Raven's Hell (8 page)

Once
outside an infected lunged forward in the slow, sloppy way a starving corpse
did, but Rebecca had her knife ready, and stabbed it in the side of the neck.
It wouldn’t kill it, but it would slow it down. It gurgled out a sound, and
dark blood gushed out of the artery as it fell backward and landed on the
ground. Collin and Rebecca started running again, still moving from the horrors
that had swarmed in on them, yet not able to get rid of the sounds of hell
filling her ears.

There
was clanging behind them, and once they got into the woods they didn’t stop.
Collin continued to pull her forward, refusing to let go of her hand. She ran
as fast as she could, but he had longer legs, and the supplies she carried were
weighing her down. Glancing behind her, the world shook, and the warehouse grew
smaller and smaller the harder she ran. The ground was uneven, and when she
faced forward again her foot caught on something. She fell forward, landed on
her knees, and the air left her in a whoosh.

“Come
on, baby, we have to keep moving until we can’t walk any further.” Collin said
and had her lifted off the ground a second later. He cupped both of her cheeks
with his big hands, and leaned down so he could look into her eyes. “I’m not
going to let anything happen to you.”

“But
why?” she gasped out still trying to catch her breath.

He
shook his head. “Does it matter why? I am here, won’t let anything happen to
you, and I want you to trust me.” He continued to stare right in her eyes, and
a little bit of moonlight filtered through the treetop. “We might be safe from
those infected, but I want us to get as much distance between us and them as
possible. We can talk about all of this later, but right now we need to move.”
He kissed her hard and fiercely, broke away, and breathed just as hard as she
did. “You’re good, baby,
good
to walk?”

She
nodded. “I’m good.”

He
nodded in response, kissed her once more, and then they were moving through the
forest, fast and hard, not stopping until the warehouse was now a distant
memory, and she nearly collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.

Chapter Seven

Collin
finally allowed them to stop once they had put a substantial amount of distance
between them and the warehouse. It wasn’t as if the fuckers could run or walk
very fast for that matter, but since there was a horde of them starting to move
toward the machine warehouse Collin didn’t want to take any chances. It seemed
they were grouping together, congregating and then having more muscle to take
down someone. It was easy enough to kill a few at a time if they were destroyed
in the head, but if twenty, hell, even ten swarmed him and all he had was this
knife, that could get dangerous. He might have been able to take down a shitload
of them when he had taken Sparrow all those months ago, but he’d had an extra
gun, a small one tucked in the ankle of his boot that she hadn’t known about.
It had saved him them, and if push came to shove he would use the knife he had
and take down every last asshole that came close to Rebecca.

Rebecca
was on the other side of the fire, sleeping. He had made a small camp for them
about a few hours so after they had run from the warehouse. Although he had
seen the fear in her face, knew that she was used to doing things her way,
probably slowly and safe, he wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything. This world was
fucked up, and she knew that, and although she had left with him without
complaint, he had a feeling that on her own she would have waited the infected
out at the warehouse, thinking that eventually they would have left. She
considered that place her “home”, and it was clear she had had no intentions of
leaving there.

Collin
watched her sleep, knew that the sun would be rising soon and they would need
to keep moving, find a safer place to camp, and maybe one to set up shop
permanently, but right now he just wanted to watch her. She was a fighter, a
survivor, and when she had kissed him, just rose up and placed her mouth on
his, everything had stopped. He wasn’t the bastard, violent man that lived on
the streets of New York anymore. He wasn’t fighting until everyone bowed before
him. He wasn’t the drug lord, the pimp, or the killer that everyone had been
afraid of. Right here and now, he was still all those things, but more. He was
so much more in this world and with this woman. What he wanted now, where his
focus and priorities were now, were on this female, and protecting her at all
costs.
Sure, they had just met, and no, he wasn’t in love
with her. What he felt was raw, uninhibited possession and territorial need. He
saw her, knew she was his, and something inside of him had clicked. It was like
this primal, wild energy at seeing his female. Was this how things had been
back in the day when men had to fight for a woman, had to show her they were
stronger and could protect them with their life?

She
was asleep, and he knew she was exhausted, not only from running, but also
because she had barely gotten any rest back at the loft. He had seen the bags
under her green eyes, her too pale skin, and he wanted her to be able to get
some sleep. But they needed to keep moving, because infected weren’t their only
problem. He scanned their surroundings, not able to rest until he knew for sure
they were safe. There had been some semi-fresh human tracks that he had seen
when they stopped, and knowing that someone could be lurking out there, waiting
for Collin to put his guard down, had him doing the opposite.

He
had his knife and moved his thumb back and forth over the blade as he looked at
their surroundings. But even though he had seen the tracks he didn’t
feel
anyone near. Collin had always
relied on his instincts. They had been a must when he had been working the
underground, and they were still what kept him alive.

 
There was a crack of a twig in the distance,
and Collin stood, his knife in hand, and his entire body poised and ready to
attack. He backed away from where the sound had come from, closer to Rebecca,
and then stopped. He listened, his heart beating slowly and steadily, and his
eyes alert. He sensed the moment Rebecca woke because she held her breath,
obviously sensing there was danger close by. Fortunately she didn’t make a
sound or move. She was smart, but then again she wouldn’t have lasted this long
if she wasn’t.

More
sounds of twigs breaking became closer. He placed a hand on the other knife he
had strapped to his waist and strained to hear, making sure the sound wasn’t
echoing off the trees. And then he spotted the infected moving out of the
forest and toward them. Its steps were slow, languished even. The male was
hungry, softly groaning and raising its hands toward them.

“Rebecca,
stand up and gather your things.” The moonlight cut through the trees and
bathed the corpse in a bluish tint.

“Oh
God,” Rebecca whispered roughly, now standing right beside him with her arms
wrapped tightly around her middle. “Collin, he’s just a little boy.”

Yeah,
he was, probably not much older than eleven or twelve, but he was badly
decomposed, no longer the child that she was envisioning in her mind, or what
he had once been. Right now he was a walking corpse, hungry for human flesh.
Their flesh.

The
infected lifted its head and parted its lips in a silent cry. Blood oozed out
of his mouth, nose, and eyes. It was old blood, congealed and dead, just like
he was. These creatures were no longer living, but rotting from the inside out.
Its flesh was black in some areas, necrotic and starting to spread across his
gaunt cheeks and sunken, cloudy-white eyes. The little boy, or corpse as Collin
thought of him now, wore a pair of stained, torn and striped pajamas. The
pocket in the corner was torn clean off, and a festering bullet wound could be
seen.

“Grab
your things, because we have to leave.” He had planned on waking her soon
anyway, but it looked like sleep would have to wait.

The
young boy made another low, wet, gurgled sound and moved closer. Rebecca had
all of her things packed now, stood beside Collin, and whispered softly,
“Collin, let’s just leave. He’s a little boy.”

He
looked at her, at her soft face that was so innocent even though this world
would eat her alive. She had lasted this long, although clearly she hadn’t
dealt with a child that was infected. “He isn’t a child anymore, Rebecca. He
isn’t even alive. He’ll attack us without even thinking twice, and then we will
be like him.” He smoothed his finger over her cheek, and then looked back at
the male. It was staring at the fire, clearly transfixed at the bright flames
for a second. Sometimes they could be taken off guard by something small, and
this was one of those times. “Leaving him alive to continue to wander aimlessly
around, and potentially infect more people would make me a vile man, Rebecca,”
he said without looking at her. “I’m not a good man by any means, but I sure as
fuck can’t let this once little boy continue to be the way he is. It’s not
right. Don’t you think he deserves peace?” he said softly, and glanced at her
once more.

She
shook her head. “No, but God, all I can see is the little boy he used to be.”

“I
know, baby. Maybe you should look away.”

She
shook her head, not saying anything at the fact he kept calling her baby.
Collin walked around the fire, and then the boy came forward, following his
movements. He made more strangled sounds, and then Collin took him out swiftly.
He wasn’t into making them suffer, because he just wanted them dead. Whoever
this little boy used to be, he didn’t deserve to have to wander this world
feeding on flesh, dead and rotting more each day. It was a sad world, and the
thought of children being infected made it worse.

****

The
sun started to rise over the tops of the blue spruce trees, and Rebecca
shielded her eyes from the glare. They had been walking for what seemed like
forever. She was tired, her feet were sore, and her body wanted nothing more
than to lie down and just sleep the rest of the days away. But they couldn’t
stop, not until they were in a safe place. After the assholes at the grocery
store, and the infected all around them, sleeping out in the open again didn’t
sound like the best option for them. And she could see the wear and exhaustion
on Collin’s face, too, but he never stopped, never gave up his composure or
alertness.

The
sound of the leaves crunching under their feet seemed overly loud, or maybe she
was just so exhausted that what she heard was just the thundering of her own
heart. They had been walking for miles, farther and farther up the mountain
until the air thinned and a crisp wind blew through the trees. Her whole body
burned, and all of the adrenaline, endorphins, and energy that had kept her
going thus far, had since dwindled away to nothing. But she kept her mouth
shut, knew Collin was just as tired, and told herself that when they got
wherever they were headed this would have all been worth it.

The
trees had broken way to show a small backwater, secluded village. They both
stopped. Everything looked like it had been taken right out of a western movie
where the towns were small, intimate even. A schoolhouse was in the distance, a
small diner of some sort, a few cabins, and even a doctor’s office on one side
of the school. There were a few corpses moving around, but they were slow,
clearly hungry, and they’d be easy enough to take down. Rebecca already had her
knife out, pressed to the side of her thigh, and stood on the other side of
Collin. He had his weapon in hand, and when she looked at him she could see his
gaze moving back and forth, taking in everything.

“We
can go around and avoid them, but there might be something we can use in the
buildings,” he said softly and then looked over at her.

“Where
exactly are we going?” Rebecca said just as softly.

“I
don’t know, but I think the higher we go up the safer we will be. The chances
of the sick wandering so far up into the mountains are slimmer, and I think a
lot of the healthy ones still surviving will stay close to the towns.” He
glanced at the small village again, if it could even be called a village. It
seemed more like a community than anything else. “And this isn’t it.” He stared
at the infected again, and then he crouched low, trying to maybe see another
way around the sick. It was easier to avoid them altogether. But the three
infected were roaming in a circle, groaning and unaware of their presence. He
was right though. They needed to at least see if there were any supplies in the
buildings.

“What
the hell is this place, though?” Rebecca asked, and kept her focus on the
infected. One of them turned toward them, groaned, and then that had the others
turning and doing the same. They moved toward her and Collin, their flesh
peeling, black congealed blood seeping out of their skin, and
gouges
missing from their bodies and faces taking up her
entire view.

She
didn’t think, just reacted. Moving forward, her knife raised high, she attacked
the first corpse. The older man had receding lips and scabs littering his face.
He was missing his left eye, and in its places was this pus-filled socket.
Pushing back her gag reflex, she stabbed him right in that socket, drilling her
knife through his skull, and hearing the sickening wet, bone crunching sound.
She looked over at where Collin was, and watched as he finished off the
infected. The bodies littered the ground, and then he was looking at her with
anger, and moving toward her.