by Jeff Olah
The man who called himself Bret held open the rear passenger door as three of those things from the street took notice. And as Emma reached in to set her bag on the seat, her empty right hand looked out of place. “Wait,” Emma said. “I have to go back.”
Attempting to move away, she was caught from behind. Bret, the larger man with an astonishing reach, held her by the arm. “Ms. Runner, we’re leaving. There isn’t time for anything else.”
Struggling to free herself, Emma pulled away. “My phone, it’s still on the charger in my back bedroom.”
Stepping into her path, Bret said, “It’s too late. We must go now.”
The other two men shouted from the interior of the Hummer as Emma stood her ground. “I’m going back for it, you can leave without me if you have to.”
Scanning the street and the potential threat, Bret shook his head. “Ms. Runner, we’ve risked quite a bit coming here, please—just get in the back. There really isn’t time.”
“No,” Emma said. “I’m not going without my phone.”
“I don’t think you understand, Ms. Runner, I meant exactly what I said. If you stay here, you will die. There really isn’t a choice.”
Again shaking her head, Emma said, “You don’t understand. The only connection I have to my family is on that phone. You can let me go get it, or you can leave.”
Looking past the oversized SUV, Bret placed his hand over the weapon protruding from his hip. “I’ll get it for you. Tell me where it is, get in the vehicle and I’ll go after it. That’s your only option, and it has to happen right now.”
“Okay,” Emma said. “Back bedroom, straight in from the garage. It’s sitting with the charger on the nightstand.” Handing over her keys and sliding into the back seat, she closed the door.
Placing her bag on her lap, she turned to thank the tall man, but he was already gone. Faint footfalls disappeared along the side of the house and as the driver backed into the street, he yelled, “Brace yourselves.”
Maneuvering through a backwards U-turn, the driver seemed impressed with himself, as he punched the gas, and slid backward into nearly the same spot he’d occupied moments earlier. Turning to the average-looking man in the passenger seat, he said, “You wanna take care of those two?”
“Let’s give him a minute. I don’t want to draw any unnecessary attention our way if we don’t have to.”
The driver laughed. “Yeah, like this morning. I still can’t believe you two made it out of there in one piece.”
More concerned with the crowd that had begun to form across the street from her driveway, Emma moved to the center of the bench seat. “Can I ask you guys something?”
“Sure, Ms. Runner,” said the driver.
“Do you guys have any idea what all this is? That man, Major Daniels, he said this is happening everywhere. Was he serious?”
Mr. Average with the neck tattoo turned in his seat. “Yes he was. We’ve had reports that it goes as far away as—”
Banging at the rear window and then the door flying open, Bret was back. He slid in next to Emma and set the phone and charger down on the seat. “Go, Go, Go. We’ve got company on the next block, and it isn’t going to be pretty. We may have to get out and fight these things.”
The man behind the wheel shifted into drive, slammed his foot down onto the gas pedal, and turned right out of the driveway. “Where am I going? Back the way we came?”
“No,” Bret said. “Go left at the corner and then take the first right after the torched van. We’ll pick up Central after the freeway—if we make it that far.”
Emma buckled her seat belt and turned to Bret. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me just yet; I still have a job to do.”
As the SUV sped away from her home, she powered on her phone and pulled up her messages. Still no communication from her brother. Instead of sending another wasted text message, she decided to call. Leaning away from Bret, she pressed the phone to her right ear and waited.
Voicemail.
“Ethan, please. I need you to let me know somehow, that you’re okay. I got a few weird texts from mom this morning and I think maybe her and dad need some help. I’m back in California now, so please let me know—”
Brakes locking, and the squeal of warm rubber gripping the roadway forced her attention through the front windshield. As the Hummer relented to its own forward momentum, Emma tightened her grip around the phone, pulled her legs to her chest, and instinctively held her breath.
As the Hummer slammed into the sea of bodies that filled the far left lane of Central Avenue, Emma rebounded against the constricted belt, as Bret was launched from his seat. Gliding forward through the hailstorm of shattered glass, the large man somehow slipped through the void between the two front seats and came to rest atop the center console.
Her world went silent and although Emma didn’t remember hitting her head, the goose egg rising from her left temple told her otherwise. She winced as she leaned forward, and grabbing the collar of Bret’s black blazer, she strained to pull him back. Impossible. “Bret… Chad?”
No response.
Sitting back and looking down at her phone, the call to her brother had already ended. And glancing out through the shattered windshield, she watched as the horribly disfigured crowd descended on the front half of the embattled SUV.
Ethan, I hope you’ve made it somewhere safe. I love you.
36
Ben was there at the door and then he was gone. He’d led the horde away from the building and then returned. He still carried the weapon he’d taken from Ethan and didn’t appear to be slowing down. He was back now, and as David leaned against the wall, Carly shouted down the empty hallway. “Ethan, come on. Ben’s outside, we have to go.”
Already running when he came through the door, Ethan moved quickly to his friend. Against the wall, he stood at David’s side and reached for his right arm. “You ready?”
Removing the sheets he’d tied around the double doors, David pointed out into the lot. “I’m fine, I can walk. But we have another problem.”
As Ben moved in through the doors, still attempting to catch his breath, Ethan stared out past the handicapped parking at the stationary truck. “What’s this?”
Ben began to speak, but was quickly shut down by Ethan, who grabbed the much smaller man by the throat. “I’m not dealing with you just yet, but I will. Stay the hell out of my way, and I might just let you slide on the ass kicking you have rightly earned.”
“But,” Ben said.
“Not now.” Leaning in, Ethan pulled the nine millimeter from his hand, checked the magazine, and slid it back into its holster. Now turning to Carly, he said, “Who are they?”
“We don’t know. They flew into the parking lot just as we saw Ben running this way. They drove their truck over a whole lot of those things and then backed up and got stuck, right where they are now.”
“We helping ‘em?” Ben asked.
Carly turned to Ethan and tightened the straps on her backpack. “We have to, we can’t just leave them out there.”
“Okay, the kid and I will go get them, and you and David get to our truck. We’re all leaving together.”
David nodded in agreement. “Let’s go.”
His hand on the younger man’s shoulder, Ethan said, “Can you still run?”
Ben nodded.
“Okay, stay on my right shoulder. If we get jammed up, you take off and lead them toward the back of the parking lot. I’ll get whoever’s in that truck out and away. We’ll meet at the armored truck over there.” To David and Carly he said, “Give us some time to draw them away, then go wide and don’t stop for anything—no matter what happens.”
Carly took David’s hand and stood behind Ethan. They waited as the last few Feeders moved away from the building and joined the group moving toward the curious blue pickup. She rested her head on his shoulder and whispered, “We’re together now. Let’s keep it that way, okay?”
As he watched Ethan and Ben walk off around the right end of the crowd, David hugged his bride-to-be. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.” And with the massive stone column temporarily shielding them from the eyes of the horde, David took Carly’s hand and started for the truck.
Maintaining a decent pace, his limp was now nearly undetectable. Alongside Carly, he continued to eye the growing crowd as more spilled out of the street and into the rear lot. Thirty feet from the armored vehicle, he stared straight ahead and gritted his teeth, attempting to force the pain to the back of his mind.
Guiding Carly to the side door, he climbed in behind her and fell backward into the cold steel wall. Pulling his right leg into his chest, he massaged his ankle and watched out the six-inch by twelve-inch window.
Ethan had already sent Ben off. The kid ran back toward the building, drawing the crowd away from the blue pickup as he waved his hands in the air. Sprinting across the snow-dusted rear lot, Ben was able to lose most of those who followed as he weaved through the sparsely populated vehicles.
Reaching the pickup, Ethan waved the driver and his passenger out. “Let’s go, we’ve got another vehicle. We can get you out—”
Before he could finish, the driver opened the door and stepped out. The thirty-something, dark haired gentleman stood nearly as tall as Ethan and had a good ten pounds on him. He looked back into the cab and then waved Ethan over. “My friend is hurt, she needs to see a doctor. I’ve got to get her inside. It can’t wait.”
As two wayward Feeders stepped away from the herd, Ethan pulled his baton and flicked it to full extension. “Stay here.” Walking across the short greenbelt, he moved to the first and swung hard. The deep thud of solid steel striking bone was unmistakable as the body dropped. Dodging left, he swung backhand and winced as his shoulder reminded him of the events earlier in the day.
The second attacker failed to go down, and as Ethan wound back for another strike, an explosion from just beyond his line of sight, blew off the right half of the attacker’s face. Following through, Ethan’s lateral momentum carried him off his feet, and into the damp grass. Quickly rebounding, he stood and moved to the man holding the gun. “Thanks, but I’m sorry, I’ve got to cut this short. We really have to go. And listen, there’s no one left in that hospital. They’re all gone. You either come with us now or you’re on your own. We’ve got plenty of room and the woman you just saw hop into that armored truck is a nurse. She may be able to help your friend. But it has to be now.”
The man from the blue pickup glanced into the cab of the truck and back to Ethan. “Okay, let me get her out.”
Ethan had already begun jogging back to the truck as Ben reached the end of the employee parking lot. The kid jumped a six-foot wrought iron fence as if he we’re stepping up onto a sidewalk, and was already sprinting back toward the building when Ethan called out. “Ben, let’s go.”
Reaching the truck, Ethan opened the side door and waited for Ben to climb inside. David and Carly sat with their backs to the cab, speaking in hushed tones as Ethan motioned out into the lot. “Those people from the blue pickup—they’re coming with us. The passenger is hurt and needs some help.”
Carly nodded and then got to her feet and stood at the door. “Okay, help them get inside and let’s go.”
Ethan moved to the pair now approaching and helped the woman passenger up into the truck. As the driver also stepped inside, Ethan paused at the door. Where the hell am I going to take these people?
Closing the door, Ethan moved into the driver’s seat and started the armored vehicle. As Carly and David were getting familiar with the two new guests, Ben slipped down into the passenger’s seat. Avoiding conversation, Ethan drove out through the exit at the opposite end of the parking lot.
Pulling out onto Longview Road, David knelt between the two front seats. “Ethan, what’s the plan?”
“We need to find Shannon and then I’m going to my apartment. I need to get ahold of Emma and make sure she’s okay. Then I’m going into the city—to get my mom and dad.”
“Well then,” David said. “You’re gonna want to hear what Carly has to say.”
“David, nothing is going to change my mind, I’m—”
“She knows where Shannon is.”
37
Left on Mineral Street, right on Fourth, and then the long winding maze to the backside of Ethan’s building. Circling the block three times and pulling back into the alley, they’d found a small corner of their defeated city, free of those things—if only for the moment.
With the passenger side up against the rear wall of the building, and tucked nicely between two county dumpsters, the truck was nearly invisible to the cross-street thirty yards ahead. The sky had stopped dumping snow over an hour earlier and with the sun on its way toward the horizon, the shadows afforded by their current location all but guaranteed the group a few minutes of peace.
Draping a towel over the windshield and moving to the driver’s door, Ethan and Ben slipped out into the alley. They ran through the courtyard, paused at the rear entrance, and with only two Feeders between them and the stairs, decided to make their move. Staying along the opposite wall and without being noticed, they slipped into the partially lit stairwell.
Again in possession of his weapon, Ethan led the way with the kid less than a step behind. Climbing the stairs two at a time, they reached his floor unfettered and with their confidence rising, they stepped out into the hall.
His apartment was twenty-five feet away. Between the door he’d just exited and where he needed to be, his former neighbor stood disemboweled. “Phil?” As the sixty-year-old retired plumber started in their direction, he stepped down on what was left of his large intestine. It dragged on the floor, leaving a trail of red from where another body lay facedown at the end of the hall.
With each step forward, more of what was left of his stomach ran out from beneath his red and black checkered flannel. As he moved to within ten feet, he stumbled forward, sending what remained from his midsection out onto the commercial grade carpeting.
Turning away, Ben shook his head. “You or me?”
“Watch the stairs; I’ll get this one.” Ethan moved to the opposite wall and took down the former plumber with one quick strike to the head. Retracting his baton, he moved into his apartment and closed the door. Into his bedroom, his cell phone still rested where he’d left it all those hours before. Atop his comforter it rested two feet from the charger that sat alone on the antique nightstand. “I literally just need one thing to go my way today, just one.”
Sliding his phone and charger into separate pockets, he moved into the bathroom. Stepping over a small mound of damp towels, he emptied what little remained in his medicine cabinet into a plastic bag. Back to the front door, he checked the peephole, and eyeing the fish-eyed hallway only spied Ben, waiting alone at the door to the stairs.
His weapon holstered and Ben carrying David’s nine millimeter, they moved into the stairwell. Standing just inside the door, they paused and listened for any new threats. Silence, except for the moaning of the wood, concrete, and brick, as it expanded and settled with the warming temperatures of the midafternoon sun.
“Let’s go.” Quickly descending the stairs, they moved back into the lobby, again avoiding detection and then out through the rear doors and into the courtyard. Another twenty seconds and they were back at the truck, Ben through the driver’s door first, followed closely by Ethan.
Plugging his phone into the makeshift charging station inside the glovebox, Ethan slumped down into the driver’s seat, and finally took a breath. Six minutes and eleven seconds round-trip, and only one confrontation, Ethan counted this as his first victory of the day—aside from still having a heartbeat.
. . .
The group sat in the rear of the truck with their backs against the wall, attempting to make sense of what their world had become. Carly finished dressing Cora’s side, as David made the long overdue introductions. “Ethan, this is Griffin. His
friend here, the one with the hole in her hip, guzzling the water, is Cora.”
Griffin looked around the cabin. “Thank you, all of you. We appreciate—”
Interrupting, Ethan turned to Carly, his heart rate just now returning to normal. “Where’s Shannon?”
“Ethan, you need to understand the information I have was from earlier this morning. She may not even be—”
“I don’t care. I’m going to get her, where is she?”
“The call came across the scanner just after nine o’clock this morning. Police dispatch said that she and a few others were trapped inside the bank.”
“Then that’s where we’re going.”
Moving back into the cab, Ethan slipped in behind the wheel. “Okay, I’m taking Main to Third. Anyone think that’s a bad idea?”
No one spoke.
Ethan slowly rolled the armored truck forward, pushing the first dumpster far enough ahead so he could pull out into the alley. Driving along Main, he stayed in the center of the road and crept into each intersection. The streets in this part of town were virtually vacant, but for the many motionless corpses littering the sidewalks. It would appear his choice to come at the bank from the south was going to pay off. That was until he turned left onto Old Bridge Road.
Pulling to a stop at the corner of Old Bridge Road and Third Street, there was little doubt that the brick building sixty feet away was where he needed to be. More than twice the number of Feeders he’d run across at the hospital gathered at the entrance to First City Bank. They had yet to breach the perimeter, but with the crowd growing with each passing second, it was only a matter of minutes.
