The Wild Ones (Book 1), page 10
The look of shock on his face was terrible to see. This was a Vietnam vet. There was very little that scared him but he was rocked to the core. His hand trembled as he brought the glass of whiskey up to his lips and downed it. “I shot her. Twice in the heart, and she got back up again!” He looked up at me as if to gauge my reaction. Had it been the first time someone had told me this, I would have called their bluff, chuckled even and then told them to stop bullshitting but now I believed him. I leaned against the wall as he continued. “I had to shoot her in the head before she stopped coming at me.”
“And the police, what did they say?”
“They never showed up.” He shook his head. “They never even showed up,” he repeated this time getting louder.
“And the body?”
“Still in the store downstairs. I didn’t want to get near it. Who knows what kind of disease that thing is carrying?”
He went to fill his glass again, and I wanted to put my hand over the top and tell him he’d had enough because I cared for the old man but after what he’d been through — anyone would have wanted to forget.
“Look, have you seen Nick?”
He shook his head. Alexa appeared in the doorway.
“Earl, we haven’t eaten and…” I hated to ask him, I hated to beg for anything but our situation was dire and without food, water and sleep we weren’t going to get far.
“Take whatever you need downstairs. You can stay here for as long as you like.”
With that said he filled his glass again and stared ahead. I placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you.”
As I led the others down into the store, we passed by several framed photos on the wall. They were mostly of Dale when he was younger, and a few of them as a family before Sandra, Earl’s wife, died of breast cancer. She was as nice as Earl. They were the kind of people that would have given you the shirts off their backs. I couldn’t help but feel saddened by what had happened. How many others in town had fallen prey to this sickness? Who was still alive? And was my brother among them?
The floor of the store was made up of hardwood panels. The shelving, front desk and signs were all carved from wood. In the middle of the store was a tree trunk that grew up through the ceiling. Whoever had built the place had basically constructed around the tree. Why? No idea. Not even Earl knew as he wasn’t the original owner. Huge black bears that had been stuffed acted as décor that fed into the wilderness theme. There were light brown wicker baskets hanging from the ceiling and a smorgasbord of items to choose from, however, it wasn’t what was on display that caught my attention but the bloodied mess in the middle of the room. Earl had tossed a white sheet over the dead woman, and it was soaked in dry blood. I turned on an LED flashlight and covered the lower half of my face to avoid breathing in the rancid smell of rotting meat and body odor.
“Nice,” Jamal said walking over to a rack and pulling off several bags of beef jerky. He tore them open and shoveled the meat away while the others sought out supplies. It was no surprise that Ryland headed straight for the alcohol. He reached into a fridge that was off and brought out a six-pack of Budweiser. He cracked one open and downed it. Everyone fanned out gathering food, water and blankets. Eli tried on a jacket and turned sideways in a mirror. It was strange to be allowed to pillage someone else’s property for nothing but by the look on Earl’s face, whatever life he had in this store ended the day his son turned into one of them, and he had to kill him.
“You okay?” Alexa asked. I’d been standing there watching the others gather what they wanted.
“No. No, I’m not.” I shook my head and supported myself against the front desk. I gazed at some deer heads mounted on the walls. Every inch of that store besides the walkways had been used for the sale of goods. Tobias picked up an LED crank-up lantern and brought it to life. He set it down in one corner of the room and did the same with another because there was no power.
“Hey, you think that’s a wise thing to do?” Jamal asked. “It might attract them.”
“So, I’ll pull the shutters down,” Tobias replied heading over to the front door and heading out to bring the shutters down. Sean looked sheepish as he roamed the store picking up items and laying them down again. He was still in a state of shock. Certainly not the same man we’d encountered back at the campground. Brooke had taken a seat and was drinking a can of Coke.
After Tobias brought the shutters down, he walked back in and asked Jamal to give him a hand dragging the body out.
“I’m not touching that.”
“Put a pair of gloves on,” he said, tossing thick work gloves at him. They yanked on the woman’s wrists and dragged her out the door leaving behind a huge bloody smear. Eli tried on a pair of sunglasses and stuffed his pockets with packets of yogurt-covered peanuts.
Ryland tossed me a can of beer and I cracked it open and downed it fast. I didn’t want to get drunk as we needed to remain clearheaded but I was all for numbing out to cope with the horror of what we’d seen so far. As we settled in for the night, using sleeping bags tossed down on the floor, I could hear the distant sound of gunshots. Was it Nick? I knew there would be more bloodshed and that eventually the dead wouldn’t be the only ones we’d be fighting. There was no way to know how many cities and towns had been affected or who had survived, but one thing was for sure, they would be desperate, and that meant violence. First thing in the morning, we’d head to the gun store and stock up. I might not have used a handgun, but how hard could it be? Point and shoot, right? I shook my head as I laid back and then thought of the one thing we hadn’t considered.
Had Earl been bitten?
It’s Official
None of us slept much that night. I got maybe two hours, but that was it. After checking with Earl to make sure he hadn’t been bitten, I did another sweep of the store to make sure there weren’t any weak entry points. I took the first watch that night, and then Tobias took over an hour later. Every now and again we would hear gunshots and screams. I figured those who were still alive from the town were either barricaded inside their homes or had fled. How far they would have got was anyone’s guess. After what we witnessed on that desolate stretch of road, it didn’t give me much hope that it was better anywhere else. Before falling asleep that night, Brooke thanked us for coming to her aid but Sean didn’t. He stayed in his small corner of the room and didn’t say a word to anyone.
“After what happened, I would have understood if you drove on,” she said.
I was curious about what the deal was between her and my brother, and with him not around to stop me from asking, I asked her. Her reply wasn’t what I expected. I knew he’d had a thing with her as he’d shown us photos and had my father take him down to see her in the hamlet of Raquette Lake but what I didn’t know was that Sean was an intricate part of why he didn’t want to return. Apparently Sean had been dating Brooke long before my brother came along. One thing led to another and they ended up locking heads and Sean had got Nick in trouble with Brooke’s father.
“So that’s why he didn’t return?”
“He couldn’t. My father told him to stay clear of me.”
“What did Sean say?”
She shook her head and cast a glance across the room. He was out cold.
“You’ve got to remember we were only sixteen back then. Sean told my father that your brother pressured me into having sex with him.”
“Did he?”
“No. Scott, I would have thought you know your brother better than that.”
“Ah, I know. I just remember him being in a terrible mood for months.”
“Really?”
I stared at her under the illumination of the small lamps. “Are you telling me he didn’t speak to you for two years?”
She nodded. “My father wouldn’t let him. He tried. Nick called a few times but my father told him to back off and back then my dad was more controlling of my internet usage. He took my phone, so I had no way to communicate with him. Sure I could have used a friend’s but how would it have helped? I wouldn’t have been able to see him.”
I frowned. “Well that explains a lot. But then how did my father manage to convince Tom to let him come back as an instructor?”
She shifted up onto her side. Under the glow of the light I could see why my brother was gaga over the girl. She was severely easy on the eyes and the kind of woman that wouldn’t have had any problem attracting guys.
“Look, my dad might be a pain in the ass at times but he genuinely liked Nick. For a long while he wouldn’t listen to me. He just thought I was lying to him so that I could go back to spending more time with Nick, and once he finally did listen and he realized that I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over his eyes, it was a little late. My dad has his pride and well, he wasn’t going to turn around and apologize.”
“But I don’t get it. If he knew that Sean was lying why wouldn’t he punish him by not letting him teach?”
“Because Sean has always been his golden boy. He’d say he saw a lot of himself in Sean and well, they get along really well.”
I shook my head in disbelief; unable to process that a woman like her could have dated a guy like him. Then again it took all types. That was the strange thing about relationships. Odd-looking guys could end up with the most gorgeous woman and when asked, it certainly wasn’t sexual chemistry that kept them in the relationship. So what was it?
She looked over at Sean. “I know he’s an asshole but he means well. He just doesn’t have good people skills.”
“You think?” I said sarcastically. “Then why the hell is he in a place of leadership?”
“Ego.”
I nodded and looked at Sean one more time before lying back and gazing up at the ceiling until my eyelids became heavy.
When morning came, I awoke to the sound of white noise. Across the other side of the room Ryland was fiddling with a small battery-powered radio. It crackled and static came through but not much else.
“There should be some message being broadcast. Anything to tell us the state of what’s happening,” he said.
I rolled over. “Maybe people didn’t get a chance. Give it some time.”
“Time. We don’t have time. I need to check in on my folks, and then we need to find out where everyone is heading.”
“Heading?” I asked.
“A place of safety,” Tobias said. He was still laying on his side. He pawed at his eyes and yawned. “Even if this shit storm has blown across the states, there has to be somewhere people are going. A government safe place and whatnot.”
“Raven Rock, Mount Weather or Greenbrier Resort?” Eli said climbing out of his sleeping bag. “At least that’s where the president would go.”
“Yeah. That’s for the president, not you and me. The average Joe would be shit out of luck,” Tobias muttered stretching out and cracking his head from side to side.
Eli rolled up his sleeping bag as I was getting up. “They wouldn’t just leave society out in the cold.”
“Oh wouldn’t they?” Tobias chuckled to himself. “I bet you also think they would have penthouse suites, three-course meals and an endless array of food for your tubby stomach.”
“Tobias.” Brooke shook her head admonishing him.
He threw up his hands. “I’m just joking. God, you people need to get a sense of humor. Now where’s the bathroom in this place? I need to take a leak.”
Alexa came into the room, she’d been the last one to take a shift. She bumped into him on the way out and he slapped her on the ass. “Good job, princess. Glad to see you can be useful.”
Big mistake. She shoved him against the wall and pressed her elbow into his throat.
“You do that again, and I will…”
“Whoa, I was just joking.”
I got up and headed over and pried her away from him. “Why don’t you keep your jokes to yourself?” I said glaring at him. The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife and we hadn’t even had breakfast. I didn’t want to imagine being on the road with these people if we were forced to seek out some kind of sanctuary.
A few minutes later, Tobias yelled from upstairs. “Hey guys!”
“Just ignore him,” Alexa said.
“Guys.”
I threw up a hand. “I’ll deal with it. Grab yourself a bite to eat and we’ll head out in about ten minutes.” I figured by now we’d be able to get a good view of the devastation in the town. If the screams in the night were any indication of what had taken place, it wasn’t going to be pretty. I jogged up the steep staircase and made it to the top.
“Tobias?”
“In the kitchen.”
As I rounded the corner my mouth widened. Earl was slumped over the table, his head in a puddle of blood, some of it had trickled over the edge creating a small pool near his feet. The whiskey bottle was shattered, and he had the gun in his hand and a huge slash across his throat.
“Holy fuck, that’s…” Tobias trailed off before he brushed past me and headed into the bathroom to throw up. I could hear him retching. I sighed and looked at him from behind and noticed something. He hadn’t turned into one of them. I took a few steps back into the hallway.
“Tobias. You there?”
He retched again. I went to the foot of the stairs. “Ryland!”
Everything we knew about zombies came from films; if the science behind it was correct, the infection was spread via blood, saliva, a scratch or a bite but what if that wasn’t the only way? A bleary face appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “What is it?”
“Zombie lore. If whatever is infecting people is airborne, and a person dies they would turn, right?”
He had a puzzled look on his face as if his brain was trying to register what I was saying but eventually he nodded. “In theory but we really have no clue what we are dealing with here.”
I went back into the kitchen and shifted the chair he was sitting on. Earl toppled over and that’s when I saw it. He hadn’t died from slashing his throat even though that had created a mess and was probably what he initially attempted. He’d shot himself in the side of the head. That’s why he hadn’t changed. He knew that was the only way to stop himself from becoming one. The question was, how? How did he know? It was possible that he’d guessed it from having shot the woman in the head but had that been all?
I backed out of the kitchen and was on my way down to check out the rest of the rooms when Sean appeared at the top of the stairs.
“What’s going on?” he asked in a less demanding way than he had before.
“Look in the rooms for a radio, CB, TV or…” I brushed past him and headed into the room at the far end of the hallway. There was a small flat-screen TV. I went and turned it on but there was no power. Had the government broadcast a message before the power went out? Was the power out across the state, or just in this town?
“Anything?” I called out.
“Nothing,” he replied.
I checked Dale’s room, the store downstairs and out in the storage area before heading out into the bright morning sun. I double-timed it down the external stairs and went around the building looking up. That’s when I saw it. A ham radio antenna attached to a separate green building at the back of the store. I went inside to collect the axe.
“Where are you going?” Ryland asked.
“That small hand radio might not be able to pick up anything but a solar-powered ham radio might.” I crossed the small parking lot and gave the door handle a twist. Locked. I brought the axe down hard on the window, shattering it, and then reached in and unlocked it. Ryland and I entered and searched the room until we found it.
“You know how to work one of these?”
“Sure do,” he said before sitting down to give it a shot. I bit down on the side of my lip, anxious and hopeful all at the same time. We just needed to know what was going on, anything that might give us an indication of how far the threat had spread and what was being done to help those who survived. Ryland didn’t have to spend long finding it. The station was already tuned in, confirming my suspicion that Earl had jumped on it after getting no response from police in the area.
The Emergency Alert System was playing on repeat.
“The government has issued a warning for the following states…” a male robotic voice said. It continued going through a list of states across the eastern region. “Citizens are urged to stay in their homes or workplaces and to not approach anyone who is infected.”
The message looped over.
“This is the Emergency Alert System. The following message is transmitted from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. This is not a test.”
We listened intently as it explained that authorities were doing their best to contain it but if approached, the only way to stop them was to destroy the brain. But beyond telling people to stay inside, it didn’t provide any details about safe zones, which meant only one thing — there were none.
Odd Times
Being prepared, fighting, survival, these weren’t terms that were foreign to me. Heck, I could recall the first time I got into a real fight in school at the age of thirteen. Back then it was all about going behind the hill. Kids were smart enough not to throw down punches in the middle of the hallways or at recess. There was a process involved, a build-up and as much as I tried to avoid it, I knew eventually my day would come when I’d piss off the wrong person. For me that person was Gary Sorenson. This kid had a reputation for getting into trouble. He spent most of his days outside in the hallway while the rest of us studied; he was always involved with some fight after school, and you sidestepped him if you knew what was good for you. Anyway, it seems I wasn’t aware of every person that he hung around with, so when my buddy tripped up a kid as he was walking down the corridor and then urged me to do the same, I did. Stupid, I know!
