Dead Life (Book 4) (15 page)

              “You look like a damn fool mister, floppin' around on the ground like that. Stay still so I can shoot ya.”

              I could see the tree line from where I was and had a pretty good idea of about where he was but couldn't pin down his location. I fired a few shots in the direction I'd heard his voice trying to get him to shoot back at me but he didn't take the bait.

              “Tell ya what. Leave that rifle there on the ground and I'll let you walk out of here.”

              “He shot me Tom. You ain't gonna just let him walk out like nothin' happened,” the guy I'd shot called out from the front of the house.

              “Shut up Pat,” Tom yelled.

              “Tom, I think he killed me,” Pat called out in a much weaker voice.

              I heard a gun shot from the front of the house. “Hey Tom, Pat's dead,” Al shouted, “and your other friend ran off and left you.”

              Someone, I assume it was Tom, ran from the woods towards the front of the house. He had a rifle at his side and fired from the hip as he ran. Then he flew back in the direction he had came from and didn't get back up. Al had finished him off. I got up and walked to the front of the house. Al was running toward me.

              “Get on the radio and call Gina. He might be heading her way.”

              I ran back to the truck and pulled on the door handle. I had forgotten I had locked the truck and kept tugging on the door trying to get it opened.

              “Try the keys,” Al said from the passenger side of the truck.

              “Shit, I forgot that I locked it.”

              I finally got the door open and immediately grabbed the radio. “Gina, you there?”

              “Yeah, I'm here. Are you guys okay?”

              “We're fine. Have you seen anyone on the road?”

              “Just a few zombies but I took care of them.”

              “You were supposed to stay in the truck.”

              “They were stragglers. I wasn't going to move the truck just because of one zombie.”

              “Forget it. One of these guys ran off. He might be headed your way. Take off and meet us at the house.”

              “Alright, see you there.”

              Al got in the back with Cindy and we drove away from this little piece of hell. Driving down the logging road I wish I would have had time to end the dead lives of all the zombies these pricks had tied to these trees. Even though they were zombies at one point they had been living breathing people and what these sick fucks had done was just wrong. Killing something that's trying to kill you is one thing. Torture for nothing more than satisfying one's sadistic urges is another. We had no idea if there was anything left of the person these things had once been. Even though I doubted that there was even a shred of humanity left in the creatures this was something I would never be able to tolerate.

              I came to the gate and slowed down using the front bumper of the truck to push it open. I kind of liked this truck and was planning on keeping it now that the Hummer was a goner. I started to turn left once I was past the gate but looked back to the right. Old habits die hard; safety first. I saw Gina standing in front of the U-Haul over a body in the road. I put the truck in reverse and backed up to her.

              “What ya got there?”

              “I'm not sure but I think it's a kidnapper. He came out of the woods as I was pulling away so I ran him over with the truck.”

              “You didn't do a very good job. He's still alive.”

              “Finish him off and let's go,” Al said. “Wait a minute. Cindy wants to say something to him.”

              I looked in the back and Cindy was doing her best to get to the window.

              “Hey zombie fucker,” she said. He did his best to look up at her. “Yeah that's right I remember you. Stand back Gina.” Cindy held the 22 out the window and emptied the clip into him.

              “Alright then,” I said. “If you're feeling a little better Cindy I think I'll go ride with Gina. If that's okay with you Al.”

              “Yeah, that would be fine.”

              “Let's drive back to the Hummer and see if we can get our gear.”

              “I don't know about that. There were a lot of zombies back there,” Al said.

              “Well let's at least go see. If we can't get our stuff then we just turn around and head out.”

              “You take the lead. I don't want to have to run any zombies over with this thing until we get a  wooden bumper on here.”

              “Sure you'll be okay? I know how much you love running them down.”

              “No I'm not okay. We'll see if we can get the bumper off the Hummer. It should fit on here.”

              I climbed out of the truck. “You can drive the U-Haul if you want.”

              “Let's just go. I'll try and hold out.”

Chapter 13

              It seemed like I'd just closed my eyes when I felt a hand on my shoulder shaking me.

              “Tim, wake up,” Lily whispered. “There's somebody outside by the cars.”

              “Probably just some zombies,” I muttered. “Hopefully they'll move on.”

              “Zombies don't talk,” Lily replied, shaking me harder.

              “How many?” John asked.

              “At least two, maybe more.”

              I sat up and started gathering my gear. John was already up. He grabbed his rifle and went upstairs. Lily and I followed him up and we all took up positions in the windows. For a while we didn't see anything. Then I caught a glimpse of something moving off to my right just inside of the treeline. A few seconds later I heard a gunshot and saw a muzzle flash to my left. After that all hell broke loose. Gunfire erupted from several spots. I ducked down and looked at John. He was down but still looking out the window.

              “They're shooting at the cars,” he said.

              I raised back up and could see he was right. All three of the cars out front were now sitting on flat tires. I picked out muzzle flashes from three separate locations then the shooting stopped. I raised my rifle and prepared to return fire.

              “Not yet,” John said. “That's what they want. You'll give away our location.”

              We sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity. In actuality it was probably not even two minutes.

              “What are we gonna do Sarge?” Lily asked.

             
“They're probably going to rush the house. There's
at least three of them. My guess is there's probably more. Lily you're the best shot. Stay up here and watch the yard. If anybody comes out of those woods shoot them. Then move to another window. Wait two minutes to see if anybody else comes out. If they do shoot them too. Then head down to the den. Two minutes that's all. Got it?”

              “Will do.”

              “Tim we're going back downstairs. I'll take the front door. You go down to the kitchen and watch the back. Anybody tries to get in take 'em out. Don't wait for them to break in. Shoot through the door if you have to. That kitchen door isn't very sturdy.  Your round should just pass right through.”

              “Alright Sarge.”

              “Let's move out.”

              “Edgar,” a voice called from outside. “We know you're in there. We had a real good time with your wife. I don't think she had much fun though. You know, I thought she was lying. But after we killed your girls I realized I was wrong. She didn't know anything about what you've been up to. Edgar, you know what we want.”

              Whoever was down there got quiet for a few seconds.

              “You're pissing me off Edgar. Tell you what. Whoever is in there with you this is their chance to walk away. Come out the front door with your hands where I can see them and I'll let you walk right on down that road and out of here. How's that sound? Sounds good to me. You got thirty seconds.”

              I sat at the window hoping one of them would walk out. I didn't care what Sarge said. I was going to shoot the bastard. “What do you think they want?”

              “Does it matter?” Lily said.

              “Not really. I just wonder what the hell Edgar was up to.”

              “Let's go,” Sarge said.

              Just as we got to the hallway he started again.

              “I made a lot of money for you Edgar. All I want is the meth. Hell, I'll tell you what, give it to me and I'll let you go.”

              Sarge and I stood in the hall looking at each other. “The windows are too high for them to come in that way. They'll have to come to one of the porches, front, back, probably both. Stay out of sight. They'll be able to see you from the windows in the kitchen. After Lily starts shooting wait two minutes. Fire a couple shots out the window then head for the den.”

              “What happens then?”

              “We drive out of here. They don't know we have a car.”

              “Goddammit Edgar. You got one minute!”

              John went to the front staircase and I went to the back. When I got to the bottom of the steps I realized I would have to crawl past the door to get to where I could see out it. With all the shit I had on my back and hanging off my belt this wouldn't be an easy task. The kitchen window was to the left of the door and I could see out of it at a fairly severe angle. The door was almost right in front of me. Unfortunately it had a window. I got on the ground, crawled past the door, and headed for the dining room. The entire time I waited to be shot in the back. This actually helped me crawl faster than I thought possible. I pushed the door open and crawled through it.

              The smell in the dining room was horrible. If I wouldn't have been so worried about being shot in the back as I crawled within two feet of the exploded body on the ground beside me I would have started throwing up again. I propped the door open with a chair and peered around the corner. It was pitch black inside the house and just a little less dark outside. There was a crescent moon just over the treeline that slightly improved visibility. I could just make out the figure of someone standing at the door trying to see in the window. He turned his head to the right. I followed his line of sight and saw someone else standing by the window over the sink. These guys were idiots. I slowly brought up my assault rifle and shot the guy at the door in the head. I swung the barrel around as fast as I could and sprayed the window. I got lucky and hit the guy out there a few times in the chest.

              I crouched down in case there was someone else out there and waited. I heard two successive shots from upstairs and started my two minute countdown. From outside I could hear lots of screaming and hollering, guns going off, and glass breaking upstairs. When I got to ninety seconds I fired out the window again and ran back to the steps. I wasn't sure which way Lily would be coming but I hoped it was down the back stairs. I fired off a few rounds at the back door when I hit the two minute mark in my countdown and decided to wait a few more seconds for Lily to come down the steps. Just as I heard the sound of her coming down the steps I heard Sarge open up on the front door.

              The sound of footsteps stopped about halfway down the steps.“Lily it's me down here,” I said.

              “Thank God. With all the shooting you were doing down here I wasn't too sure.”

              I sprayed the door again. “Just letting them know I'm here.”

              We ran into the den at the same time as Sarge. “You guys ready for this?” he asked.

              “Let's do it,” I said, then turned to Lily with my hand out. “I'm driving. Just so we're clear. That's an order.”

              She handed the keys over. “I thought we were done with that shit.”

              “Maybe later,” I said. “I want you two in the back, heads down. That's an order too.”

              “Stay down until we're clear. Once I give the word be ready to come up shooting.”

              I started the Escalade, ducked down, and stomped on the gas. We plowed through the garage door and were immediately hit with a barrage of bullets. I was sitting too low in my seat to see much of anything but I could tell for sure there were at least three people firing at us. The windshield spider webbed as soon as we cleared the debris from the garage door. The shooter in front of us wielded a shotgun which did little other than cosmetic damage to the Cadillac. He was the shooter that took out the windshield. It sounded like small arms fire coming from each side. Rounds slammed into the sides of our vehicle but were unable to pass through to the interior. I did the best I could to follow the driveway, which made a sharp turn to the right, from crouched behind the steering wheel.

              The sounds of semi-automatic gunfire filled the interior of the Cadillac. John and Lily were both up and firing out the side windows. As soon as they started shooting all return gunfire ceased. I was able to raise my head enough to where I could see where I was going. I made the turn off of the driveway that headed off into the woods when the drivers side window exploded. My face was bleeding from the glass that now covered me but I was otherwise uninjured. Then I felt our front driver's side tire explode. The same shooter that had shot out my window had just blown out our front tire. We veered to the left but I was able to correct direction enough to keep us on the road.

              “Slow down a little,” Lily said.

             
I tapped the brakes and we almost came to a stop. Lily hung out her window and aimed her rifle back down the road. In my rear view mirror I saw a figure step out of the woods. Lily fired once and I saw him drop to the ground.

              Lily leaned back in. “You can go now.”

              We drove about a quarter mile down the gravel road, limping along on the rim of our flat front tire, when we came to two cars that were blocking the road. The puke green Oldsmobile that we had seen at Edgar's farm house and another car sat nose to nose directly in front of us. I slowed to a stop and our rear window exploded in at us. Someone was in the road behind us pointing a rifle in our direction. I watched him in the mirror and saw someone run out of the woods and tackle him. His rifle flew from his hands and the two struggled on the ground. Whoever it was that attacked the man with the rifle ended up on top. He then raised a knife over his head and plunged it into the other man's  chest. Then our savior jumped up and ran off into the woods.

              A shotgun slide ratcheted back outside of my window. “I guess that was Edgar,” the man holding a shotgun to my head said.

              “I don't know who it was,” I said. “Edgar wasn't with us.”

              “Well, I'm pretty sure that was him,” he said. “Lady if you move I'm gonna blow his head all over you.”

              The movement I previously heard coming from the seat behind me stopped.

              “I want you two to throw them rifles out your windows, butt first.” He then peered off into the woods and hollered. “Edgar, I'm gonna shoot your friends if you don't come out.”

              “I don't know those people. Go ahead.”

              “That ain't true Edgar. I saw them with you at the house,” he shouted back.

              “We just gave him a ride,” I said.

              “Shut up,” he said under his breath. He then turned the shotgun around; hitting me with the butt in the side of the head.

              I heard a gunshot from behind me and Lily say, “I had a pistol too, you dumb son-of-a-bitch.”

              He dropped the shotgun and both his hands went to his belly. I lifted the handle of my door and laid back on the seat kicking it open. It hit him right in the hands that he held to his stomach wound, knocking him to the ground. I got out of the Escalade and stood over his body. Edgar came out of the woods and crouched down over him.

              “I don't have any more drugs,” he said, spitting in the man's face. “I killed your sister and her girlfriend. The rest of the meth is with them.” Edgar looked over his shoulder at me, “Did you kill all of them back there?”

              “I don't think so. I think there was one or two left.”

              “I'm going back there Roy. Hopefully your brother is still alive. After I'm done with you I'm gonna kill him.”

              The man's eyes got really big when Edgar said this. Then Edgar slit the man's throat.

              Edgar picked up the shotgun and stood up. “I'm really sorry I brought all this down on all of you. I didn't mean for any of this to happen.” He turned and walked away.

              “Come with us,” I said.

              Edgar turned back and pointed at the Cadillac, “You've got a flat tire.”

              He headed down the road, never to be seen again. John came over and patted down the dead man. He found the keys to the Oldsmobile and moved it out of our way. We drove out to the main road,  got on level ground, and changed the tire. While we were letting the car down off the jack the gunfire started. I heard the distinctive sound of a shotgun fire off twice followed by some small arms fire.

              “I hope Edgar's okay,” Lily said. “He seemed like a nice guy.”

              “I don't know about that,” I said.

              “You want to go back there and see if he needs some help?” John said.

              “I think it was too late to help him long before we met him. Let's just go.”

              We got in the Cadillac and drove off. Nobody said anything for a few miles.

              “Next town we come to we need to find a new ride,” Lily said. “I can't see shit out of this window.”