Dead Life (Book 4) (8 page)

              “I knew it wasn't there sir.”

              “Why didn't you tell me?”

              “I make it my policy to never tell an officer anything, sir.”

              “You're pissing me off John. I asked you to drop the officer crap.”

              “Is that an order?”

              “For the last time. Yes that's an order.”

              Lily stopped in front of the door to the gas station. It was a Mobil On The Run so there was a convenience store attached. The problem was the glass on the front door was shattered and the store looked to have been cleaned out already. John would look for a way to disable the airbags while Lily watched his back. I was going to go in the convenience store and look for a map. While I was inside I would also see if I could find any food or water. Lily popped the hood and got out with her pitching wedge. John opened the hood and I went in the store.

              Whoever had been here before me had done a thorough job of emptying the place. I found a display of maps on the counter right away. I grabbed one of Birmingham, one of Alabama, and a United States road atlas and stuffed them down the front of my shirt. I went behind the counter and found the body of the clerk that had worked here. He had been shot once in the chest. Someone had killed him in the process of robbing the station. I couldn't imagine why he'd been killed. With everything that was going on at the time this must have happened surely he wouldn't have tried to stop anyone from taking whatever they wanted. We'd have to be wary of strangers. If people were killing each other over a bag of chips then things were worse than I imagined. I grabbed a hand full of plastic bags and started down the aisles.

              I was able to fill two bags with odds and ends that the looters must have dropped or missed as they hurried to empty the place out. The general merchandise section still had a few things left. I was able to put together a rudimentary first-aid kit and gather a few toiletries; soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, things like that. I had left six bags by the door and was going to check out the cooler when I heard the crunching of glass behind me. I already had my knife in my hand and as I turned toward the door I drew my pistol.

              “Careful with that thing. It could go off,” Lily said.

              “You scared the shit out of me.”

              “I see there's some toilet paper by the door if you need it,” she said, walking over to where I stood. “Sarge is done disabling the airbags. Are you about done in here?”

              “I was just going to check out the cooler. There's some sodas in there,” I said, pointing at the cooler door. “All the beer and wine is gone though.”

              I opened the cooler and reached in to grab the few remaining sodas and water bottles. As the smell from inside the cooler hit me something grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me forward. I turned my head right before my face would have slammed into the shelving. The side of my head hit a shelf and I momentarily saw stars. I dropped my knife and tried reaching across my body to get my gun when I felt something bite down on my forearm. Lily was at my side in an instant and fired several times into the cooler. A can of soda exploded next to my head and I felt the pressure on my arm release.

              “It bit you,” Lily said, stepping back. Then she came to me and threw her arms around me.

              I felt like a punctured tire. My life was running out of me. When she released her grip on me I looked down at my arm. I couldn't see any blood.  My jacket was covered with soda but it hurt like hell where I'd been bitten.

              “You can't leave me like this,” I said, looking down at the gun she still held in her hand.

              “Hang on a second.” Lily grabbed my wrist and pushed the sleeve of my jacket back. I could see where I'd been bitten but the skin wasn't broken. My thick, uncomfortable, army issue jacket had saved my life. Lily threw my arm down in disgust or relief. I'm not sure which it was.

              “I won't leave you like this. I'm going to wait til you really get bit. Then I'm gonna leave your ass.” Then she leaped into my arms and we shared a passionate kiss.

              “Are you two okay in there?” Sarge called from outside the broken door.

              “Yeah we're fine,” Lily said, pulling back from me and turning toward the door.

              “Good, I hope whatever you were shooting at was worth it. We have to go NOW. Grab whatever you've already got and get out here,” he said then opened fire.

              We both ran to grab the bags by the door. Outside things had gone from bad to worse. A large group of the undead were headed into the parking lot. The Kia was surrounded by the lone zombies that  Lily and John had dealt with while I was in the convenience store. John was crouched beside our ride selectively taking out the fastest of the zombies that ran in the front of the horde. We loaded our supplies then jumped into the SUV.

              Driving through the horde and trying to get off the lot was a tricky proposition. If Lily hit the zombies going too fast, the Kia would eventually be too damaged to continue on; too slow and we'd be mired down in the press of bodies. Hands grabbed at us as we made our way through the mass of bodies. The pounding on the windows and windshield slowed and then finally stopped while Lily drove us through the horde back out onto the main road. 

Chapter 6

              Rick was still feeling the effects from being knocked unconscious earlier. His stomach was churning and Cindy's driving wasn't making things any better. She kept swerving around trying to run over as many zombies as possible and he was sure he was going to throw-up any second.

              “Cindy, I think I'm going to be sick,” he said.

              “Do you want me to pull over so you can get out?”

              “Very funny. Can we just get off this lot.”

              “Three laps ought to do it,” Cindy said.

              Al came across the radio about the same time Cindy was getting ready to pull away from the motel. He told Cindy to go ahead and head on out. Then he gave them instructions, again, on how to go about leading the zombies away.

              “That man really pisses me off sometimes. Tell him I said to fuck off!” Cindy shouted at Rick.

              “She says she's not stupid,” Rick said over the radio to Al.

              “Sorry, meet us at the rally point. Good luck,” Al said.

              “Rick you make a sorry excuse for a radio operator,” Cindy said.

              “Why, because I won't tell Al to fuck off for you?” Rick said, the anger evident in the tone of his voice.

              “I was just kidding.”

              “I'm sorry. I just feel like crap. I think I might have a concussion.”

              “I thought maybe you were angry because of the way they treat us.”

              “What do you mean?”

              “Steve and Al, not just them, even Gina, the three of them think they're some kind of “great zombie killing machine”. Sometimes they make me feel like dead weight.”

              “Yeah, I know what you mean,” Rick said, looking at the speedometer. “You might want to slow down.”

              Cindy looked in her rear view mirror. “Kind of losing them aren't I?” The zombie horde was well behind them. Soon they wouldn't be in sight any longer.

              “At least you're a good shot,” Rick said. “I'm not good for much of anything.”

              “That's not true. You're getting better with a rifle and you handle that sword a lot better than I do. While you and Al were gone I almost got the three of us killed trying to be a big shot with my sword. Thank God Gina was there to save my ass.”

              “She is pretty good with that sword.”

              “She didn't just save me she saved Steve too. I can tell it bothers him that she's so much better than him with a sword. I love watching him squirm every time she shows his ass up,” Cindy said, then laughed.

              “He does get a funny look on his face, doesn't he? Kind of reminds me of a little kid that just lost his favorite toy.”

              This made Rick think of his wife and daughters. Every time he thought about them he hated himself for what he hadn't done. When the outbreak first happened Lisa, Rick's wife, let an injured neighbor into their home. This was before anyone knew how dire the consequences could be when dealing with someone that had been bitten or scratched by one of the zombies.

              Justin, Rick and Lisa's neighbor came to their door that first day. He had been attacked by what he thought at the time was a gang of crazed drug addicts outside of his house that day. In the ensuing scuffle he had drooped the keys to his house when one of his assailants bit him in the arm. The gang had chased Justin from his house to Rick's. Lisa heard someone pounding on the door and opened it before the gang was able to grab Justin off their porch. They were outside the house banging on the door trying to get in when someone else came down the street and they took off after them.

              Justin's wife was out of town visiting her mother and he wasn't able to get through to her on his cell phone. All the circuits were busy and he wanted to try a land line to see if he could get through. When those lines were busy Lisa suggested he wait at their house and try again later. Lisa cleaned the bite, which by now was already turning a fiery red, with alcohol and bandaged Justin's wound. The girls, Mindy and Becky, were playing in their room so the three adults turned on the TV to watch the news reports on the rioting that was occurring throughout the country. It wasn't long before Justin complained of feeling sick and fell asleep sitting on the couch.

              This was about the same time the reports started coming in advising people to stay in their homes and avoid anyone that had been injured by the infected. The news reporter said it appeared there was a fast acting virus infecting people and it was causing violent behavior. He read a CDC report that said the virus didn't appear to be airborne and was being transmitted from blood and saliva through bite wounds. When Rick heard this he became worried about his family and decided he would have to ask Justin to leave. He tried to wake Justin but found him to be unresponsive. Lisa tried and found things to be a little worse than having their neighbor passed out on their couch. Justin was dead.

              This is when they both panicked. There was a dead man in the living room, the phones were dead, and neither one of them had a clue as to what to do next. Rick wanted to drag him outside but Lisa was afraid the gang, who they now knew were actually people infected with the virus, would come back. Lisa thought it would be best for now to just throw a blanket over him and if need be tell the girls he was sleeping. This was when their front window crashed in and an infected man tried to climb through. The man became entangled in the curtains and Rick was able to push him back out through the broken window.

              Lisa looked out through the broken window. There were several severely mangled people in their front yard making their way towards the house. Rick decided to run out the front door and draw them away. He told Lisa to go unlock the back door and when things looked clear he would return. As he headed out the door he told her to get the girls packed up. The four of them were going to wait this out at Lisa's father's hunting cabin in the country. It was the last time he saw her alive.

              Rick went out the door shouting at the crowd that was gathering outside the broken window. He was still in pretty good shape and was confident he would be able to outrun this group. They were all just staggering along and most of them looked to be in pretty bad shape. They were all covered in blood and most appeared to be chewed up pretty bad. Rick didn't have time to stand and gawk at the mass of people in his yard. He had their attention and needed to get them the moving away from that broken window. Rick ran as close as he dared past them. They all turned as one and started after him. After running past the next two houses on his street he looked back, seeing that they were just making it out of his yard he stopped to let them catch up to him.

              This afforded him a chance to get a closer look at them. He realized then that things were worse than he had originally thought. There was no way most of the people that were chasing him could still be alive. From what he could see one woman's throat was completely torn out. Her head hung at an impossible angle and she was missing most of her left arm. A man's intestines hung outside his torn open stomach and he was having trouble walking because he kept tripping up on them. The first thing he thought of was Night Of The Living Dead. His mind screamed at him, this wasn't happening. These people were dead. He had to get them away from the house and get back to Lisa and the girls as fast as possible.

              Rick ran back closer to them to try and get them moving faster but it didn't help. They just plodded along. He noticed a few more dead people coming at him from other directions and realized he  had to get moving. If he stayed where he was much longer they'd have him boxed in. Instead of running he jogged down the street. After he'd gone past the next three houses he went down along the side of a house and ran through the backyards until he came to his house. Rick ran in the backdoor and called out to Lisa. He stopped and listened. The house was too quiet. Rick went to the counter and pulled a knife from the butcher block.

              Leaving the kitchen Rick crept into the front room. He went to the broken window and looked out. The front yard was empty. They would have a few minutes. All he needed to do was get Lisa and gather the children. To hell with packing. Once they got out of the city they could stop somewhere and buy whatever they needed. He walked past the couch and noticed the blanket Lisa had thrown over Justin was on the ground. Justin was no longer on the couch. Rick walked down the hallway, leading to his daughters room. The knife was held loosely at his side. Tears streamed down his face. He feared not for his life but what had happened in the few short moments he was gone.

              He stood outside the partially closed door and listened. He could hear the unhurried sounds of someone feeding. Rick pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

              Justin was lying on top of Lisa. Her throat had been ripped open and the creature that had been Rick's friend and neighbor was in the process of eating her left breast. Seeing this Rick screamed. Justin turned his head to look at Rick, growled through a mouthful of flesh, turned his head back to Lisa's breast, and resumed eating. Becky lay on the ground, not far from her mother. Her lifeless eyes stared at Rick. He looked around the room but didn't see Mindy.

              Rick walked into the room, raised the knife over his head, and stabbed Justin between the shoulder blades. He swung the knife as hard as he could and buried it up to the handle in Justin's back. There was no reaction from Justin other than a slight turn of the head. He tore off another chunk of Lisa's breast and continued eating. Rick went to the girls' dresser and pulled a drawer out. When he looked down beside the bed he saw Mindy's lifeless body. She lay in a pool of blood. The side of her face that Rick could see was gone. The only way he recognized his little girl was the blood soaked clothes she wore.

              Rick went back to where Lisa lay on the ground. He raised the drawer over his head and was about to bring it down on Justin's head when Lisa started twitching. As soon as this happened Justin raised his head from her and turned to face Rick. He brought the drawer down on Justin's head as hard as he could, splintering the drawer in the process. His body fell across Lisa pinning her to the ground. Rick could see her struggling to get Justin's body off of her. His first reaction was to help her but he stopped himself from pulling the dead again body from her. He sat down on the edge of the bed and watched as his baby girls began to stir. Becky got to her feet and came at him. Mindy was trying to get to her feet and Lisa was almost out from under Justin. Rick looked into Becky's eyes, two opaque orbs, staring at him. He could feel his mind starting to slip.

              Becky reached for him and Rick took her by the shoulders and held her back as she fought to get at him. Her mouth was opened impossibly wide and she tried to bite his arm. He laid her on the bed and threw the bed spread over her. Mindy was now up and coming at him. Lisa, still fighting to get Justin off of her made a grab at Rick's leg and twisted her body in his direction. Rick stepped over her outstretched arm, walked to the door of the bedroom, turned, said good-bye to his family, and closed the door.

              “Earth to Rick. Are you still with me?” Cindy asked.

              “Yeah Cindy. I'm sorry.”

              “Are you okay?”

              “I was just thinking about my girls.”

              “Do you need to talk about it. Because if you do I'm here.”

              “No, it's okay. I'm fine,” he said, staring out the windshield. “Is that a truck coming at us?”

              “Holy shit, it sure is. What should I do?”

              “Slow down but don't stop. Get your pistol out and lay it in your lap.”

              Rick and Cindy both drew their pistols from their holsters and laid them across their laps with the barrels pointed at the doors. Cindy slowed the Hummer to about five miles an hour and kept driving at the approaching truck. It too had slowed. When the two vehicles got within a few hundred feet of each other the truck suddenly angled across both lanes of the rural highway and came to a stop. Cindy stopped the Hummer and the two sat looking at each other. There were two men in the truck. One of them hung his head out the window.

              “You all need to pull on up here,” the one hanging out of the truck shouted.

              “I'm not driving up there,” Cindy said to Rick.

              “Pull into the other lane and stop. We'll make them come to us.”

              Cindy moved to the other side of the road and stopped.

              “Put it in reverse and wait to see if they get out. If they do turn us around and head back to the motel.”

              “What if they drive up?”

              “Then put it in drive. If they try anything stomp on the gas.” Rick said. “I guess we'll see what they want.”

              They sat watching the truck for a few minutes. Nothing was happening.

              “You know we have a shitload of zombies coming up behind us.” Cindy said.

              “Give it one more minute. Then turn us around as fast as you can. We'll have to plow through them.”