Rise of the Necrotics (Book 6): Gas and Go

by Bates, Bradford

  “I’ve got this,” Max said with confidence as he continued walking past the people cringing to get out of his way. To his credit, he just kept moving and didn’t look concerned by the fact all these people thought he was a homicidal maniac.

  Max looked up, meeting my eyes briefly before turning back to the task at hand. “Whenever I come in for one of those spicy chicken taquitos, the guy at the register always scans a little card from the chain on his hip. That’s what we need now.” Max had spotted the same red shirt I had and was moving towards the woman now.

  She started to rise from the floor, and I realized woman might be a stretch. If the girl were a day over eighteen, I’d give bald and grumpy my gun. I thought about shouting a warning to Max, but he already clocked the movement and had the girl covered with his Desert Eagle.

  I turned back to my gentleman caller, because he seemed like the kind of guy that needed constant supervision, only to see him inching forward. The hair on the back of my neck started to rise as I took in the murderous intent in his eyes. This was the kind of man that would shoot you in the back and consider it a job well done. If we didn’t deal with him before we left, he was going to make trouble.

  Mr. Oh So Bald and Murdery stepped just a bit closer, and I pointed the gun at him. Maybe he was starting to think I didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger after all. If he pushed it, he’d find out just how wrong he was. Seemed like the kind of decision you wouldn’t just roll the dice on and pray for the best. Granted that would imply that the man thought before he acted, and I was pretty sure he was just a creature of impulse.

  The gun pointed at his chest was enough to make him stop moving. He even went so far as to raise his hands up in a half-assed manner. It was like he was trying to say see I’m not dangerous, as if anyone would believe that shit. I kept my eyes locked on the dark and soulless orbs of my new friend, and tried not to think too hard about what I saw there. “Don’t think for a second that I won’t do it.”

  A giant grin broke out on his face as if this was all just a game, and he hadn’t been thinking about killing me to get the Bronco and a way out of here. “Hey, I’m just trying to play nice, sweetheart. You can’t fault old Jimmy for staring at a looker like you.”

  The revulsion I felt in my belly turned into cold hard anger as it rose through my body. My finger clenched at the trigger, but at the last second I stopped myself. Jimmy, the man who managed to creep me out during the zombie apocalypse, must have seen my intentions clearly, because his hands inched up just a bit higher and he took another step back. He still wore the same I’m not trying anything grin, but his eyes had taken on a cautious look. Right now he was probably starting to wonder if he overplayed his hand.

  Now that I had his full attention, it was time to take control. “Look at me or call me fucking sweetheart, and swear to God I’ll feed you to those things outside.”

  Jimmy didn’t have anything left to say. He ducked his head like a whipped puppy and shuffled back another step or two. His body language reeked of subservience, but it was all just an act. I got the feeling Jimmy was more of a stab you in the back kind of guy. He seemed like the type that would only come at someone head on if he knew the outcome was assured. That wasn’t the case here, so he was playing possum.

  Max walked past me, the girl in the QuickTrip uniform in front of him trembling with every step. He stopped when he saw me looking down the aisle, and he turned to face the scariest version of Mr. Clean you’d ever seen. Max lifted the Desert Eagle, not that baldy could see it with his head hanging low, and started walking towards him. When Max reached the man, he tapped his forehead with the barrel of his gun to get his attention.

  “I just wanted to know if you were the example I was looking for, or if you just didn’t hear me when I said get on the fucking ground.” Max stepped back, creating enough space between them that the man couldn’t knock his gun away before he shot him, and waited as if we had all day to get this done.

  My new favorite QuickTrip employee didn’t slow down on her way to the register. She was probably just trying to get away from Max, but it didn’t matter as long as she helped. The girl made it around the corner and swiped her card against a little reader at the register as Max’s drama continued to play out in front of us.

  Part of me wondered if the man would be able to take an order from Max. Sometimes when a woman asked an asshole like that to do something, he’d shrug it off. Later he could crack a joke with his boys about not pissing off a woman with a gun when she was on her period. They’d all get a good laugh, and his honor would be intact. But if he took shit from a man, life on the line or not, he’d just look like a bitch, and when being feared was your everything, you couldn’t tolerate the disrespect. I started a mental countdown, wondering just how long it would be before Max was forced to shoot him. If I were a betting woman, I’d take the under on a timeframe of two minutes.

  I’d almost forgotten the girl standing at the register until she turned to look at me. “What pump?” she asked.

  “Six.” I kept my eyes moving between the girl and Max. If he got attacked, I might have to get over the counter to get a clean line of sight. I looked up, scanning the rest of the station. The last thing we needed now were people running for the Bronco and stealing our supplies. Everyone looked like they were content to stay put, and from where we were I could use the giant mirrors in the upper corners of the store to see the entire interior.

  “How much?” the girl asked obviously feeling calmer now that she was doing something familiar.

  “Just set it for a hundred and fifty.” I was starting to get nervous now. I could tell from the set of Max’s shoulders he was tense. It wouldn’t take more than a twitch from the man in front of him for Max to splatter his brains all over the wall.

  “How would you like to pay?”

  Was she serious? How would I like to pay? The world was over, I wasn’t paying for shit. That’s when I saw the man running towards us out of the corner of my eye. I shoved the girl in front of me forward until she slammed into the register, and then turned and fired. The man took three shots to the chest and crashed to the ground. A tire iron fell out of his hand clattering across the tile floor.

  The girl in front of me was crying as she sagged against the counter. “I didn’t have a choice. We have to get out of here. If we stay here with the broken door, we’ll all die.”

  I could barely make out her words over the screaming. Apparently, the rest of the store was handling the death of the man about as well as I predicted. A few people made a break for the door, I followed them with my gun, but they stayed well clear of the Bronco.

  The girl in front of me was sobbing, but I still needed her to get the pump activated. “How do you tell this thing we’re paying in cash?”

  The girl reached up and hit the cash button, and then crumpled back into the fetal position as the drawer popped open. I reached out and closed the drawer, and the machine started printing a receipt. I smiled, remembering my time behind the counter in college. Sure it wasn’t a gas station, but the same rules applied. Being short a hundred and fifty bucks was the kind of thing that got you fired and made your last paycheck disappear. At least this girl wouldn’t have to worry about that.

  “Thanks for your help.” I thought about inching around the man bleeding all over the floor but decided not to get my shoes dirty. Jumping onto the counter I vaulted to the other side and headed for the door. The rest of these people were going to have to get their shit together, and quickly. Otherwise, the girl at the register was right, they were all going to die here.

  There was a part of me that felt bad for her. I could still remember how I felt when I realized that life wasn’t fair. Not in the you didn’t make captain of the volleyball team, or the oh my God, my boyfriend dumped me and my life is over kind of way, but in the very real, very boardroom way Director Chen shattered my life. I can still remember the smug smile on his face as he told me the Hilltop Initiative now owned me, m
ind, body, and soul.

  I’d almost made it to the door when register girl shouted, “Take me with you!”

  I had no doubt that if I’d still been behind the counter, she’d be clinging to me like an octopus, but I’d already made it to the shattered door so it wasn’t my problem anymore. It was easy enough to meet her eyes as I told her a word most people don’t seem to understand. “No.” It wasn’t a secret code when someone said no. It didn’t mean try harder, or try again. It simply meant game over, you lost, you picked the wrong side. Part of my heart went out to her, but not enough of it to bring her with us. I put my head down and ran for the pump.

  Chapter Five

  Max Meridious

  The big bald bastard had been staring me down for a few minutes, and it was starting to make me twitchy. I mean how fucking long could it take to ring up some gas? Every second felt like an eternity when you were looking into the empty eyes of a psychopath. The Desert Eagle in my hand did nothing to dissuade the bastard from moving. Whatever he was up to, it sure wasn’t lying down.

  The last thing I needed was for this guy’s thoughts of a glorious last stand to give any of the other people in the store ideas. The Bronco was just sitting at the pump, and it was full of our gear. I probably shouldn’t have even come inside, but looking at baldy took the edge off that decision nicely. Still, all it took was one asshole to step out of line and the next thing you knew everything was spinning out of control.

  Not that Mr. Smiley cared one whit from the creepy-ass leer on his face. The look seemed to say I hate you, but I love what I’m going to do to you once I get my hands on you. It was the kind of look I imagined on a man’s face after he murdered his wife for telling him to take out the trash. A look so inhuman it just didn’t feel right. It was the kind of thing horror movies were made out of, and he had those dead lifeless eyes pointed at me.

  I heard Holly speaking with the girl behind me and then her gun went off. I turned to make sure she was alright, and that was when baldy screamed and started running toward me. Unfortunately for him, he’d miscalculated the odds. I wasn’t just some idiot with a gun, or a cop that might feel guilty for pulling the trigger, I’d dropped enough bodies in the last twenty-four hours that one more wasn’t going to make a difference.

  My finger did the deed before my eyes swiveled back to the man rushing forward. Screaming before you run at someone wasn’t exactly the brightest move. In fact, it was a dead giveaway you were about to do something stupid. At least Mr. Kill You In Your Sleep was just that kind of idiot. The Desert Eagle had punched two giant holes in his chest as he rushed forward. His screaming stopped as he hit the ground at my feet. He was making some kind of gurgling wheezing noise as he reached out trying to touch my boots. It was as if he thought a single touch might just be enough to kill me and bring him back to life.

  As far as I knew magic only existed in fantasy books, and this guy was just a dead asshole. I kicked his hand away and watched him for a moment to make sure he wasn’t going to get up again. I’d seen crazier things today.

  “The pump’s good to go,” Holly shouted as she rushed past me and toward the door.

  I almost hadn’t heard her over the people whimpering and praying. Not everyone could handle seeing another human being killed right in front of them, and not everyone should have to. Looking down at the man I’d shot, I didn’t feel an ounce of regret. The man made his decision, and by the looks of it, it wasn’t the first bad choice he’d ever made.

  With the other people in here, and no way to know if he’d turn into a necrotic, I had to make sure he stayed down. There was always the chance you had to be bitten, but they thought that on The Walking Dead, and then they found out that everyone was infected. Who knows, maybe it’d be good practice for these people to leave him alive. If they couldn’t handle one dead man, they weren’t going to make it very far outside. Looking around at the whimpering and scared faces didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence, so I put another round in baldy’s head before turning toward the shattered glass door.

  It was ok. Let them be terrified. A little fear might be just the thing one of them needed to stay alive. Things hadn’t exactly gone as I’d expected with our gas and go plan. No one should have been inside, but they were, and now we’d probably consigned all of them to the gallows. To have any chance, they needed to scatter, but no one followed me outside. Fear could be a great motivator, but it could also lead to a paralysis.

  Holly’s gun blazed to life, and I started to run. On my way out, a familiar gold and green bag caught my eye. I snatched the Funyuns from the rack, stuck the bag in my mouth so I had both hands free to shoot and reload, and exited the store at a brisk jog. Holly had taken out six or seven more necrotics on her way to the Bronco. The woman certainly proved she was more than capable of holding her own, but that didn’t stop our newest problem from becoming readily apparent.

  Behind Holly I could see a herd approaching. They moved slowly, but they were coming. Too many for us to shoot, and too big of a cluster to drive through. We had to leave now. Who would have thought that long after the noise of the Bronco had faded they would all just keep heading in the same direction. The rumble of the Bronco must have been like the Pied Piper’s call to the necrotics. We drove past and they followed. For the first time in my life, I was thinking about going electric.

  Two necrotics made it over the curb and were shuffling toward Holly. I brought the two men looking for a blue plate special special down, and then ducked into the back of the Bronco looking for the AR-15. Pulling the weapon free, I popped in the magazine and grabbed another to tuck into my vest.

  “Holly, we need to boogie.” I put the stock to my shoulder and started walking slowly to the street. With each step, I imagined the look on her face as she tried to figure out why I said boogie. Maybe if she did, Holly could fill me in on why I was such a dork around her. Instead of worrying about it further, I snapped off a few rounds at the front line of the herd.

  “Who says boogie anymore?” Holly ducked her head inside the Bronco and flashed a grin at me. “Not that I’m against bringing back the classics.”

  “Then you’re going to love me, I might as well have grown up in the eighties. I’m all about the classics.”

  The two necrotics I shot fell to the pavement, and the ones shuffling behind them tripped on their bodies. More and more of them started to fall, but all I was doing was slowing them down. Still, it might buy us just enough time to get the hell out of here. I fired off a few more rounds, and eventually I had enough of the frontrunners down to create a pretty good sized pileup.

  The undead were nothing if not determined, and even now they were already pulling themselves back to their feet. As gaps formed in the lines, the ones who had been waiting behind them shuffled through the spaces unencumbered. Creating another couple of pileups wouldn’t stop them for long, but it was the best I could do right now. If I could keep the game up for a little while longer, we might just pull this thing off.

  The AR-15 seemed to hum in my hands as I fired off round after round. I wasn’t making a dent in the pack, but I was slowing them down. There was no way to know if it was going to buy us the time we needed or not. I’d like to be driving before the herd even got close to the gas station. What if they were closing in on us from all sides. There was no way to be sure until we started driving, so leaving sooner was a much better idea. I didn’t want to end up as the meat in a necrotic sandwich.

  I tossed the AR-15 into the Bronco and climbed onto the step so I could look out over the roof of the vehicle. The pile-up was still working, but the situation was much worse than I thought. For the first time, I could see the depth of what had been following us, and it scared the shit out of me. There had to be thousands of them maybe tens of thousands. It reminded me of the crowded streets of the Christmas Parade. At least at the parade you only had to watch out for the street vendors. Sure they’d rob you blind, but at least they didn’t try to eat you.

  Sl
amming my hand down on the roof, I shouted, “Time to move!” Then I slipped inside the Bronco and yanked the door closed. Come on Holly, get in the damn car, kept chanting through my head as the seconds ticked away.

  Holly slid into the driver’s seat with a smile on her face. She was enjoying this a little more than was strictly healthy. “Where’s your sense of adventure, Max?”

  The Bronco bucked forward as Holly punched the gas, and a small sense of relief washed over me. “I left it back in the other world. You know, the one where people don’t try to eat you.”

  “No one else in history has been through something like this. Just think, if we stop this thing, they could write books about us. Holly the Savior and her fearless protector Maximus.”

  An undignified snort escaped before I could stop it. “Savior, huh?”

  “It has a certain ring to it.” Holly beamed as we drove around the corner.

  The streets weren’t exactly clear on this side of the station. The gunshots must have started drawing the necrotics toward our location. Holly was weaving the Bronco through the small packs with a dexterity I could have never managed. As the necrotics started to thin out, I finally felt myself relax. A few more minutes and we would have been toast, but we made it.

  “That and the sound of that ring turns hollow real quick if we get eaten on your adventure.” Wow, that ended up sounding much more bitter than I felt. I mustered up an awkward smile to try and make it look like I was being a sarcastic prick instead of the regular kind.

  “Fine, it can be Savior Maximus and his faithful doctor Holly that saved the day.”

  “Ah, you know, I might have been wrong. Savior Maximus does have quite the ring to it.”