The Infected (Book 3): Nightfall (21 page)

“Hold up,” Jim called out.
Sara came to a stop. Jim opened his door and stepped out. “Hand me that
Burgerville cup.” Sara grabbed the extra-large cup in the front cup holder. It
was still half full as she handed it to Jim.

The exterior of the Cruiser
looked like the kill floor of a slaughterhouse. The horde was a quarter mile
down the street and heading this way. Cliff was already out of his van and
trying the same thing Jim was about to do. He was pulling the cyclone fence up
off of the window as Tina ran the blades back and forth to get it clear enough
to see. Jim dumped out the water onto the window and stuck his fingers into the
fence. The goo squished under his fingers as he lifted the fence just far
enough away from the glass that the wipers took off at full power and cleared
enough of the gore to let Sara see the road. The horde was a hundred feet away
and Cliff was already back in his van.

“That should do it,” Sara
called to Jim from inside the car.  

Jim let go of the fence
and it snapped back onto the glass. He raced around the backdoor and hopped
into the car. Sara was already rolling when the door slammed shut.

The convoy ripped down the
road. A single biter would appear every now and then, but Sara was able to
maneuver around them. With the light, almost nonexistent traffic on the streets
and the rest of the way being horde free, they made excellent time.

Jim’s stomach turned when
they pulled into Penny’s neighborhood and he saw the monster pile of dead
bodies that lined the street around the police cruiser. He was so close now. He
could already feel the warm arms of his loving family around him. He could not
wait to hold his little girls. He was not going to put them down for hours.
Just carry them around and hold them like he did when they were infants.

“Who the hell are they?”
Sara pointed to the pickup that sat in the driveway. Five heavily armed men
were jumping out of the truck and running for Penny’s front door. Jim did not
recognize them or their truck. Ice ran through his veins. He knew they were
driving toward a gunfight.

Piping hot liquid poured
down Eric’s spine. A shard of glass jutted from the side of his skull. Karen
raced for the front door, shouldered it closed and locked it.

Eric’s body slammed into
hers and they crashed into the sheetrock next to the front door. Pain exploded
across Karen’s back. Eric threw punches into her ribs and stomach. She couldn’t
breathe. He moved so fast she couldn’t think. She tried to block his strikes
but his fist crashed into her wrapped wrist and she saw stars.

Karen was in full blown
panic. Eric’s face was right in front of hers. The primal parts of her brain
activated and she saw an opening. She reared her head back and brought her
forehead down onto the bridge of Eric’s nose.  

Blood jetted from his
nostrils and down his black shirt. His eyes squinted and he was blinded by her
counter attack. Karen rung her own bell. She could hear her children crying in
the living room. They had learned the lesson from their Mama’s previous fight
and stayed away.

Eric stepped back and held
both hands to his face. Karen stepped forward and hooked her leg around the
back of his and pushed through him. He fell backwards onto the hardwood floor
as Karen raced over his body and back into the kitchen.

She frantically searched
for her gun. She spotted it and reached for the pistol. She could hear the men
outside yelling for Eric to answer them. One of them had an itchy trigger
finger and opened fire on the front door. Bullets ripped through the thick
wood. Karen dropped to the kitchen floor and covered her head. She hadn’t
reached the gun yet.

A stray round zapped Eric
in the calf and the bullet grazed his skin “STOP SHOOTING YOU IDIOTS!” Eric
rolled to his stomach and the blood on his shirt allowed him to slide faster
across the floor after Karen. His outstretched hand gripped tightly around
Karen’s ankle. He pulled himself up her body and began to mount her.

“You are going to pay for
this!” He yelled in her face.

Leon and Troy were about
to step through the threshold of a promising looking home about three blocks
away from Penny’s when they heard the sound of gunfire.

“That was close to
Mama’s,” Troy squinted his eyes as he turned to face the popping noise in the
distance.

“Let’s go!” Leon stopped
on a dime and sprinted back to the car. Troy was right on his heels.

Sara stomped on the brakes
and screeched to a halt at the end of Penny’s driveway. Jim was the first to
step from the car. His rifle was pulled tight to his shoulder and desperation spread
across his face.

“KAREN!” Jim strained.

Who were these guys?

Why are they shooting
into the house?

Had Karen or Penny
turned?

What the FUCK is going
on?

The five men turned and
drew their weapons on Jim and the approaching van.

Frank stepped out of the
Cruiser, “Jim?”

“Stay close to the car,”
Jim said without looking back. Frank kept the SKS aimed at what looked like the
leader’s head.

Karen heard Jim’s voice
outside. Eric’s powerful hands crept up Karen’s body and found her neck.

“Ji-!” Karen’s windpipe
was pinched off as Eric’s thumb pressed into the center of her neck. Karen
turned her hand into a claw and raked Eric’s face, catching one of his eyes
with her nails. Karen’s free hand opened a floor cabinet. She clamored for the
first solid object her hand could find.

A heavy ceramic bowl sat
on the lower shelf. She launched it into the side of Eric’s face. The force of
the blow knocked him off of her body and he released his grip on her throat.

Karen gagged out a cough and
almost puked. She hit him a few more times with the bowl until it shattered
into a hundred pieces.

Jim raised one hand in the
air and pointed the rifle at the ground. He wanted to show that he was friendly
and not wanting a fight, “What’s going on?!” he called to the men.

Brother Paul’s words were
ringing in Jim’s head. ‘I do not want people running around Vancouver murdering
every person they meet.’ It was just yesterday when the Preacher had Jim and
his crew with black bags on their heads making them promise to be good
Christians. ‘I will only give you this one warning.’ Brother Paul said, ‘If you
cross me, I will make you and your families suffer.’

Jim did not want a blood
bath on his hands. He had to get them to leave without firing a shot. He could
sense something had the five men juiced up and even more on edge. It wasn’t
just the zombie hordes in the area. The look on their faces told Jim they were
guilty of something. 

Karen cried for help and
it sounded supersonic when she yelled, “Jim! I’m in here! HURRY!”

He recognized his panicked
wife’s voice. Jim stepped up the driveway and was a few feet from the truck when
he heard a second voice throw out the command, “Kill him!”

The five men opened fire!
Jim ducked down behind the truck’s back tire. Rounds tore into the back end of
their own truck, the PT Cruiser and Cliff’s van.

Karen reached to pull
herself up off the floor. She grabbed the handle of a drawer and got to one
knee when Eric caught her by the waistband. Karen could feel his fingertips
grind at the top of her ass. He yanked her back to the floor and the drawer
came out of the cabinet with her. Cutlery and other kitchen utensils hit the
hardwood. They spread out with a loud crash and slid to every corner of the
kitchen. Karen fell to her back and Eric hovered over her torso. He snatched a
fork and stabbed it into Karen’s chest close to where her shoulder connected.
She howled. The fork stuck deep in the meat of her chest and Eric wiggled its
handle back and forth digging it deeper into her.

Frank turned and
retreated. He ducked down and hid behind the back of the PT Cruiser as rounds
passed over his head. He wasn’t mentally prepared to take a human’s life. In
the flash of a second that he had the headshot lined up, he panicked and couldn’t
fire. Frank had never been fired at before. His hands shook uncontrollably. He
just wanted it to be over. He pressed his body up against the back bumper of
the car. Every shot fired seemed like it was coming straight for him. Every
bullet had his name on it. The fear of death had never gripped him so strongly.

How the hell do we get
out of this?!

Sara ducked under the
steering wheel. Shards of glass rained down on her as the bullets ripped the
windshield and interior apart.

Devon started to speak, “I
got-!” his words were cut short. Devon was not quick enough and he couldn’t get
his injured leg to bend for him to scoot under the dash. Blood splashed over
every inch of Sara’s face. She ran her shirt sleeve along her brow and wiped
the blood out of her eyes. Devon’s body and face had been peppered by the
incoming rounds. His body slumped across the center console. She reached for
his hand as if she could shake him back alive.

“Devon!” she couldn’t hear
her own voice over the pounding noise inside the car.

Where is Jim and Frank?!

Maybe Tina can fix
this?
She was slipping further into
shock and the gravity of his wounds were not registering fully with her yet.

A flurry of gunfire hit
the front of Cliff’s van. The windows exploded. Cliff cranked the wheel and hit
the gas. He panicked and was blinded by glass hitting him in the face. He sped
down the street behind the PT Cruiser. The shots kept coming and they punctured
the side of the van. The instant his sight returned it was too late he was
barreling down on a parked car. The van crashed and spun out! The engine cut
off. They were stuck with the broadside of the van facing the gunmen. Out of
sheer desperation Cliff popped open his door and fell to the asphalt, away from
the incoming rounds. His own blood was cascading down the front of his face. A
jagged gash zigged through his eyebrow and down to his cheekbone. His saw
landed on the ground next to him. The van filled with the screams of his
children.

Karen’s eyes rolled back
into her skull. The searing sting in her shoulder was unimaginable. She raised
her knee and it landed square on Eric’s balls. He let go of the fork. Karen
hooked her hands behind his head and pulled him down closer to her face. She
dug her teeth into the top of his skull! The taste of metal filled her mouth as
she peeled off a three inch chunk of scalp. Eric reared back and Karen spit the
bloody mouthful of skin into his face. His hand pressed against the ragged
wound.

As Leon swerved the Subaru
around the block, the warzone came into full view. The muzzle flash made it
look like fireworks were going off in the front yard.   

“What the hell is this?!”
Leon slowed down. Bullets were flying all over the street. A man laid on the
street next to a van that was getting perforated by gunfire. An older man clung
for life at the back of Karen’s PT Cruiser.

Troy noticed Jim on the
ground hiding behind the truck’s back tire, “That’s Jim.” Troy pointed him out.
Leon punched the gas and cranked the wheel. He pulled the emergency brake and
the Subaru slid sideways into the next door neighbor’s driveway. Gunfire was
coming their way. Bullets stamped holes into the hood of the Subaru. A short
stone wall separated Penny’s property from the neighbor’s. As Troy opened the
door to get out, the hailstorm of lead drifting his way and the bullets stabbed
dime sized holes up the front quarter panel of the Subaru. Troy fell forward to
hide behind the stone wall. He got off a single shot before completely
disappearing behind the wall. The buckshot shredded a gunman’s leg. He stumbled
to the ground cursing. The others stopped firing and went to help their buddy.

Eric clutched his scalp
and rocked back on his knees. From her back Karen kicked into Eric’s chest with
both feet, sending him into the stove’s window. The glass shattered and sliced
his back. Eric laid half inside of the oven. His wounds were compounding and
slowing him down. Blood trickled off his forehead. Karen rolled to her side and
made another attempt at the gun. She noticed the look on Eric’s face. The
arrogant asshole that walked through the door was second guessing his house
call.

Jim could hear the
confusion on the other side of the truck as the gunmen tried to aid their
fallen friend. They were yelling at each other rapid fire and they had
completely stopped shooting.

“Oh, my God, dude! He’s
bleeding out!”

“Guys, I’m hurting bad!”

“What about Eric?”

“Fuck him man we’ve got to
go!”

“Eric’s got the keys!”

“Shit, I don’t know!”

“I think I saw kids in
that van!”

“This is so fucked! We are
so fucked!”

The way the group talked
to each other and how quickly they fell apart when one of them got shot helped
Jim conclude that these weren’t battle hardened soldiers, but weekend warriors.
Jim got his feet back under him. He had to make his move. If he stayed here they
could easily surround him. The fear in Karen’s voice gave him the courage and
strength he didn’t know he had to stand up and charge around the end of the
truck.  

Before Jim knew it he was
up, and charging towards the four gunmen that had circled around their wounded
friend. He moved at high speed and caught them off guard. With the butt of the
gun he came down full force into the back of one of their heads.

“GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS IN
THE AIR!” Jim barked at them. He held the barrel of his assault rifle inches
from their faces.

“Don’t shoot! It wasn’t
our idea to stop here, man!” One of the men dropped his gun and put his hands
up in the air.

Leon hung his head around
the side of the Subaru and watched Jim take control of the gunmen. The revolver
they found last night rested in his sweaty fist. He had been aiming at the gunmen
before Jim raced over and now Karen’s husband was in his sights.

I could do it. In the
confusion no one would know it was me.

Karen would be all
mine. I did an amazing job as Dad this morning with the girls.
 

Leon squeezed the trigger
and the hammer began to pull back on the revolver.

She could be mine. All
I have to do is shoot.

“Jim! It’s me!” Troy’s
head bobbed up from behind the stone fence.

“TROY?” Jim called out.

“Yeah!”

“Get over here and get a
gun on these assholes!” Jim kicked away a few of their rifles that they had
dropped to put their hands in the air.

Troy stood up and blocked
Leon’s shot.

Damn it!

Leon relaxed his trigger
finger, “I got time.”