Hell Bound (Book 2): A World Apart (6 page)

~Three o'clock in the afternoon and already the weather is dropping the closer and closer we get to Colorado. Luckily, this state hasn’t had many zombies so the drive has been really peaceful.~

Mathew and Devlin stand outside the SUV eating a bag of chips talking about our route and how long it will take for us to reach Colorado, Jake and Kat play with John on the floor, making a track in the dirt for John’s monster trucks.

Dark stormy Clouds are blowing in from the north. Searching through my backpack for my favorite Hollister pullover sweater. As I pull it over my head, I start walking towards Mathew. A big smile spreads across his face the moment he sees me. Wrapping me in a bear hug.

“What are we talking about?”

“Nothing really, just the route to our next stop,” Devlin says as he finishes his bag of chips and tosses the wrapper on the dirt.

“Alright, then I better eat mine and get ready.”

Mathew hands me a bag of chips and puts his arm around my waist. The wind picks up making me shiver.

“What’s up with the weather?” I ask shivering.

“I guess winter is coming early this year and it’s only going to get colder the further east we go,” Mathew says hugging me tighter.

“We will need chains for the SUV and winter clothes,” Devlin adds as he lights a cigarette and takes a long drag. The cherry of the cigarette burning red. Mentally smacking myself for forgetting about the cold weather.

“Where is our next stop?”

“Anywhere that sells chains. And maybe some place that sells winter clothes.”

Nodding my head at Mathew, I shove my last little bit of chips in my mouth, secretly wishing I had a nice cold soda to drink it down with, but water will do.

We get back into the SUV and turn towards the main road. A sign comes into view, hotel 4 miles, gas station 2 miles down the road. Mathew swerve’s in and out of the cars that were left behind. Bouncing us from one side of the car to the other.

“Maybe they have chains?” Devlin questions motioning at the sign.

“Worth a shot,” Mathew answers back.

As we drive closer to the gas station, the street is completely blocked. Different vehicles of all shapes and sizes block the entry and exit of the gas station. Military vehicles, SUV, Diesel trucks, cars and trucks. Almost as if everyone decided to stop at this gas station and then they left their vehicles behind.

“I don’t like this one little bit,” I say out loud.

“Me neither,” Kat agrees pulling John closer to her.

“We don't have a choice, we need gas. I don't want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere with zombies chasing my ass,” Devlin says rubbing his beard again.

“Kat and John you guys stay in the car. Come sit in the driver seat and get ready to make a break for it, if we need a speedy getaway,” Mathew says firmly to Kat.

“Everyone keep your eyes and ears open and let’s hurry up,” Devlin says checking his weapon.

Mathew, Devlin and I get out of the SUV, standing next to each other facing the opposite directions. Checking for any sign of a threat. Jake finally jumps out of the SUV and stands next to us. Mathew motions with his three fingers for us to start walking, pointing towards the gas station. Each vehicle is parked so close together that each of us has to turn our bodies to the side and squeeze between them.

Several of the cars are stained with dried up blood on the windows. With each step I take I squish toys, shoes, clothes and other items. Zombies or even people can hide in between the cars or underneath them. Looking down at my feet, I try to lean down to glance under the row of cars, but I don’t have enough room to bend down far enough to check under them. After several minutes of climbing and squeezing through vehicles, we finally break free and come out of the bone yard of vehicles.

We slowly start walking towards the front door of the gas station, it’s quiet. A creepy squeaking sound comes from somewhere inside of the store. The front door is hanging on by a thread, glass is scattered across the whole floor in front of the door.

Devlin pulls the front door open motioning for us to squeeze through first. I slowly step through the front door of the gas station, stepping on glass as I go through. The store is a mess, everything that was on the shelves is now spread out across the floor, over turned shelves. The squeaking sound echoes through the empty store room.

“Let’s look around,” Mathew says, motioning for us to follow him further into the gas station.

Mathew walks to the aisle furthest towards the wall. The squeaking sound gets louder, sending shivers up my spine, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Even though I’m cold Sweat starts to drip down my brow, making my hair fall limply against my cheek.

“Anything?” I whisper nervously.

“No, this place doesn’t look like it has anything left.”

“Can we get out of here?” I whimper as I hear something fall from a shelf from somewhere in the back of the store.

“Slowly,” Mathew says, standing in front of me. Pushing me behind him towards our only exit. Jake holds the broken door open for us as Devlin stands guard on the other side of Mathew.

I rush through the door, tripping over a piece of wood on the floor, inches from diving my face first into the pile of glass, but putting my hands out in front of me cutting the inside of my palms. Dropping my gun on the floor.

“Ouch, fuck,” I cry.

Jake helps me up and rushes me to my feet. Blood trickles down the palm of my hands. I drop to the floor and grab my gun, cut or no cuts I won’t be caught dead without a weapon. Holding the gun firmly in my hand, trying to ignore the sharp sting of the cuts as the handle of the gun presses against them. More blood trickles down my palms.

Mathew backs out of the gas station with his gun raised. I'm about to ask what does he see when a group of zombies start to come out of the building. The zombies slowly walk towards us, more zombies start popping out of the trees next to the parking lot, and more peek out of the sides of the building. Staring at us, wanting us, hungry for our meat.

“It was a trap! They set a fucking trap,” Mathew whispers.

“RUN!” Devlin and Mathew scream at the same time. Turning on my heels I run towards the section of cars that we came through, figuring it would be the best route to get out of here alive. Hoping to god that Mathew is right behind me and those killers haven't got to him. Scared to death, I run faster, trying to jump and squeeze through all of the vehicles like an obstacle course, but instead of winning a trophy for reaching the finish line first, I'm trying to win the safety of my life.

Stopping dead in my tracks several zombies stand in my way of continuing towards the safety of the SUV. Aiming my gun, I point and shoot at anything not human. Four go down, but they keep coming. Jake tugs on my arm,

“This way!”

Following behind him I jump over a car, climb on the hood of a truck and jump to the other side. Jake rolls underneath a diesel truck and I roll underneath and crawl to a stop next to him.

Frantically looking around hoping to find Mathew and Devlin. But all I hear is scuffling of feet against the cement. A humming sound gets louder as a group of zombies pass by us. Scooting closer to Jake I put my hand over my mouth to muffle my cries. I freeze, afraid to make any kind of movement. My body starts to tremble, all I can see are zombie feet passing by.

Little feet scuffle by us, the feet are so tiny, as tiny as an eight year old child. Alexander and James faces flash across my eyes. Making me want to scream and help that poor child. I have to force myself to stay hidden under the truck and remind myself over and over again that the child is in a better place. Holding my hand over my mouth, even tighter, tears escape my eyes and fall to the ground. I squeeze my eyes shut and pray that they will pass us by and that Mathew and Devlin made it to the SUV safely.

~The light in the window is a crack in the sky. A stairway to darkness in the blink of an eye ~

Forcing my eyes open when the odd sound of humming has stopped. The zombies passed us by dragging their lifeless bodies towards the direction of the SUV. Looking over at Jake, he's not moving, his eyes are as big as baseballs. I can’t even tell if he is breathing. I nudge him to get his attention, he looks at me scared. I motion my head and whisper for him to stay. Scooting closer to the edge of the truck and peek out, not seeing anything I crawl back underneath the truck.

“I think they're gone.”

“We need to get to the SUV, back to Kat and John,” Jake whispers.

“Hopefully Mathew and Devlin were able to make it to the SUV too,” I say hopeful.

We start crawling out from underneath the Diesel truck. The cut on the inside of my palms stinging as I pull myself out from underneath the truck. Not seeing any signs of zombies I stand up aiming my gun towards the direction the zombies came from. Jake stands up and motions for me to move. We start jogging towards where the SUV was parked. Trying to hurry and jump over the vehicles that are in our way. Finally reaching the clearing, but not seeing the SUV anywhere. Turning around in a complete circle panicking,

“Where are they? Do you see them.”

“No, but we can’t stay here,” Jake adds

“Where the Hell do we go?”

“There was a little farmhouse down the road. Maybe a mile.”

“Okay, lead the way,” I say running beside Jake. Still not seeing which way the SUV could have gone, we keep running in the direction of the farmhouse that Jake has mentioned. Jake finally comes to a stop in front of what I can only describe as a shack than a farmhouse.

“Is this it?” I question looking at the creepy building that looks like it’s about to tumble over.

“Yeah looked bigger last night than it does now,” Jake says as he walks to the shack.

Having no choice, I walk with him into the beat up looking farmhouse. A 1960’s wallpaper covers the walls. The living room opens up to a small kitchen with a light pink color wallpaper. The roof has a lime green color. The kitchen tile is white and green checkers. reminds me of a 1960’s home. Very old fashioned. At one time, it could have been a very cute little home. Walking back out to the living room Jake is standing by the window looking outside.

“See anything?”

“Not a damn thing. Makes me nervous.”

Sitting down on the very old and dirty, stained up carpet, I lean my head on my knees my body aches for rest. Wondering where Mathew and Devlin are or if they are okay? I don't know what I would do if anything happened to Mathew. I can’t do this without him. He's my rock, my knight in shining armor.

“What do we do if we can’t find them?” Jake asks as he walks to the kitchen window and looks outside.

“My guess is they won’t leave this area until we are found. In the morning, we walk back to the gas station and look for any signs of them.”

“Ok, first light then?”

“First light. Let’s get some sleep. I’ll take first watch. I’ll wake you when it’s your turn.” I say agreeing with him.

Watching the sun go down and the world outside disappears into the darkness. Looking outside into the darkness, I haven't seen any sign of wildlife or zombies in two hours. Hoping I would see the SUV pull up and save us, but no such luck. Turning away from the window I decide to go snoop around in the other rooms.

The hallway leads to three doors. The closet door to me looks like at one time use to be a bathroom, the door is missing from its hinges and lays on the floor. Brown rust covers the sink and bathtub. Stepping on the door on the floor walk to the next door which is also missing, is a bedroom.

Looks like it used to be a girl’s room. Bright pink walls with a white Cinderella trim lines the wall. The pictures are peeling off of the wall. Leftover trash from hobo’s living in here covers the carpet, inches of dust covers the trash.

Walking away from the room, I walk to the last room of the house. A bigger room which is what I can only think of as the master bedroom. Walking back out to the living I decide to wake up Jake. I should get some rest I doubt tomorrow is going to be easy. Shaking his shoulder to wake him up. Jake opens his eyes and stretches.

“Coffee?”

“Um, Jake we don't even have water.”

“I know I was hoping my dream came

true,” He says as he gets up and walks to the

living room window.

Giggling, I decide to lie down and close my eyes. My body is so tired and sore, but I’m too scared to close my eyes. Too worried about Mathew and my family to get some sleep. But eventually, sometime later I fall asleep.

The next morning we rush out the door. Finally reaching the gas station I still don’t see any signs of our group. Almost tempted to scream Mathew’s name but I know that would only attract unwanted visitors and I don't feel like dealing with them. Especially when I only have five bullets left.

“What do we do?” Jake whispers to me.

The loud screeching scream came from the direction of the gas station, reminding us we are not alone. Jake and I jump and hide behind the closest tree.

“I don't know, hide in the tree? And hope they come back? We need food and water. We can’t stay out here forever.”

“Let’s go look around the area, maybe we will see or hear the car,” Jake says as he walks back down the road.

“Shhh,” Jake says after a couple minutes of walking.

An SUV drives down the road slowly. I squint my eye’s hoping to get a better look to see if it’s our group or not. My heart starts beating rapidly against my chest. My hands start shaking around my gun.

“It’s them!” Jake screams and waves his

hands frantically over his head.

Not waiting for Jake, I take off running towards the SUV. A tear escapes my eyes as I run towards the oncoming vehicle. I just want to wrap my arms around Mathew and hold him tight. Mathew stops the car and jumps out. He runs after me and wraps me in a tight hug.

“Where the hell were you?” Mathew says as he lets me go and starts looking me over.

“Jake and I had to hide under a diesel truck and wait out the group of zombies. Then we walked to an old abandon house down the road to stay for the night.” I try to get out as the waterworks start up full blast, spilling all over my cheeks.

“Are you okay? You fucking scared me, Sam! I said stay with us not run off.”

“We had no choice Mathew,”

“Yeah dude, we were trapped and I found a way out. Either that or she gets bitten and dies. So chill out, we're safe.” Jake says angrily holding Kat and John tightly in his arms. John’s eyes look puffy and swollen from crying.

“Let’s get the Hell out of here,” Mathew says, letting me go and walking away without another word.

Wanting to scream at him for being such an asshole I let it go for now and walk back to the safety of the SUV.  I get in the back seat behind Mathew and shut my door. Jake hands me a water bottle and a bag of chips.

Opening up my water bottle and chugging it down until there is not a drop left I start on my bag of chips. Finally feeling relaxed and safe I decide to get comfortable and close my eyes. Mathew’s crazy mood will have to wait until I'm up for it.

A short while later I’m woken up by someone getting behind me. Mathew crawls next to me and wraps me in a hug. Wanting to push his moody ass away, I quickly change my mind and pull him closer to him and kiss him. Deepening the kiss I pull on his hair and bite his lower lip. A moan escapes his lips, forgetting about the people around us I pull away and slap his arm playfully.

“What the hell was that attitude for?”

“You scared the shit out of me.”

“And you don't think you scared me? Do you think I enjoyed spending the night in some old beat up shack, not knowing if you’re dead or alive?”

“Sam, I'm sorry, but I thought I lost you. Besides the boys, you are my world, my life. I don't know what I would have done if I found you hurt or bitten. Or worse, dead.” A tear escapes his eyes, I reach out my hand and wipe the tear away.

“I know Mathew. I felt the same way. It’s not like I decided to run off. I had no choice.”

“I know I'm sorry. I love you so much. I promised you I will get us safely to our boys and I will keep my promise. That means reaching them together in one piece.”

Pulling him into a hug and letting all of the stress and anger disappear I kiss him again. He pulls away and rest his head on my chest. His legs tangled between mine. His hands, rub my stomach in tiny circles.

“We need some time alone,” Mathew says as he kisses my neck.

“Yes, after I shower and brush my teeth. I look like a scarecrow. And my breath smells like ass.”

“You’re still sexy,” He whispers as he pulls me closer and kisses me again.