Age of Decay (Book 1): Contagion (14 page)

The gunshot shattered Trevor’s sleep, and he bolted upright in bed. Lauren wasn’t beside him, and he could hear the commotion going on in the house.
Just what I was afraid of, our comfortable life here, I knew it couldn’t last
.
Dammit, we should have left earlier
. Trevor got out of bed in a flash and threw on his vest and gear as Erica came running to the doorway. It was still late, and the sun hadn’t come up yet.

“Hurry up, they’re coming fast!”

“How many?”

“I can’t count that high.”

“Shit.” Trevor grabbed his rifle and flew down the stairs into the yard. There he ran into Ian, who was breathing heavily.

“Lad,” he said between laboured breaths.

“Where’s George?”

Ian fought for his breath. “He must have fallen asleep out there. Everything was quiet until I heard the gunshot.”

“Where is he now?”

“Lad, he’s still out there.”

Trevor peered out into the fields, but he saw no signs of George. All he saw were bodies lumbering towards them. The fields were thick with them. They shambled through the grass, a wall of absolute horror.

Erica fired her rifle twice, and it connected with one of the nearest dead. The first shot hit the thing in the shoulder, but the second connected with the middle of the head and dropped the ghoul to the grass in a heap. “Where the hell are they all coming from?”

“The suburbs,” said Trevor.
They ran out of food.

“Get everyone together, and get to the truck,” yelled Trevor, as Lauren came racing out of the house. Trevor peered down the road, a road swarmed with bodies heading their way. There was no way to get the truck out, and even if they did, the horde would overwhelm it quickly.
There goes camping supplies and all the food. Shit!
In a few minutes, the dead would be at the house. There was nowhere to run, they were totally cut-off.

***
 

George struggled to move his legs, but his knee slowed him down.
You just wanted to be a hero, George, help out. You knew your knee still hurt, you knew it! Sleeping on guard duty, you stupid fool!
He turned around and fired the rifle again, hitting one in the chest, but it kept coming. With the basic training Trevor had given him, he just wasn’t good enough to get a head shot. He fired again and somehow hit the neck on one, which spewed gore and pitched the thing backwards to the ground. It was of no consequence, however, as the swarm of dead now descended upon him from all directions. He swung the rifle, and it connected with another in the head and it, too, fell over. George tried to run, but his knee sent pain through his body, and he stumbled some.
Sorry, Gail, so sorry
. As his knee gave out he tumbled, but the horde caught him. Teeth sank into his shoulder and ripped away his flesh. They surrounded him like pack and tore at him. He screamed as his arm was ripped from his body. They heard the screams at the house, it was a sound you couldn’t forget. It was a sound that would wake you up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat, unable to forget what you heard. It was the sound of a man being torn to pieces. They feasted on him, then continued towards the house. A few stragglers bent over what was left of George and devoured that, too. They were driven by their desire for flesh, for it consumed their existence utterly.

Gail stood there and heard it, too, the scream that terrified them all as George was ripped apart by the dead. Gail started to scream and sob as she came unhinged, her life shattered in an instant. “George!” She shrieked his name over and over again as she ran, but Trevor caught her with his arm.

“No! You can’t help him, he’s gone.”

Gail punched and shoved at Trevor. “Let me go!”

Trevor let her go for an instant before he clubbed her over the back of the head with the butt of his rifle, knocking her unconscious. “Donald, take her inside.” Ahead of Trevor, the horde advanced toward the house, the fields covered in them. The road was now inaccessible, and they couldn’t move forward. They had nowhere to run.

“What do we do?” said Ian.

Trevor readied his rifle. “There’s only one thing we can do. We fight.”
***
 

The group moved out in front of the house to face the onslaught of dead. They looked at each other with the grim realization that this may be the end of them all. They had come this far, but the rising tide of dead was now unstoppable.

Ian went out in front of them, brandishing his axe. He swung it at the first one that got near him, cutting off half its head in a full swing. He swung again and decapitated another of the dead as blood sprayed in all directions. Erica fired her rifle towards another one. As the round tore through the skull of the ghoul, it crashed to the ground in a heap. There was an eruption of gunfire, but it was no use, there were simply too many of them. It was all a matter of time before they would be overwhelmed. Samantha screamed and swung her bat hard at one of the creatures, which went down hard. She pulled the pistol out of her waistband and fired into the head of it.

“Keep firing,” screamed Trevor.
That’s it, just like I taught you, Samantha. Not that it matters now. How the hell do we get out of this?

Donald swung the hatchet he now had and cleaved the head of another one in two. “There’s too many!”

Jason pushed one backwards with his foot and blew it apart with his shotgun. “Just keep fighting, we’ll make it.”

One of the dead stumbled towards Lauren. It opened what was left of its bloody jaws and brandished its teeth. The thing tried to lock down on her arm, but the hockey padding she wore kept the bite from going through. She pulled her knife out of its sheath and shoved it through the side of the ghoul’s head, then stabbed it again.

Trevor’s mind raced for answers. The decision to not try and run for it was the wrong one, as they were now backed up near the house with nowhere to go.
The forest, it’s our only escape route, if the way is clear, we’ll make it.
The gasoline in the garage
.
It could buy us some time.

“Lad, they’re closing fast,” said Ian “Don’t think we’ll outgun ‘em.”

Trevor screamed over to Donald. “There’s a gas can in the garage. Go get it and some rags or anything that’s going to light. Go!”

“What you have in mind?” said Ian.

Trevor fired his rifle again at another one. “We need a distraction, light the gas and move back to the house. We can go over the fence and run for the forest behind us. We can’t stay here, it’s our only chance. If we all just run, they’ll keep following us. They’ll get confused by the fires, which will buy us time.”

Donald ran back with the can of gas and some rags. “What do you want me to do with this?”

“Take it out front and pour it around near the house. We’ll hold them off so they don’t get near you,” said Trevor. He fired his rifle again and changed his magazine. “Then I’ll light it.”

‘I’m with you, lad,” said Ian. He moved out a bit and swung his axe again, dropping another one in a vicious slice.

“No, buddy. I need you to do something for me. Get Samantha, my wife, and Gail the hell out of here. Take them over the fence and towards the trees. That way should be fairly clear of them. If we don’t make it—”

“Aye.”

“Erica, Jason. Cover Donald so he can poor the gas. We don’t have much time.”

The three of them stepped out in front of Donald as he poured the gasoline out. They fought back the dead with all they had. Trevor fired his rifle into the horde and brought down two more before they could get too close. Erica and Jason both brought down several more as they advanced towards them. In the fields ahead of them, the dead just kept coming.

“Hurry up,” screamed Jason. “Get the gas out, we can’t hold them for much longer.”

“The AR is out,” said Erica. She slung the weapon back over her shoulder.

“Here.” Trevor tossed her a couple more pistol magazines.

One of the dead lunged towards Trevor, and he lost his balance. He fell over and the thing landed on top of him, its jaws dripped salvia onto his face. The thing gurgled and hissed at him. He managed to put up his rifle to stop it from biting at his face. Erica took her rifle and came over to him She rammed the butt down and caved in the thing’s head as Trevor turned his head out of the way. He pushed the corpse off of him and got up.

“Thanks.”

Erica fired her pistol as another one got close. “Yeah.”

Donald took the remained of the gas and soaked the bottom of a rag. “That’s it, the can is out.”

“Get behind me.” Trevor hollered. He took the lighter out of his pocket and lit the rag. He waited until the dead got close enough and lit the gas on fire. “Go to the back of the house, now!”

The flames would occupy the dead for at least for a little while. Long enough for them to escape. They ran as fast as they could as the dead reached the flame wall. They stopped for just an instant before plowing through the flames. Several of them caught on fire instantly, and they staggered around. Trevor and the rest of the group reached the back of the yard and the fence as one of the dead staggered into the front window. The burning corpse pounded on the glass, and it shattered as the thing fell into the open window. The living room began to burn. Another one caught the trees on fire in the front yard.

“Shit, we need the rest of the guns,” said Trevor. “Can’t leave without them.”

“Get Erica over the fence,” said Jason. “I’ll get it. I know where it is.”

“No.”

“Dad, just go, I’ll catch up.”

“I’ll help him, Mr. Blake.”

“It’s too risky. I’ll handle this. If anyth—”

“Trust me, I can do it. I can run faster than you.”

“Alright, make it quick. Meet us over by the trees.” Trevor helped Erica scale the fence before leaping over himself. Jason watched his dad disappear from view.

“What are you waiting for?” yelled Donald. “We need that bag.”

As Trevor and Erica made their way across the field, Donald and Jason went back inside and were assaulted by the smoke filing the house.

“Front of the house is on fire,” said Donald.

“The bag is in the kitchen!” yelled Jason.

There was too much smoke for Donald to see. “Where are you?”

“Got it, let’s go.” Jason pulled on Donald’s jacket, and the two of them went back out of the porch and down the stairs. Several of the dead had managed to make their way into the backyard.

Donald went down the stairs first, and he buried his hatchet into the head of one of the dead. “We can make the fence, hurry.”

Jason watched behind him and shot one of the other dead near the stairs.
Only one of us going, Donald.
He pointed his pistol to the back of Donald’s leg and fired. The bullet tore into the man’s flesh and turned his knee to a red ruin.

“Fuck!” screamed Donald. “What the hell are you doing?” Donald wailed as the searing pain overcame him.

Jason stood behind him. He grabbed hold of the back of Donald’s hair. “You shouldn’t try to take another man’s girl. Why did you do that, Donald?”

“What? For Christ’s sake, I was giving her a hug. She told me her parents died. I was comforting her!”

Jason fired again into another dead that came into the yard. He jumped over Donald who slumped on the stairs. “Goodbye, Donald.” He fired again into the other leg and headed for the fence as the dead swarmed into the yard. “You’ll make a good meal for them.”

“Wait, don’t leave me here!” Donald tried to crawl. He reached out for Jason.

The blood attracted the horde. They virtually ignored Jason as he went over to the fence.
You’ll never touch her again. She’s mine!
Behind him, Donald shrieked once before the horde tore into his body, pulling him apart. They severed him in two as his guts spread out on the steps of the house. The flames made their way to the rooftop and the entire building went up. The horde filled the backyard now, and many of them slammed into the fence, trying to get Jason who stood there on the other side for a few moments watching them devour Donald before he made his way over to the forested area to join his companions.

***

Jason ran as fast as he could across the fields towards the rendezvous with the rest of the group near the forest. Behind him, the house was now engulfed in flames and owned by the dead. The sun was just beginning to rise and it cast an ominous glow over the horizon with what may lay ahead of them in the coming hours.

Jason called out. “Dad? Erica?” He stopped to catch his breath and lifted his head as a faint voice could be heard off in the distance. He had found them. He squinted and wiped away the sweat that was running down from his temples as his father came into view.

His father ran up to him and embraced him in a hug. “Thank God you’re safe. We have been looking all over for you. What the hell happened, are you okay?”

“I got the gun bag.” He pointed to the bag he had dropped near him as he gasped for air. “They were everywhere.”