Rage (Book 2): The Infected

by Murray, Richard

  He swung his knife as one of the infected ran straight for him. Blood sprayed into the air and he turned his face, raising his left hand in a futile effort to protect himself from it. The infected man hit him, knocking him to the ground as blood sprayed from the deep gash in his throat.

  Dobbs pulled him away, grimacing as he caught sight of Jack. Still, he didn’t hesitate as he held out a hand for the other man to grasp. Jack took it gratefully and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.

  “Here.”

  With brusque motions, Dobbs wiped the blood from around Jack’s eyes and mouth. He reached into a pocket of his coat and pulled out a water bottle, splashing it over the other man's face.

  “As good as you’ll get,” he grunted before turning away and swinging his crowbar straight into the face of an approaching infected woman.

  She hit the ground and he took one lumbering step forward as he raised the crowbar and brought it crashing down on her skull. The loud crunch was almost enough to have Jack heave up the contents of his stomach, but he held it back.

  Claire and Deacon continued to fire at the Infected as they ran in through the gates, uncaring of the weapons being used against them. Michael stood off to one side, face pale as he watched them fall, while Adam laughed as he spun and kicked an infected woman in the face.

  His laughter became a scream as she grabbed at his leg, pulling him over with her before sinking her teeth into his leg. Blood and muscle were torn free as Adam continued to scream and it was with a blank expression that Claire took careful aim and fired twice.

  The woman fell first and then Adam’s screams were cut off as silence descended. A momentary lull as more cries were soon heard from the distance, coming closer.

  “What now?” Dobbs asked.

  “Are you mad!” Michael's voice rose to a shriek. “She just murdered him!”

  “He was bit,” Deacon said, lips twisting into a sneer for the other man. “Already good as dead.”

  Claire gave Jack a side-eyed glance as she caught sight of his blood-soaked clothing and the smears of blood that covered much of his face. Her finger tapped against the trigger guard of her weapon.

  “You swallow any blood?”

  “No,” Jack said, looking from Claire to the scowling Deacon. “I didn’t swallow any!”

  “Get it in your eyes? How you feeling?”

  “I’m fine! I’m not infected,” Jack said, fighting the urge to lick his lips. “Seriously, I’m fine.”

  She cocked her head as she gave him a hard look, listening to the howls of the approaching infected and considering her options.

  “Let’s get inside. Hopefully, any that come this way will run straight past if they can’t see us. You though…” She nodded towards Jack. “You can find yourself another building to hide in, yeah? I ain’t gonna risk it.”

  “Fine,” Jack snapped back. The cries of the infected were moving ever closer and he knew he didn’t have the time to argue. “Show me where to go.”

  He grabbed the rifle that Claire had discarded in favour of the military issue assault rifle, and followed her through the maze of stacked pallets. They walked in silence, listening all the while to the rage-filled howls coming their way.

  As they came past the last of the pallets, the former soldier headed straight to the main building, weapon held across her body as she approached the door. She stopped, one hand on the handle and looked back at Jack.

  “You go next door. Garage area. Wait there till I come for you.”

  “Who put you in charge?” Dobbs asked with a heavy grunt.

  “I did,” she replied, not looking at the big man. “When it’s clear, I’ll come for you. If you’ve turned, I’ll put you out of your misery.”

  “Sounds good,” Jack muttered.

  She pulled open the door and stepped inside, weapon rising and moving from left to right as she swept the room before her. Deacon followed next and Michael, with a torn look, went after. Dobbs stopped beside, Jack.

  “You go in, mate,” Jack said, with a mirthless smile for the big man. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Nah, fuck her. I’ll come with you.”

  Jack reached up to pat his friend on the shoulder before heading across to the garage. As he pulled open the red-painted door, Dobbs pushed past him with his crowbar at the ready. Jack followed along, a bemused smile on his face, and pulled the door closed behind them.

  In the dimly lit garage, they stood for a moment letting their eyes adjust to the gloom. It was a wide-open space with the only light coming in through small windows high in the wall towards the ceiling.

  Workbenches were set against the walls with all manner of tools and equipment that Jack couldn’t recognise but assumed were to do with fixing vehicles. Welding gear sat off to one side by the far wall and several large tires were stacked nearby.

  “What now?” Dobbs asked, lowering his crowbar. “We just sit and wait?”

  “No other choice.” Jack held back a sigh. He could still hear the howls and they sent shivers down his spine. “No other choice but to wait.

  Chapter 13

  “Get inside!” Kyra snapped, waving towards the shattered glass in the centre of the door.

  Without hesitation, the others rushed to do as instructed, pushing gingerly through the door and into the shop beyond. Kyra waited until the last of them was through before reaching up and grabbing the bottom of the security shutter and pulling it down as she stepped through the door herself.

  It fell with a clatter of steel against steel, rebounding from the polished stone doorstep. Kyra steadied the metal shutter and coaxed it down to rest against the stone. She didn’t have the key to secure it in place and she couldn’t do anything about the large open window display, but at least the entrance was hidden from view.

  “What now?” Dec asked, a tremble of fear in his voice.

  The last time he’d been out he’d been in the car with Kyra and that had provided some distance between the infected and his own scrawny hide. Being out in the centre of the city with what sounded like hundreds of the things coming from all directions, had induced a level of terror in him that he’d not known existed.

  He had the sudden realisation that it wasn’t a lark. A quick dash into the city with friends, marvelling at the destruction all around them while not really thinking it would ever truly affect him.

  “Start filling your bags,” Kyra snapped. “Quickly! Then get into the back rooms before any of them see us.”

  “Shouldn’t we leave the looting for now?” Jason asked, wincing at the raucous alarm. “We need to get out of here.”

  Sarah had already begun moving and was in the backroom by the time they started arguing. Anna, following close behind, watched her carefully as she scanned the rows of shelves with her gaze.

  “What do we need?” Anna asked.

  “Antibiotics, pain killers, anything strong. Those first and then just about everything else.”

  Anna looked around at the shelves full of boxes, her eyes widening as she realised there was no way they could carry it all. One thing she did want before anything else, was her pills and she started looking.

  Sarah had half-filled her backpack by the time Dec came in and she quickly directed him to one set of shelving with the simple instruction to grab everything. Jason was next and with a dark glance back at Kyra, he too began filling his bag.

  “You got everything?” Kyra asked, standing by the front counter and watching the window carefully. “How much longer you need?”

  “Few minutes,” Sarah replied, not stopping moving for a moment as she pulled box after box off the shelves.

  “I need more time!” Anna added, a note of hysteria entering her voice.

  “We’ll have to come back,” Dec said, glance over at the young woman. “I’ll come with you; I promise.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Kyra snapped. “Now hurry the hell up before we get… Down!”

  She didn’t wait to see if th
e others listened to her as Kyra dropped down below the level of the counter. She pressed her back against it, heart thundering in her chest as her legs trembled. She gripped the kitchen knife she held in her right hand and slowly reached into her coat with her left.

  Her little finger slipped into the finger ring on the end of the hilt and she leant to her left to peer out around the edge of the counter. The woman stood with her face pressed against the glass, tongue leaving a long smear on it as she moved her head from side to side, peering in.

  She was naked but for a single shoe and she bore bruises and cuts all across her breasts and belly. As Kyra watched, the woman began to piss, not seeming to notice the warm fluid running down her legs.

  Judging by the stains, Kyra thought with a shudder, it wasn’t the first time she’d soiled herself, the foul excretion mixing with the blood and piss on her inner thighs. Whatever rage infected them seemed to make them almost immune to pain.

  No, not immune Kyra realised, just uncaring. All they wanted to do was eat, hurt others and screw anything that moved. There was no humanity left in them and she had seen the things they did to people when they caught them. She wouldn’t allow herself to become like them.

  For far too long she had allowed others to use her so that she could get what she wanted. It was her choice, but a few years past she had decided no more. There was no way she would become one of those things, doing all the evil they did.

  The blade slipped part way out of its sheath as the woman slapped her open hand against the glass. The sound of the alarm had drawn her to the pharmacy and while it continued its siren call, the infected wouldn’t leave.

  As if to prove the point another appeared, brushing up against the first who turned and snarled at him. In response, he growled back before pulling back one clenched fist and slamming it forward straight into the infected woman’s face.

  She hit the ground hard, snarling as blood ran down her face and the man was on her in an instant. She bit and clawed at him, but he didn’t care. It was all Kyra could do to keep from throwing up.

  “Hey!” Sarah hissed, from the door leading to the back room. “There’s a way out.”

  Another glance at the window to make sure none were looking in. She needn’t have bothered, more of the infected had appeared and were cackling in their manic way as they watched the first two.

  With a foul taste in her mouth, Kyra let the knife slide back into its sheath and scurried across to where Sarah waited. The other woman, with a pale face, looked away from the window before heading back into the storeroom where the others cowered.

  “Where’s the way out?” Kyra demanded before anyone could speak.

  “Back door, down there.” Dec pointed off to the left where a door had been almost hidden from view. “Leads into the shopping centre.”

  “Great! That’s all we bloody need.”

  “Won’t there be more of them out that way?” Anna asked in a small voice. She gripped her kitchen knife in one hand, the curved blade trembling. “What do we do?”

  “Kill them if we can, if not, run like hell or hide,” Kyra said, not unkindly.

  “Why don’t we just hide here?”

  “That alarm ain’t gonna stop and they will keep coming.”

  As if on cue, a bang came from the front of the shop as one of the infected slammed a fist against the glass. Sarah met Kyra’s eyes and nodded sharply.

  “Time to go,” she said.

  Without further argument, they set off along the corridor to the back door. Jason pushed past the others, hefting the baseball bat as he set his jaw. He looked at the others before steeling himself and pushing open the door.

  He stepped through, bat raised and shrieked as a naked man leapt on him. He didn’t even have time to swing the bat before he hit the ground, screaming for help. It was Kyra who reacted first, dashing forward and driving her carving knife deep into the infected man’s back.

  There was no reaction from him as he clawed at the downed Jason and Kyra pulled back on the knife before driving it down again and again. Blood flowed across the infected man’s back and still he fought.

  “Here!” Dec yelled, stepping past her with the cleaver raised in both hands above his head.

  He brought it slamming down on the infected man’s skull and all went still. For a moment, Dec just stared at the man he had killed before turning away and bending at the waist. He threw up the contents of his stomach, heaving as the vomit splattered against the floor.

  “Get it off me!” Jason yelled, voice rising hysterically

  Kyra and Sarah gingerly grabbed the naked man and rolled him off of their companion. He stared up at them, bloody scratches on his cheeks and eyes wide with terror.

  “Am I infected?”

  Sarah shared a look with the other woman before she shook her head slowly and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know.”

  “We can worry about that later,” Kyra snapped as another heavy thump was heard even above the alarm. “For now, let’s go!”

  She looked around the long avenue they were in. Bodies were piled up in the far distance to her right, before the doors and that way led towards the city centre. Shops lined the avenue and those behind her would open onto the street where the infected were gathering.

  Those ahead of her she had visited plenty of times before but didn’t know if there was a back door to any of them or where it would lead. That gave only one real direction and she set off running to her left.

  The gloom-filled avenue was lit only by what little sunlight filtered through the skylights. It wasn’t much but it was enough to reveal a scene of chaos. Shattered glass storefronts, overturned clothes mannequins and display cases and bullet holes everywhere.

  Bodies lay scattered on the ground, many of them in various states of undress, gunned down by the soldiers that had made their last stand in the shopping centre. She slowed her pace as she approached a wide entranceway to her left that led off into the darkness.

  The signs said multi-storey car park, but it was the perfect place for the infected to hide away, dark and cool, away from danger. Her mouth was suddenly dry and her grip on the carving knife tightened until she was past.

  “Wait,” Sarah called, voice low.

  “What is it?” Kyra snapped, harsher than she intended as her nerves betrayed her. She looked back to see her struggling to help Jason who, face pale, had begun to falter. “Christ! Is he...?”

  “I don’t think so, probably just shock,” Sarah said. “But, we could all use a minute before we rush outside.”

  Kyra pursed her lips as she thought. The entrance was just around the corner and perhaps three hundred metres. She could make it easily, but the others were scared and when people were scared, they did stupid things.

  “The infected will be coming, any minute.”

  “And if there’s some coming the other way and we get stuck between them?” Sarah asked, pointedly. “We need a minute to assess.”

  She had a point, though Kyra was loath to admit it. She looked around, noting the stinking bodies on the floor and the closest stores. A fashion boutique aimed at the younger end, a jewellers and a bookstore.

  “Into the jewellers,” she said. If nothing else, it was the one most likely to be the hardest to break into.

  Once again, she led the way, knife in the right hand as her left slipped up into her coat. Her finger hooked through the ring on the end of the hilt and she gripped the knife tight.

  Inside, the open area in the centre of the room was empty and the display cases along the wall and before the window were unbroken. The long glass counter had a door behind it which is where she headed.

  “Wait!” Dec said, licking his lips nervously. “Let me go first.”

  “Won’t see me argue,” Kyra replied, stepping aside and gesturing him forward.

  Dec approached the door, cleaver held up high, ready to be brought down on anyone that might be lurking inside. He stopped before the door, hand resting on the handle as h
is head tilted to the side, listening.

  “I can hear something,” he said, softly. “At least I think I can.”

  “Don’t open it then!” Anna said, and immediately let out a little squeak, hand moving to cover her mouth as she realised she’d spoken so loudly.

  “Just get ready,” Kyra said, shaking her head at the younger woman’s foolishness. “Go on.”

  Dec, with just a moment’s hesitation, pulled open the door. He stood for what seemed an eternity staring into the dark room beyond before he slowly lowered his arm and took a step back.

  “What is it?” Kyra asked, stepping up beside him. Her nose wrinkled at the acrid stench that washed over her as she approached the room. “Smells like…”

  Her voice trailed off as she saw what Dec had. Three people had taken shelter in there. Three people, terrified as they cowered together, died together. As she stared, aghast at what she was witness to, a hundred pairs of eyes, glowing in the dim light they had let into the room, turned to stare right back at her.

  “Rats…” Dec said, voice barely above a whisper. “A whole fucking lot of rats!”

  “Close the door,” Kyra hissed.

  She’d seen rats before, and they ran when humans were near. They didn’t attack, not unless they were threatened. What they didn’t do was stare at you as a slow, undulating hiss seemed to come from their throats.

  “Oh, hell!” She said, “Run!”

  Like a dam breaking, the rats burst into motion, scores of them sleek and fat, brown-furred and black and all with bloody maws and an aggression she’d never seen in them.

  Dec was too slow to react, and the rats were scrambling up his legs before he could get the door closed, small paws gripping his jeans. One slipped into them, claws digging into his skin as it climbed his leg.

  A scream was wrenched from his throat as they began to bite, running up over his chest and leaping at his face. He swung the cleaver wildly, clipping one rat as it leapt at him and sending it flying but there were too many.