Willow, p.8
Willow, page 8
part #1 of Defy the Ravaged Series
“We know that,” Monty said quietly from behind me. I spun and backed up. He glared at Billy. “We aren’t stayin’ either. But we have to wait for our other brothers.”
“I get that,” Billy said calmly. “But I won’t wait here with you. I give this a day, maybe two max, before its overrun.”
“They aren’t here now.” Dahlia looked around at the woods. Men were guarding the woods, but she was right. I hadn’t seen a single biter all morning. I hadn’t realized how much I was expecting it until now.
Billy shook his head. “It’s only a matter of time. I don’t know how fast they can move, but I think the ones that found us last night had been people traveling before they turned. If the closest towns hear us out here…” Billy trailed off.
If everyone in the closest town had become insane like the others, if they were biters, then we would be trampled if they came here. If they really were moving like he thought they were, then we were sitting ducks.
“We’ll go,” I told Billy. He looked down at me in relief. I trusted Billy. If he didn’t think we could stay, then we wouldn’t.
“You should stay with us. Give us another day or two,” Monty sighed. “But I get it. Jay won’t be happy.”
I looked down at the ground. I didn’t know what to say to that. Jay had had no problem leaving me when he went to Virginia, but now I couldn’t leave? I didn’t understand what he was thinking. He brought me to the club because he didn’t know what else to do with me.
“He’ll get over it,” Billy grumbled.
Chapter Nine
Billy kept Dahlia and me in the car as he waited for the group that was leaving to prepare; it was like he was afraid someone would lock us up before we had a chance to leave. He rummaged through the car three times, looking for supplies as we waited. Ultimately, we had two bags of Dahlia’s granola cookies, a half a bottle of water, and a box of sewing needles.
We weren’t exactly prepared to travel aimlessly across the United States. We needed a supply run of our own. The very idea of raiding a store terrified me, but Billy was already talking about some stores he had seen on the ride up here.
When a crowd of about fifteen people started piling into vehicles, Monty broke away and walked to the car with a bag. He handed it to Billy, and I reached up through the seats to crank the driver’s side window down.
“—few bottles of water,” Monty was saying. “Not much more we could spare.”
Billy nodded and clapped him on the shoulder. “Thank you.”
“Look,” Monty sighed, and looked back at the group. Jay was standing by a bike with his arms crossed, glaring at me through the windshield. “Jay and Ren think you should follow us and grab some supplies before you split off.”
“I don’t know—”
Monty stepped up to Billy and lowered his voice. “Jay ain’t gonna snatch your girl. It would be fuckin’ dumb not to take them up on the offer. Quick in-and-out and you won’t have to find a place on your own. We owe you, man. Let us help you get stocked.”
Billy looked at us in the car and nodded his head slowly. “Alright, we’ll follow you.”
Monty seemed to sag in relief before he walked away. He whistled, and two dogs bounded into the back of a truck. The rottweiler stayed on the porch at Paulie’s feet. A whine outside my door had me looking down out the window. Olly looked up at me with big, glassy eyes. I felt my own start to tear up. Jay whistled, and Olly looked at him. Jay had to whistle three more times before Olly left my door. He joined the other two dogs, and then the line of vehicles began moving down the long driveway.
Billy was silent as we followed the others, and Dahlia hummed a Billy Joel under her breath as she watched the trees pass outside.
We traveled for a long time, occasionally seeing a few people that were clearly afflicted with the same virus as the others. But we just passed them. It wasn’t until we rolled into a small town that we started to see more people.
And, shockingly, some of them were normal. The vehicles skidded to a stop outside a department store as several gunshots pinged bullets off the sides of our vehicles. Billy shouted for us to get down and swerved behind a parked tractor-trailer.
“Fuck!” he shouted as he prodded a bullet hole through the windshield. It was a miracle we weren’t hit. Through Dahlia’s window, I could hear the muffled shouts from the other vehicles. Across the parking lot, Jay and several other members had dropped their bikes and were crouching behind abandoned cars. They had their guns out, firing at the biters converging on them. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Billy hit the steering wheel and looked around. He pulled his gun and lowered his window, firing at biters closing in on us. “Get out!”
I looked at him in shock.
“Get out now!”
Dahlia and I scrambled from the car while Billy fired and inched his way around the car to us.
“Low!” Jay screamed my name from across the lot. I turned to see his wild eyes aimed at me as he fired at the biters between us. “Low, run!”
“Billy?” Dahlia asked, her voice shaky, her fingers twisting in her skirt.
“Willow, get her out of here!” Billy shouted.
I looked around wildly. We couldn’t just drive off—there were people on top of the store firing at us. But there were also crazy, bloody people everywhere trying to bite us.
A man reached his hand out and clawed at Dahlia’s thin sweater. I shoved my hands into his chest and pushed as hard as I could. He stumbled back, and his head exploded on the pavement from a bullet courtesy of Jay.
“Fuckin’ run, Low!” Jay screamed as he shot another woman reaching for me. I grabbed Dahlia’s hand and ran for a small flower shop on the other side of the parking lot. Bullets hit the pavement at my feet, and bullets whizzed by my side as they embedded into the people ravaged by hunger and disease racing for us.
Dahlia stumbled and cried out. I pulled her up and wound my arm around her small waist, dragging her with me. I didn’t know if it was just Jay shooting the ravaged people coming for us or if the normal people on the roof were aiming for us and missing.
We hit the door at full speed and bounced back. I shook the handle frantically, but it wouldn’t open. I spotted a side door to the shop next door and ran along the building. There was a gap between them, and I ran into the opening without looking. A man growled and knocked into me. I pinwheeled my arms, releasing Dahlia, and slammed into the building. My arms held his chest while his teeth snapped to get at my face. I cried out and pushed and pushed, but he was so strong.
Dahlia hit him on the side of his head with a thick board, and the man turned on her. She fell back on the pavement, crying out in pain. I grabbed the man’s dirty shirt and pulled him back to me, throwing my weight to the side, but he wouldn’t go down.
I kicked at the back of his knees as he tried to turn on me. Then Olly barreled into him with a loud growl. The dog took the man to the ground and started snapping at his face. But the man acted like the dog was barely a threat and tried to bite him back. I grabbed the board Dahlia had and began whacking at the man beneath Olly. It wasn’t until I hit his head that the man lay stunned, so I hit him again and again until blood coated the pavement and my arms felt like they were going to fall off.
Olly growled again and turned to the end of the building, facing the parking lot. Several ravaged men and women ran at us with hungry eyes. I helped Dahlia off the ground and ran for the door. My hands shook as I pulled, and I nearly wept as it opened.
We fell inside, and I slammed the door closed after Olly. The dog growled low as he walked through the store. Dahlia gripped my arm as her eyes searched through the dark store. I waved my hands in front of me. There was barely any light. My hands knocked into something long and thin just as pounding came from outside the door behind me.
I flipped around and hit the lock on the door and then grabbed the long thing I had felt. It was some kind of metal and about as long as my leg. My hands slapped against the wall until I felt the blinds, and I cracked them enough to get a small stream of light.
Looking around, I saw we were in a pawn shop. And I was holding a golf club. Olly’s low growls kept coming from the back of the shop as I cracked more and more blinds open. Hands slapped against the glass of the windows, and I wanted to close them again, but it was terrifying being inside a dark building.
Dahlia held onto the back of my shirt as I inched around the store. She gasped as we passed a counter. I looked back and watched her lift a long sword from the wall behind it. She winked at me, her eyes full of fear but her mouth tipping up at the corners. The sword looked pretty old and not particularly sharp, but she could use it to fend someone off. My golf club wasn’t much better.
We followed the sound of Olly’s growls to the back of the store. He was on his haunches, baring his teeth at a door. There was a little sunlight coming from the bottom of the door, and I could see a shadow moving inside and hear a few low growls and bangs against the door. I looked down and noticed it locked from the other side. I looked around and pushed a heavy shelf against the door. Olly continued to growl, but I moved back into the main part of the store to look around.
The shop was small. I could see it from end to end, and although the shelves were short enough to see over, it was still too dark to feel confident that we were completely alone.
I went to the front of the shop, carefully looking between the shelves for anything lurking in the dark, and peeked out the blinds. The gunshots had stopped sometime during our dash inside, and I couldn’t see anyone other than the biters outside.
It was eerily quiet.
“You see Billy?” Dahlia whispered. I shook my head. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I hoped he found a safe place. But I couldn’t go out there with only a golf club to look for him.
“Did you seen any guns, Doll?”
She made a sound in the back of her throat and moved away from me. I looked over my shoulder as she went to the display case in the back of the shop. I rushed to her, unwilling to leave her side until I knew it was safe inside.
“My Harry didn’t want me to handle guns,” Doll whispered calmly. “If he were here now, he would regret that overbearing decision.”
“Why not?” I asked as my eyes lit up upon seeing several guns in the case.
“I think he was afraid I would shoot him,” she said simply.
I gaped at her.
“I had a temper.” She smiled serenely. Dahlia was crazy, but I had never seen her temper. I hoped I never did.
She grabbed the guns in the case and dropped them into a cloth bag with the pawn shop’s name printed on the front. I looked in the case for bullets and found a few boxes, but not many. I didn’t know how to shoot anyway, let alone load a gun. As Dahlia and I looked at the bag of guns and then at each other, I had the feeling that was going to change soon.
“Should we go look for them?” Dahlia asked as I pulled the heavy bag over my shoulder.
I shook my head. “No, we don’t know where they are. We could end up getting them hurt if we put ourselves in more danger.”
“We need to see the lot,” Dahlia said thoughtfully and then looked at the ceiling. I caught on quick and helped her search for a rooftop hatch. There was a small opening by the door I had blocked in the back, but it could lead to an attic, although I doubted it. The building was only one story, and the inside seemed about as tall as the outside. I jumped up but couldn’t reach the hatch.
I rolled over a chair from behind the counter and climbed up as Dahlia held it steady. The door popped down, and a ladder handle waited for me to pull it down.
We got the ladder down, but then I looked back at Olly who hadn’t moved from the door. He was too heavy for me to lift.
“He’ll be fine.” Dahlia shoved me aside and started to climb the ladder.
“Doll, wait.” But she ignored me. I looked back at Olly. “I’ll be right back,” I told the dog. He looked over his shoulder at me but didn’t answer me, because he was a dog. Still, it felt wrong leaving him behind. What if the person behind the door got loose and Olly was left to defend himself?
“Willow,” Dahlia snapped from above me. I winced and started to climb. She was worried about her grandson and didn’t have the patience for me to worry about a dog. But I felt like Olly was my friend at this point. I wanted to protect him as much as he did me.
On the roof, the warm sun beat down on us, and I pulled Dahlia down to her belly as we crawled to the edge of the roof. I didn’t know if the people on top of the department store could see us over here, but I wasn’t taking any risks.
When we peeked over the edge, I gasped in shocked dismay. Our group had made it to the back side of the department store, but at least half of them were on their knees in the center of several vehicles strategically placed to keep the biting ravaged away. Jay and Billy were among them. Their hands were behind their backs, and they each had a gun pointed at their heads.
Dahlia and I shared a terrified look, and then we searched the rest of the lot. I spotted Ren and Monty with four others on top of the department store, their guns pointed at the back of the people on the roof. It was a stand-off. I didn’t know how they got up there, but clearly some of the other guys had snuck up behind Jay and Billy too.
Dahlia started to dig through the bag beside me, fumbling with the guns and boxes of bullets.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
What was she going to do? Shoot them from yards away when she had never touched a gun in her life?
But she just grinned at me and pulled out a slingshot. I didn’t even see her stick it inside the bag. Then she pulled out a flare gun. She waved her fingers to the front of the store and started to make weird gestures with her fingers that made no sense.
But I got the gist–we needed to distract the bad guys. That, I could do. I learned how to use a slingshot from the kids in the trailer park when I was ten. I had told Dahlia all about it. She handed me the slingshot, winking. I grabbed a handful of smooth rocks at my feet and sat up on my knees. It would be farther than I had ever shot before.
“Aim for the dumpster,” I told Dahlia, pointing to the dumpster closest to us. I didn’t know what she was planning to do at the front of the store, but a plan was taking shape in my mind. She grinned and steadied her hands on the rooftop edge, the flare gun only shaking a little.
I didn’t know how many flares she had, but all it took was one. Dahlia hit the trash in the dumpster, and there must have been a hell of a lot of loose paper inside because it lit up fast.
I could hear the shouts of the people below as the men behind Jay and Billy turned and gaped at the dumpster fire. I pulled my elbow back and aimed at the man behind Billy and let loose a rock. I thought it whacked him in the forehead, but it was hard to confirm from my distance. He dropped to the ground. I saw Billy turn to the shop and gape at me, but I was already aiming at the man behind Jay. He took a pebble to the chest and dropped to his knees. Jay didn’t hesitate; he spun and grabbed the man’s gun. Shots rang out from both Jay and the rooftop, and then I aimed at another man who turned his gun on Jay.
The noise drew the biters, so I left the remaining bad guys to our group and began firing at the biters. They were clawing at the cars, stepping on each other to get over them. The flare gun went off again, and several biters stopped their frantic movements to watch the bright light shoot through the sky.
Several men streamed from inside the department store and jumped into vehicles, speeding off. I stepped back as the last man ran from our group. Billy waved to us and jumped into a truck. Jay and Ren got on their bikes and followed him to our side of the lot, weaving around biters. I aimed at them, clearing their path until Billy screeched to a stop next to the building.
“Jump!” Billy shouted. I looked down and shook my head. Dahlia would never make it. Jay hopped off his bike and jumped into the bed of the truck. He held his arms up, and Dahlia dropped the bag of guns down to him. Ren shot a gun at the biters circling the truck as Dahlia sat on the ledge. I grabbed her arms and helped her slide down to Jay.
“Low, jump,” Jay called to me.
I shook my head and looked back at the rooftop hatch. “Olly is still inside.” I ran to the other edge and looked down at the door, There were too many biters for them to go inside and get Olly.
“Go,” Jay shouted from down below, and I heard the truck speed away. I ran to the hatch and climbed down. I didn’t think I could lift Olly, but I needed to try.
“Hey, boy,” I panted and scrubbed his head to try and coax him from the door he was still guarding. Olly licked my face as I knelt and wrapped my arms around his torso. I grunted as I hefted him up, and he wiggled to try to get back down. I got him to the ladder before I had to squat to get a better grip.
Jay grunted and dropped down from the hatch. “Give him to me.”
I stood up and let him lift Olly. Ren poked his head down and grabbed the squirming dog from Jay. Then Jay shoved me up the ladder. Another truck was on its way to us, and Ren jumped into the bed as it stopped next to the building. I grabbed a handful of rocks from the roof and shoved them into my pocket as Jay lowered Olly down.
Jay dropped into the bed next and called my name. I sat on the ledge and rolled to my belly, dangling my legs over the sides. Hands grabbed my thighs and took my weight as I dropped down. Jay sat me down and banged on the roof of the truck. I held on to the sides as we raced across the lot. Jay and Ren had jumped out and were mounting their bikes, but there were so many biters. I tried to aim at them, but we were moving too fast.
We screeched to a stop at the store’s front doors, and I shot a few biters that tried to climb into the truck. Bike engines stalled beside us, and my shoulders sagged as gunshots came from behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw Jay and Ren, but it cost me. A biter grabbed my arm and hauled me over the side of the truck.
I was hanging halfway out with Olly’s teeth in my pant leg, fighting against the biter’s head, when Jay ran around the side of the truck and shot the biter who was pulling me. Jay grabbed my arms and threw me over his shoulder. I held on tight as he ran to the front door and barreled inside behind Ren.
