The Infected (Book 3): Nightfall (20 page)

“What do you want?”

“It’s not polite to aim a
gun at your guest.” Eric took a drink as he leaned back against the counter.
“I’ll tell you why I am here as soon as you put the gun on the counter.”

Karen did not know what to
do. She was no killer and she was sure that if she pulled Eric’s plug the five
guys out in the truck would storm the house. Then she and the girls would be
gunned down or worse.

She chose to hear him out.
Karen wanted him to leave as quickly as possible.

Maybe he just wants to
rob us?
  Karen thought.
And
then they would be on their way.
 

If Troy and Leon come
back before these assholes leave, they might get shot to hell before they even
know what happened.

Karen dropped the gun to
her side and paused for a moment before putting it on the counter. Eric calmly
sipped at his coffee like he was just visiting an old friend.

Karen’s last thought
before she let go of the gun was,
This is stupid. I should shoot him and try
to make a run for it.
She knew she wouldn’t make it twenty steps out the
door with both girls. This was the only move she had.

“What do you want?” Her
patience was wearing thin.

“Can I say just how happy
I am that you are so beautiful? I was watching you from across the street and I
hoped you would look this good in person, but I was not sure. You do not
disappoint I tell you.” Eric held a smug smile. Karen’s confused face was
apparently not the answer he was looking for. “It’s customary for someone to
say thank you when they are complimented. I am going to let that one slide and
get down to brass tacks. I see you are wearing a wedding ring. Maybe one of
those men that left is your husband. I don’t know. The reason I’m here is
because I’m really into married women.” Eric took a sip from his coffee and let
his words sink into Karen’s mind.

She made a half step back
to her gun.

“I would not do that if I
were you,” his tone threatened with extreme intent.

She stopped.

“I am going to give you
two choices. Ready? Choice number one. You take me back to the bedroom and show
me every ounce of passion you possess in that amazing body of yours. I want to
feel like you are in love with me. Absolutely, head over heels, man of your
life, in love is what I am talking about.” Eric drained more coffee from his
mug. “I want you to act like you are having the time of your life. I want you
to give yourself to me, freely. You do what I am asking and give me a very
convincing performance, then I’ll be on my way.” He took another sip.

Every fiber of Karen’s
body cringed and filled with dread.

“Choice number two would
be that you refuse or I feel that you are not committed to the role, then I
will have my five friends out in the truck join me in our scene… I promise you
will not enjoy it and I am a man that keeps his promises.” Eric licked the
corner of his mouth and then took the last drink of his coffee.

Never in her life had
Karen been put in a more diabolical position. No woman should have to make that
kind of choice. The world was already a horrible and cruel place to live and
the infection that had spread was only going to make it worse.

Karen did not have time to
weigh the options. She could see Eric was itching to go back to the bedroom
with her. She knew exactly what to do. Karen’s body shifted. Her hip popped to
the side and one shoulder dropped. She took the relaxed stance of a woman on
the prowl. Eric noticed the change and he pushed himself off the counter and
moved toward her.

“Let me get you another cup.
You’re going to need your energy,” Karen did her best
Jessica Rabbit
impression and slinked across the kitchen.

“Yes, ma’am.” Eric handed
over his mug. His face brightened up like a kid on Christmas morning.

“That was
cream
and
sugar
, right?” Karen purred like a cat in heat. She removed the pot of
coffee and turned back to face Eric. She could see he was already sporting an
erection in his pants.

“I would love the taste of
your
cream
and
sugar
,” he said with a dirty smile.

Karen batted her eyes and
gave him a big smile back. “Can you get me a cup? I want to make sure I have
enough energy for you too?” Karen pointed up at the cupboard.

Without hesitation Eric
turned and opened the cabinet.

Karen swung the coffee pot.
The glass erupted when it hit the back of Eric’s skull.

Jim stood by the control
switch for the garage bay doors. A loaded pistol on his hip and an assault
rifle in his hand. Frank slid the bolt into position on his SKS as he stepped
closer to Jim.

“Is everyone ready?” Jim
whispered his question. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, sure.” Frank said unconvincing.
He adjusted the strap of his duffle bag and his shoulder holster for the two
Berettas. Everything checked out and Frank gave Jim a nod. Jim reached up to
the controls on the wall. His fingertips could feel the word “OPEN” engraved in
the old plastic square button. Outside the horde had doubled and the metal
doors flexed and groaned under the weight. Jim nodded to Cliff and then Sara.
All the nodding reminded Jim of a favorite movie of his from his childhood,
Johnny
Dangerously
. Peter Boyle and his team of gangsters nod at each other for
close to five minutes before he yelled “NO MORE NODDING!”

They cranked on the
engines. Frank pulled his rifle in tight to his shoulder and aimed at the
bottom of the first bay door. Jim pressed and held down the two buttons. The electric
motors that hung from the ceiling made a ton of racket as they turned the
sprocket that pulled the chain and raised the doors.

The monsters outside
dropped to their bellies. Their gnarled, chewed up bodies pawed at the concrete
floor as they inched their way under the door and into the garage.

Frank took the domes off
the first ones. The bay doors crept along the tracks it felt like an eternity.
The higher the two doors got the more zombies crawled in. They began to pour in
like a flood of dead bodies.

Sara revved the PT Cruiser’s
engine. Its four cylinder engine sounded silly. It was closer to a go-cart than
a zombie crushing machine.

Frank’s rifle chopped away
the closest infected beast. Jim had to keep his fingers on the buttons, but
with his free hand he attempted to fire headshots at the encroaching horde.

Bloody hands crashed into
the side of Cliff and Tina’s van. The children screamed at the top of their
lungs as the van rocked back and forth. Rich sat next to Morgan in the middle
row and the two of them clutched one another. The newly bolted on hunks of
metal did a good job keeping the monsters out of the windows. Cliff watched the
zombies creep closer in his side mirror. Tina closed her eyes and said a prayer
to a God she rarely talked to.

Sara and Devon watched helplessly
as Jim and Frank risked their lives to save the others. Devon sat in the
passenger’s seat. A pistol laid in his lap. He had asked for it, but was very
afraid to hold it. He did not want to shoot his other leg by accident.

An infected broke free
from the pack and sprinted right for Jim. Frank was in the middle of flipping
over his SKS’s magazine for a fresh one. Jim wildly fired his rifle and was
unable to land the killshot. The rounds ripped through its chest but only
slowed it down. The beast was right on top of Jim and there was little time to
react. The doors were almost raised enough for the cars to fit through. He just
needed to hold it a little longer. Jim threw up his leg and caught the beast in
the chest with his boot. He landed what they called in his Krav Maga class a defensive
front kick. It worked perfectly. It stopped the monster cold in its tracks and
Jim stomped it down to the ground. Jim had the zombie pinned to the floor and
he popped its ugly face with a shot from his rifle. That was it. He could not
hold down the button any longer.

Jim released the controls
and yelled, “GO!!”

Cliff and Sara stepped on
the gas. The tires burned out and both cars lurched backwards. Body after body
was sucked under their rear tires. The top of Cliff’s van scraped along the
bottom of the bay door, but they made it.

Jim and Frank ducked out
of the garage and into the lobby. They hopped over the front counter and headed
for Rich’s office. The zombies were right on their heels. If either of them
stopped and tried to take a shot they would be swallowed up by the horde. Jim
glanced over his shoulder for an instant and the image behind him was all red
stained teeth and claws. The horde moved like it was one body. One constant
flowing river of death. The horde took the path of least resistance and just
like water, once it got rolling it was nearly impossible to stop.

Jim and Frank entered the
back office. The main lights were out in this room. The word “EXIT” glowed on
the far wall. On Rich’s desk was an office phone. Its LCD screen said it was
eight twenty five in the morning.

Maybe I’ll make it
there in time to make the kids breakfast?
The warm thought made Jim’s legs pump even faster for the door. Frank
hit the exit first and the room filled with morning sunshine. The horde
overturned Rich’s desk behind them. As Jim breached the doorway his hand hit
the wall. A surge protector dangled next to the exit. Jim’s index finger found
the on switch and he pressed it as he passed through the door.

Cliff and Sara were
pulling around to the back of the building at that moment. Frank dispatched a
few zombies that littered the back lot of the garage.

The surge protector’s
power switch flickered orange. Electricity coursed through the five outlets and
down the cords plugged into it. Jim’s crew had round up every lamp in the building.
They placed them all in the back office knowing it would be the last room they
would escape through. When the power hit the bulbs they exploded into balls of
fire! Gasoline rained like napalm out of the five bulbs and doused the zombies
with fire.

Jim couldn’t believe it
worked. He had seen it in a few movies, but there was no time or way to test
them. He was sure it would not get all of them, but he hoped that it would
blind the front runners and slow down the rest. The trap did just that.

Sara skidded to a stop
only a few feet from Frank. He opened the backdoor and dove onto the bench
seat. Jim was right behind him. He slammed the door shut and that was the
signal for her to punch it. A few burning beasts stumbled out the back exit.
They fell to the ground with melted skin dropping off their faces and hands.

Sara cranked the steering
wheel all the way to the right, whipped the car around and headed for the
street. They breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Jim spun around in his
seat. Cliff’s van was right behind them.   

“Holy shit!” Jim spun back
around in his seat. He extended his hand for Frank to give it a fiver.

“By the skin of our teeth!”
Frank grunted as his palm met Jim’s. It was one of the best high fives of Jim’s
life.

“Keep heading east. I’ll
let you know when to turn.” Jim popped the magazine out of his rifle. Frank had
the same thought. He handed Jim a box of ammo.

“Jim, what are we going to
do after we get there?” Devon’s question was on everyone’s mind. He was just
the first to say it. Jim pondered the question as he loaded a few rounds.

“Dude, I don’t know,” was
the answer Jim finally settled on. It brought a short smile to Devon’s face,
but no real comfort.

A zombie stepped out into
the street. Sara swerved to miss the collision, but it was too late. The
zombie’s torso was chopped by the lip of the cow catcher. Its shoulder and neck
split wide open and gore spilled out across the windshield. Its head and left
arm rolled up the glass and over the top of the car as its body slid down and
off to the side of the cow catcher. It was a disgusting device that worked
beautifully.

“That was nasty.” Sara
attempted to clean the human remains off the window but the fence would not let
the wipers do their job. The washers sprayed soapy water and it turned the
crimson fluid to pink, but she could see again.

Jim clicked his full mag
into the bottom of the gun, “Guys, I really have no idea what to expect when we
get there. The house could be empty. If so, we need to keep rolling.”

“Hey partner, no one’s
holding you responsible for anything. We are all flying by the seat of our
pants and I’m not keeping score.” Frank did not look up from his gun. He just continued
to load ammo into his magazine.

Cliff kept his distance
from the back of Jim’s ride. He was afraid if they came to a sudden stop, he
would crash into them and this whole convoy would come to an end. Rich stared out
the window. Vancouver was a violent blur. Dead bodies littered the streets.
Whole families had been slaughtered by this infection. Wrecked and burnt out
vehicle shells were scattered everywhere. Hordes of all sizes were growing in
numbers.

“How is this shit even
humanly possible?” Rich said in disgust. “I see it, but I don’t believe it.
Where is the army? Where are the cops? How are we the only two cars on this
street? Jesus Christ is this how we go down as a species?”

“The human race was a
brittle house of cards.” Morgan wiped the excess saliva from the corners of her
mouth. Her statement left everyone speechless. Jim’s car made a right turn and
Cliff turned on his signal to indicate his turn.

“Baby, who are you
signaling?” Tina asked her husband with a teasing tone.

“I don’t know. Habit I
guess.” He turned off the signal. “I hope Jim’s mother-in-law has food for
breakfast. I’m starving.”

“Me too. The kids got full
on popcorn, but I’m running on empty.” Tina rubbed at her growling stomach.

“I hope she’s got a bed I
can have dibs on. Old Richie boy is tired as hell.” Rich let out a loud yawn.

“I hope the bed’s queen
sized,” Morgan’s wrinkled hand found its way onto Rich’s thigh.

“Yeah, me too darling,”
Rich gave her a wink.

Cliff looked into the
rearview mirror at his mother. Morgan’s eyes met his and she gave him a set of
double eyebrow raises followed by a wink.

Cliff was not surprised at
all. Rich was a man with a beating heart and that was just the kind of guy
Morgan was looking for. Cliff crossed his fingers that the house had thick
walls and doors. Morgan and Rich going at it was the last thing he wanted to
hear.

The PT’s brake lights
flashed red, Sara was slowing down quickly. She stepped on the gas and pulled
away from them.

Cliff could finally see
what the problem was. They were about to pass a Costco and it looked like
everyone had the same idea. “Let’s go to the place with a ton of supplies, no
windows and a heavy metal door.” The parking lot and street adjacent to the
super store was packed with zombies. The big metal door was shut and everyone
that made it there too late had been gobbled up.

Cliff and Tina watched as
Sara plunged the PT Cruiser into the wall of running zombies. A cloud of red
blasted into the air around Jim’s car. Cliff stepped on the gas to catch up with
them. She carved a path through the horde and to Cliff it looked like she was
laying down a red carpet for him to follow her on.   

As the van entered into
the horde and traveled over the busted up body parts it was like they had taken
the van off-road. It was bumpy and jarring as hell. It also felt like driving
on ice. The tires slid across the viscous surface. Swarms of infected closed in
on the path Sara was making. When they hit the cow catcher on the front of the
van the zombies met the same fate as their fallen comrades. The lip’s edge that
Rich had installed was like a Ginsu knife. It sliced, diced and chopped up the
bodies like they were sacks of tomatoes.

Cliff was gaining on the
PT Cruiser. His van was rocking a more powerful V6 engine and Sara was taking a
lot more direct hits than he was. They were only half way through the horde and
Jim’s ride was slowing way down. If they came to a stop that would be it. The
infected might not be able to get into the newly fortified cars, but the humans
would also be stuck inside. Trapped until they starved to death.

Cliff was less than three
feet from the back of the Cruiser and he was letting off the gas.

“What are you doing?!”
Tina yelled at him.

“What?” He said in a
panic.

“Push them! Get us out of
here!”

“Do it Clifford!” Morgan
seconded Tina. 

“The catcher will hold!”
Rich yelled over the sound of infected bones breaking by the hundreds.

Cliff put his foot into it
and they crashed into the back of Jim’s car. The cow catcher grinded into the
back bumper of the cruiser.

“What the hell is he
doing?!” Sara squealed at the top of her lungs.

“Getting us through this
shit!” Frank yelled it over the noise. Sara noticed the speedometer rising.
They were getting back over thirty miles per hour, but she was driving blind.
The windshield was covered in sludge and had started to spider web from impact
of all of the chunks of flesh and thick skulls crashing into it. 

“Keep going and hold the
wheel straight. The road doesn’t turn!” Jim commanded. They chugged like a
locomotive. It became dark inside the car. The windows were blacked out and
suddenly the noise stopped. The road became clear. Sara let off the gas and
flicked on the window washers. She held down the lever and let a gallon of
water spray out. The window washer stopped shooting water. It had run dry, but
the window was still impossible to see through.