You and Me against the World: The Creepers Saga Book 1 (14 page)

“Devin,” he whispered, “this place smells like death. We need to get your friend and get out of here.”

“Yeah, it smells pretty bad, I know.”

Thorn took his arm.

“No, not just bad, literally like death. I’ve been working around that smell my entire career. We need to get out of here.”

Devin suddenly understood, and he grew a little paler in the flashlight beam. He turned to Ann and Austin.

“Stay ready. We get the fuckin’ moron, and then we get the hell out of here. Watch our backs.”

The two nodded. Thorn was glad to see that Annie had sheathed her knives and carried two 9-mm pistols.

They walked through the living room and then turned past the kitchen and entered a long family room. Thorn almost pulled the shotgun’s trigger when Connor came out of a doorway on the far wall and called out in a loud voice.

“Come on, she’s in here, but I think she’s hurt.”

He disappeared again. To reach him, they had to walk past a stairway that led to the house’s second floor. The dark stairway seemed ominous, and Thorn’s heart thumped at the thought of walking past that pitch black corridor. He wasn’t alone in the sentiment.

“Watch that stairway, Austin,” Devin whispered. “Annie, eyes behind us.”

Austin crouched at the bottom of the stairs; he attached a flashlight to a clip below the rifle’s barrel. The beam lit up the
stairway,
and Thorn was glad to see only an empty passage. Annie stood at Austin’s side and watched the kitchen and family room entrance. Thorn and Devin walked into the dark room to find Connor.

Connor stood in the middle of a large room.

“See,” he said and pointed with his flashlight beam.

A woman kneeled in the corner. Her arms wrapped over her dark hair.

“She won’t move. I don’t know if she’s hurt or what.”

The putrid smell in the room was so strong that Thorn gagged. Devin covered his nose.

“Connor, what the fuck, can’t you smell that?” he asked.

“Yeah, whatever. Help me with her,” he replied.

Connor turned and reached for the woman.

“Don’t touch her!” Thorn yelled, but his warning was too late.

The woman turned, and her face was a horror of savagery. Hatred filled her blue cloudy eyes. She vomited black bile into Connor’s face, and he screamed. Devin started forward, but Thorn pulled him back.

“Devin, don’t. He’s done.”

“What? No.” Devin’s eyes confirmed that he knew the truth of it, though.

Connor fell to the floor in screams of agony and something exploded from the closet. There was a thunder of footsteps from the second floor. Devin leveled his shotgun on the closet Creeper and destroyed its head in a flash of 12 gauge. The Creeper woman who had sprayed Connor scurried forward on her hands. Thorn saw that she had not been kneeling; she had no legs below the thighs. He pulled the trigger of his shotgun, and her face exploded.

“Company,” Austin yelled, and then his rifle crackled.

Devin and Thorn backed out of the room. Austin was firing in rapid succession. A mass of Creepers came down the staircase, and Thorn saw their insane faces in the beam of Austin’s flashlight.

“Reload!” Austin yelled, and Annie’s twin 9-mm exploded in a one-two, one-two fire pattern. Austin fed bullets into the gun with impressive speed and dexterity.

“We’re out!” Devin yelled. “Go, go, go!”

Annie went first, followed by Thorn. Devin and Austin walked backward, firing at the Creepers that pursued. As they reached the front door, music blared and gunfire exploded. They ran into a nightmare.

Creepers advanced on the vehicles. There was no symmetric
V pattern this time. The group formed a semicircle around the SUVs and shot the infected with none of the calm synchronicity of the
previous night. As Thorn crossed the lawn, he saw the simple math of it all. They didn’t have enough bullets to kill all the Creepers running toward them. The mindless charge was gone, and the infected appeared almost strategic in their approach. Devin saw it too.

“Bail, bail, bail!” he screamed

Thorn would have nightmares about the scene. Nothing else would compare to the fear he experienced getting into the SUV. In his nightmares, something always grabbed him before he made it. A claw would find his shirt and drag him back toward that dark room where the legless Creeper waited. His hands would find the house’s doorframe for a moment. He would have just enough time to see the others torn apart. Then his hands would lose their grip, and he would again be inside the dark house. They dragged him across the floor while the sound of hungry mewling came from the back bedroom. The legless Creeper always called his name.

He tripped as he reached the SUV and fell half in and half out of the vehicle. Goldie grabbed his arm, tried to pull him in, and then her other hand stretched out across his back, and she squeezed off shots. Thorn had no idea how close the Creeper was when she shot it, and he was glad not to know. The SUV lurched backward while he still lay across the seat. He crawled in the rest of the way as the SUV, sped in reverse down the road. Brandon looked over the seat as he drove backward at what felt to Thorn like a hundred miles an hour.

“Sorry, Doc, had to go,” Brandon apologized.

“No problem.”

Thorn looked at Golden. “Thank you.”

She just looked forward over the seat.

“Annie and Austin made it into Nick’s car,” Devin said, and she settled back.

“What the hell was that?” Devin asked no one in particular. “Am I crazy, or did we just get ambushed by a bunch of mindless Creepers?”

“We did,” Thorn confirmed.

“Shit … Connor,” Devin said in a softer voice.

Brandon nodded but didn’t speak.

Brandon backed the vehicle all the way onto the main road and then spun it around. The two other vehicles did the same. They sped back to the school in silence.

Chapter 9

The End of the World

P
art 2

Graveyard Plan

Most of the group gathered in the cafeteria. They were silent. The dinner that had been prepared for them remained untouched on the counter. Devin and Caroline were absent. Devin had gone to her upon their return; he had hugged her and whispered to her, and then they had left. Susan’s hurt and anger dissolved when she saw Thorn’s expression. She sat next to him, her hand on his forearm. The raucous, opinionated bunch was without words, and that scared Thorn even more than the events at Reflections Lake. He realized that tonight was their first loss since they had built their paper fortress in the wind.

Devin returned. His eyes were red, and his complexion pale, except for the red blotches on his cheeks. Thorn recognized the look. He had spent a year seeing that aftermath in the mirror’s reflection. He called in the grieving man. Devin’s friends recognized it too, and it deepened their own sorrow.

“I knew Connor most of my life,” Devin said. “He was a great friend, and I wish I could have saved him tonight. I’m sorry I failed.”

“Failed?” Nick stood and looked at Devin and then scanned the group’s faces. “I didn’t know Connor as well as you did, Dev, and I don’t want to speak ill of him, but the Connor I knew, he didn’t return from Orlando. We all knew that something was wrong. We all knew he shouldn’t be out on those runs. Anyone disagree?”

No one did.

“Connor could have gotten you killed tonight, but I don’t blame him, either. Something just wasn’t right in him. Devin, you didn’t fail anyone tonight. Grieve for your friend, but I’m your friend too, and I’m not gonna let you blame yourself.”

“Thanks, Nick,” Devin said, and then he turned to Thorn.

“What happened out there?” he asked.

Thorn contemplated; he had been trying to understand it all since the legless Creeper had patiently waited for her opportunity to strike.

“I’m not certain, but I think these things have developed some form of intelligence.”

“They didn’t have any before, though. What changed?” Adam asked.

“No, before they didn’t, but they seem to be evolving in some way.”

“Like the coming home,” Susan said.

“Exactly,” Thorn agreed.

“What do you mean ‘coming home’?” Adam asked.

“When the outbreak began, my neighborhood was nearly empty. Then one day, Creepers started showing up. Not just random ones but former neighbors who had turned.”

“Maybe they had been inside all along and just came out for food,” Brad suggested.

Thorn shook his head.

“No, these neighbors weren’t home on the day of the outbreak. I know because I went to several houses and tried to warn them. The houses were empty. These infected showed up later.”

“So you think that they came back from wherever it was that they turned?” Brandon asked.

“Yes, and then shortly after their return, they began the night burrowing. I didn’t have time to really examine it, but now it appears some form of evolution.”

“And tonight, they ambushed us,” Adam said.

“Worse than that,” Nick added, “they were waiting for us, which means they had set that signal fire you saw, Adam.”

“Fuck me,” Austin said in a hushed tone.

“Indeed,” Thorn agreed.

“Dr. Thorn, are we still safe here?” Caroline asked.

“I don’t know, Caroline. I just don’t know.”

“So now what?” Brad asked and looked to Thorn, then Adam, and then Devin.

“Good question. I think we need to consider our options and consider them quickly.”

Thorn looked at Devin. He knew it was unfair to put this on the kid. Devin was still hurting over the loss of his friend, but Thorn needed to know if that despair would hinder his leadership. If it did, then someone had to take that role because Thorn sensed time was very short now.

“We need to leave,” Devin said.

Devin’s tone was firm and confident, and Thorn was relieved that the kid still had the fight in him.

“And go where?” Adam asked. There was no challenge in his voice, just a sharp-edged fear.

“Wyoming.”

“What? That’s like two thousand miles from here,” Adam said.

“Probably a little more, but hear me out,” Devin continued. “Doc, you said the Creepers seemed to come home, right?”

“Yes, it appeared that way.”

“Stands to reason that if it’s true here, then it’s true everywhere.”

Thorn nodded, although there was no evidence to support it.

“So we need to go to the place with the least amount of people. That will be the place with the least amount of Creepers.”

The idea had certain logic to it.

“So why Wyoming?” Brad asked. “I mean, there’s got to be closer places with small populations.”

“You guys remember that online zombie game we played with my dad?”

Nick laughed. “Sure, we had a lot of late nights.”

“Well, one day after we started playing, I got this crazy e-mail from him. It was a zombie apocalypse survival plan. He pinpointed the best place to go that had both the lowest population and the lowest surrounding population. Something about overflow if you were too close to a city or large town.”

Thorn nodded. It actually made sense, although Wyoming seemed a bit far.

“In his e-mail he cited Lost Springs, Wyoming, population of one, and a hundred miles from the next large town. He even calculated a route that went around major towns and cities.”

“Did he say how long it would take to get there?”

“Yep, about thirty-six hours of drive time.”

“So that’s what? About four or five days’ travel?” Brandon asked.

“Yeah,” Devin answered, “that seems about right.”

“Devin, no offense to your dad but that sounds a little crazy,” Adam said and looked to see if Golden would draw on him. She just continued to stare at the far wall, and Thorn wondered if maybe she thought it a little crazy too.

“Maybe,” Devin said, “but we don’t have the Internet to find an alternate location. And I’m willing to bet, if he picked that spot, he was pretty certain it was the best choice.”

“We’d be betting our lives on something that could have been just a joke, Devin,” Thorn added, but Devin shook his head.

“No, Dr. Thorn, even when my dad was playing, he was a stickler for the facts.”

Thorn saw the agreeing nods.

“I’ll support whatever we think is best, but leaving is a big risk, considering we don’t even know if the Creepers will come for us,” Nick said.

“And what if we get on the road and find it’s even worse up north than it is here?” Brad added.

“Doc, how much time do you think we have?” Devin asked.

“Well, there’s still no evidence that the Creepers will even come. You’ve managed to stay here with few problems. For all we know, they won’t leave their neighborhood. That may be why they needed to coax us in.”

“True, but now that their plan failed, it’s possible.”

“Yes, if they’re intelligent, and it appears they are, then they may come.”

“So how long?”

“Best guess, if they do come, then we have only a few days.”

Devin considered it. Thorn had his own opinion, but he wanted to hear Devin’s response. He believed guns weren’t the only things critical to their survival; it was the group’s friendship and loyalty that made them strong and therefore made the difference. That, however, was a delicate balance, and to maintain it, Thorn better served as a “tiebreaker” or advisor than as the leader. Still, Susan and his lives depended on logical and mature decisions, and right now that fell to the group’s unelected leader. He hoped Devin was about to make the correct decision.

“So if the Creepers attack, it will be in a few days?”

“That’s my best guess, Devin. I can’t be sure,” Thorn corrected.

“Understood, but there’s little harm in being prepared. We get everything ready, and then we send out a scout team to see if the Creepers are moving in our direction. If they are, we get out of Dodge. If not, then we consider a new plan. Bottom line is I don’t want to be rearranging deck chairs on the
Titanic
if there’s an iceberg out there.”

Thorn was relieved. The plan was the prudent one.

“Near, far, wherever you are,” Brandon sang, and the group laughed. The tension was relieved for the moment.

“Anyone has a better plan? I’m open,” Devin stated.

They looked at each other. No one had a better plan.

“Dr. Thorn?”

Thorn shook his head. “Nope, it sounds like the best move. Webster, that bus is going to have to survive thirty-six hours of driving.”

“Okay, I’m gonna need a hand pulling that transmission. If we stay off second gear, I think I can keep it together.”

“There are some atlases and maps in the library, but I need someone to help me take down the barricade in front of the doors,” Brandon sighed.

“Bro, if you disagree with the plan, say so,” Devin said.

“Oh, the plan is fine.”

“Then what’s the issue?”

“Freakin’ hate road trips,” Brandon said and then smiled.

“Come on, jackass, I’ll help you move those barricades,” Brad said.

“Okay, tonight we lay out the plans to leave. What night is this?” Devin asked.

“Umm, it’s 11:00 p.m., so it’s still Monday,” Nick answered.

“We plan for departure Thursday night, just after dark. Nick and Webster, work on that bus. Brandon and Brad, you have route navigation, but remember, no highways or major cities. Austin and Ann, figure out a vehicle count and who’s riding in which. Caroline, I need you to decide on the most vital supplies to take because space is limited. Doc Thorn and Susan will select the medical stuff and evaluate our sick folks. Adam, you and I will work with Brandon and Brad on a plan to stay safe out there. Any questions?”

Brad started to raise his hand, but Annie shook her head, and he let it fall.

“Okay, then, if nothing happens by Wednesday night, we can rethink our options.”

They all nodded.

It was a good plan, except for the small fact that the Creepers arrived early.

Rubato

Outside the impromptu triage, Thorn and Susan packed medical supplies.

“Do you think it’s a good plan?” she asked.

Thorn looked around to ensure they were alone.

“I think after what we saw tonight, we need to do something. And with a focused goal, at least these kids have gained a little of that confidence we lost. We need that confidence if things go bad.”

“I agree, but it’s gonna be difficult to move the sick, and there are so many children. It could get really bad out there. How will we protect them?”

“I don’t know, Susan. Maybe it’s all been just borrowed time since day one, but we’ll try.”

“I know we will. I’m just a little scared.”

“You got me beat,” Thorn said. “I’m a lot scared.”

She smiled and he realized that he loved her.

“Susan, look, I don’t deserve a second chance with you after the way I screwed up the first, but I just want you to know—”

Susan kissed him. He was shocked at first, but then their arms wrapped around each other, and they discovered how well they fit together. Without another word, Susan led him to her private sleep quarters. They undressed each other slowly, fighting the urgency of the imagined sound of the world’s timer speeding toward zero. Their passion became a new kind of urgency, a desire to absorb the other, and they welcomed it the way that only new lovers might.

Afterward, Thorn lay on his back with Susan in his arms. Here, after so many years, in a place at the end of the world, he had found a reason to live. The thought scared him more than the Creepers. Since the outbreak, his actions and decisions had been little more than programmed instinct to survive. Now he had a reason to live and a love to protect. And that just made him ever more concerned about God’s sense of humor.