Anna grimaced at the pet name and he laughed, gripped her shirt with a fist, and pulled her to him for a quick kiss.

  “Chicks dig the dominant thing,” Fletch said with a smirk.

  Jared sighed. “Why do we have to survive with these people?” he murmured to her.

  “It’s probably our destiny,” she said with a frown.

  “Remind me to lodge a complaint.”

  ◆◆◆

  “Damn. I was worried about this.” Jared grabbed the lock and chain and rattled it. They could try to hit it with a sledge or something, but he was worried about damaging the hitch.

  “This is where you got that SUV right?” Bradley asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Where did you get the keys for that?” he asked.

  Jared cringed a little. “They were in the mutie’s pocket. But there was only one key.”

  “So, the other one is probably in the house.”

  “Yep,” Jared said. “I wanted to avoid going in there. It’s probably going to be bad.”

  “Let’s go. We’ll make it quick. Let’s check the kitchen first. It’s bound to be hanging up in there or tossed in a drawer maybe.”

  Jared kept silent. They went to the back door and peered in. It led into a glassed-in porch, which was empty, thank goodness.

  “Stew, can you watch our six?” Bradley asked.

  Stewart gave him a thumbs up. He was getting better at the whole communication thing. Maybe one day they could work on his talking…and get him some sunglasses.

  Jared kicked in the back door, and it flew open easily.

  “You know you could have checked to see if it was unlocked,” Bradley said.

  “Yeah, that wouldn’t have been nearly as cool.”

  Jared let Bradley lead the way. He had more experience clearing buildings, so it made sense. The porch was empty and stifling. The glass enclosure had acted like a greenhouse, and it had to be over a hundred and ten degrees.

  They approached the entrance to the house warily. The door was a typical steel core exterior, probably not quite as easy to kick in.

  “Did you bring your breaching kit?” Jared joked.

  Bradley twisted the knob and it opened silently. �
��Yep,” he said, waving his hand in the air.

  Jared narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t quite sure he liked Bradley’s smartassery.

  The kitchen was right inside, and it was dim. Rancid decomposition leaked out into the air. It was so thick and profound that he didn’t think he would ever be able to get the stench from his nose. He felt as if he were contaminating himself just by breathing it in.

  There were rusty, darkened stains pooled on the linoleum, and various splatters on the cabinets and ceiling. The remains of a meal still sat on a plate at the counter, and a cup of something that looked like rotten milk. The meal was covered in mold and maggots writhed indolently.

  It was still better than the pile of remains they saw in the doorway to the living room. He hoped they wouldn’t have to go near them. The gleam of bone and the purplish mottled flesh that remained was bad enough without being close enough to count the teeth.

  “Check the drawers,” Bradley said, and started opening cabinets.

  Jared grabbed a paper towel and gave one to Bradley, and they covered the handles before touching them. No telling what diseased lurked in here, and he didn’t want to find out firsthand.

  “I see keys, but none match the brand,” Jared said, closing a junk drawer on the end.

  Bradley looked around and blew out a breath. The home was tidy—except for the murder scene— and it should have been easy to see a place for keys. “Let’s go further in. If we don’t find anything in ten minutes or so, let’s start looking for some bolt cutters.”

  “Maybe we should have just done that first.”

  “Come on,” Bradley said, and led the way down the back hallway.

  It was dark back there, and Jared purposely avoided looking at the mass of flesh, bones, and hair lying in the floor. He heard small pops under his feet and when he looked down, he wished he hadn’t. Maggots were feasting on the corpse and crawling all around the floor. As he watched, one attempted to make its way up his boot and he shook his foot and shivered. He imagined he felt them all over his legs now. He skipped over the rest, though he couldn’t avoid popping some of the small larvae. This was truly horrible.

  “Oh hell,” Bradley said after opening a door, and gave him a sharp, sad look.

  Jared peeked in and saw colorful toys everywhere. That was enough for him. “Shut the fucking door man,” he growled.

  “The room was empty,” Bradley said.

  It made him feel a tiny bit better, but it was still too close for comfort. If he started thinking about things like that, he would lose his shit. There was no way he would be able to come back from the horrors the sight of those toys conjured up.

  The last doorway was already open and led into the master bedroom. It was somewhat clean, except the bed was unmade and there were various flu medications on the nightstand. The closet was closed, and he opened it. After rifling through it he found there were only clothes, so he shut it again.

  “Got it!” Bradley said, closing a night table drawer. “At least, it’s the same brand.”

  “Good, let’s get the hell out of this place,” Jared blurted out.

  Chapter Twelve

  Death from Above

  Anna

  “Do you think this will work?” Anna said, holding up a large kennel.

  “That’ll do fine,” Hank nodded. “We may need another one though. They’ve got quite a few chickens out there.”

  “I can’t wait to have fresh eggs,” she said.

  “We’ll be damned lucky to have them,” Hank agreed.

  She looked over at the house. She didn’t see any movement inside. It was hard not to panic because of what happened last time. She had to remember that Bradley was in there with him, and that they were both safe.

  Stewart was wandering around the backyard, and she had no idea what he was doing. She left him to it and turned back to Hank.

  “Hey, I’ve got all the feed loaded. You think we should take these tools too?” Fletch asked Hank.

  “Take the post driver, the shovels, the pickaxes, and the post-hole diggers. Leave the hand tools. We’ve got plenty of hammers back home.”

  Fletch returned the hand tools to the shed and she went around the back of the shed. She grinned. She had struck gold, if gold was made of steel and had sharp points. “Hey Hank!” she called.

  He came around the side and grinned when she pointed at the barbed wire.

  “Can we use this?”

  “Sure can. Hey, Fletch! Come load this up!” Fletch came around the corner and groaned when he saw the rolls of wire. He complained with every trip to the trailer, but he finally got it all.

  Anna had managed to catch a large number of hens and shove them in the kennel, while Hank kept them from getting out. She heard the back door slam, and they came out.

  “Found it!” Jared said and held it up. She gave him a thumbs up.

  While he was unlocking and hitching the trailer to the back of the SUV, she caught more chickens. She shoved as many as she could in the large kennel without smashing the things into chicken nuggets. Eventually, it ran out of space, and they weren’t able to find anything else to put them in. There were still a handful of chickens and a couple of roosters left.

  Bradley came around the back of the SUV. “Ready?”

  “I’m out of room. We’ll have to find a box or something—”

  A loud earsplitting screech split the air and she winced.

  What the hell?!

  “EYYYYYYY!” Stewart practically yelled. He was motioning with his arm and making rapid hand symbols.

  “Oh shit! Everybody load up!” Bradley yelled at the top of his lungs.

  She looked in wide-eyed shock at Jared, whose head snapped up from wrapping the loose chain around the trailer hitch. Her heart stuttered to a stop as the treetops in the woods started to shake.

  They were coming!

  She ran into the pen and grabbed the remaining chickens, not caring if she squished them or not. She threw them into the back of the SUV as Stewart sprinted over toward her. She wasn’t even frightened by him; the things in the trees were much worse.

  Blurred shapes rocketed out of the high limbs and landed with muffled thuds in the tall grass. Their strange skin shifted from the blue of the sky and brown of the trees to the green of the grass. The grasses whispered as the monsters rushed toward them. They could barely be seen.

  Another shriek nearly busted her ear drums and she felt someone wrap an arm around her waist and shove her into the truck. A thud came from the back and the back window cracked but held.

  “Everybody in?!” Jared yelled.

  “Go, go, go!” Bradley screamed.

  He pointed his rifle out the back window as Stewart ducked down with the chickens. She pulled her pistol. Her hand shook like mad, and she wasn’t sure she would even be able to hit one of those things. Sweat dripped down the side of her face and she looked around wildly.

  Another thud hit the side of the trailer attached to the accelerating SUV. The metallic ring irritated the chickens and caused them to panic.

  Hank was pale and sweating, and he clutched his chest. She worried he was having a heart attack. Fletch covered their sides as Bradley scrambled into the back with Stewart and the chickens. Feathers flew up in the air as they scattered under the unexpected human onslaught.

  She turned back from watching behind them and a large, clawed hand came down from the top of the SUV and busted through her side window. She screamed and Jared swerved out onto the main road. Dust and glass flew through the air, and she reflexively slammed her eyes closed.

  She opened them as a screech sounded from over her head. The mutie’s slavering face appeared in her window and she raised the pistol and fired point-blank. The percussion was loud, and the body dropped immediately into the road. The rear tire of the trailer bounced over the rapidly blackening corpse.

  “Did you fucking see that!? Did you see that shit?! They were flying through the trees, man!”

  Anna felt herself
hyperventilating and purposely took deep breaths. She was okay, they were okay, Stewart was…well…sentient.

  Shit, that was close.

  “Hank, are you okay?” she yelled into the back seat. She was still scared to take her eyes off the side window. “Is he okay?” she yelled to anyone.

  “He’s nodding his head!” Fletch yelled back.

  She finally felt safe to look back there. He didn’t look good, but he wasn’t as pale as a few minutes ago. She unscrewed the top from a bottle of water and leaned over the back of the seat.

  “Drink this. Put some on the back of your neck.”

  She sat back down in her seat and Jared squeezed her leg. He looked sweaty and hyped up, but his driving was steady and not erratic.

  “Next time, forget about the damned chickens, okay?” he asked. She heard the anger in his voice, and the fear.

  “Sorry.”

  A few minutes of silence passed, and they were coming back up on Sten’s community again. They would need to be warned.

  “Stewart, what the fuck?!” Jared said, and snorted in disbelief.

  She turned quickly, expecting something bad, then busted out laughing. She laughed so hard that tears clouded her vision.

  Stewart had chickens roosting on his shoulders, one on one side and two squished onto the other. They looked fairly content. Their eyes were closed, and they were making sleepy sounding coos.

  He looked back at her glumly, and that started her back up again. Fletch was leaning over with one hand on his gut and the other clutching his rifle, his face was red with laughter.

  Bradley wiped his eyes as Stewart made a slow hand motion. The lone chicken on his left shoulder ruffled up its feathers and tilted its head down indignantly.

  “Bwahahaha, he said they’re… friendlies!!”

  She was laughing so hard that she was silent. She couldn’t breathe. Tears had long since trickled down her cheeks. Her stomach muscles cramped up and she thought she was actually going to die from laughing too hard.

  “Oh my God...I can’t breathe!” she wheezed. “I can’t believe Stewart made a joke.”