The wild ones, p.16
The Wild Ones, page 16
“No, but that doesn’t mean I need to abandon everyone. At some point we are going to need help to ride this out. You want to tackle it on your own, be my guest but the only reason we are alive right now is because of that man and his daughter back there. I don’t care how you cut it. I don’t care what his reasons were. We owe him.”
Jamal snorted. “I owe him nothing. The guy is an asshole and eventually you’ll figure that out yourself. So go ahead, offer him the ride.”
Ryland looked confused. “But you…”
“Just do it before I change my mind.”
I hopped out of the truck, waved and yelled to them in the distance. “Come on!”
They broke into a jog and it took them a few minutes to catch up. Out of breath, they hopped into the back of the truck bed and thanked us. I got back in and closed the door.
“You done?” Jamal asked. “Or do you want to offer them a cushion, or a complimentary packet of peanuts?
He hit the gas, and the engine roared. I glanced into the back where Tobias was being held by Eli. Daniels looked at me and then shifted his gaze. Neither one of them seemed interested in divulging what really happened but there was obviously some bad blood between them.
All along the stretch of road called Wabeek Avenue, we passed by abandoned vehicles of those that had been attacked or had run for their lives. The dead wandered along the hard shoulder. Jamal plowed into a couple and threaded around others.
There were two ways to Adirondack Medical Center, both required going through Tupper Lake. The first was staying on Wabeek Avenue, hanging a right on Park Street and staying on that until it changed to NY-3E or we could avoid much of the town by veering right onto NY-44 and connecting with Hosley Avenue. Of course Jamal had already made up his mind which way he was taking but that all changed when Daniels knocked on the window. I reached over and opened the rear-sliding window.
“You can drop us off at McLaughlin Avenue.”
Jamal was quick to jump on that. “And where might that be?”
“Stay on this road, take a right on Broad Street, it’s the third road on the left.”
“Now I’m not too familiar with Tupper Lake but if I’m not mistaken that would require going into the town, would it not?”
Daniels replied, “Yeah.”
He made clucking sounds with his tongue before speaking like he was the host of some game show. “Unfortunately door number 1 is not available, but we are going to be heading up 44, so if you want to get out, this would be the time.”
“Jamal,” I said. I knew the town well enough. With it being bigger than ours, quite often our parents would head over there to do some shopping. Generally most people who couldn’t find what they wanted in our little speck on the map, traveled over to their neck of the woods. Besides, it was the only town for miles around that had a cinema. Being a small town, they only played two movies at any given time but it did the job.
“No, it’s okay, Scott. You can drop us off here.”
I furrowed my brow. “No, it’s not.”
Jamal suddenly slammed the brakes on and we all jerked forward in our seats.
“What the hell?” Eli yelled.
“If we go into town, we increase the odds of not making it out. I think you have forgotten that we are dealing with an outbreak. Common sense is skirting around the town and avoiding as many confrontations as possible.”
The truck ticked over quietly. In the distance we could already see more of the dead. I wasn’t one to argue with him on this but after seeing what happened to Harry and Edith, I didn’t want to have the deaths of Daniels and his daughter on my conscience. Dropping them off there as the sun began to wane wasn’t a good idea.
Jamal turned in his seat. “They have weapons. They’ll be okay.”
“That’s why we need them.”
“What?”
“Tell me, Jamal, do you think it’s going to be any better at the hospital? If anywhere is going to be overrun, it will be that place.”
“Then why the hell are we taking him there?”
“Because they would have antibiotics. Even if there are no doctors, we can at least get what we need.”
“Hell, a pharmacy has antibiotics,” he shot back.
“Yeah but do you know what pills to look for?”
“I have an idea.”
“Then let’s head into Tupper Lake.”
“No. No, that wasn’t the deal.”
“You just said it yourself, the pharmacy will have what he needs.”
Jamal pulled his lower lip into his mouth and looked like he was seething.
I continued. “Besides, there is a gun store in town.”
“Yeah, well if it’s anything like Terry’s it’s probably been looted.”
I shrugged. “Well we won’t know unless we head in.”
“We don’t even have weapons. They were in the back of the truck Sean took.”
“So we get some more.”
He breathed in deeply and looked back at the road ahead. The sun was behind the trees now, and it would soon be dark. It was quite a predicament. On one hand I could see why he didn’t want to enter the town. There would be more Zs for sure but that was to be expected. We were all hungry, tired and working at a disadvantage but the way I saw it, sticking together with someone who was already armed was our best chance.
Jamal sighed, hit the gas, and we drove on into the belly of the beast.
Lock And Load
The dead were everywhere. Imagine four thousand people hitting the streets and back alleys in a small town. It was pure chaos. Young or old, rich or poor, it didn’t matter, this horror showed no preference. A hard rain fell, turning the roads into mini streams. There was a helter-skelter mix of cars, trucks and minivans blocking off areas and causing us to slalom through the wake of dented metal. We had the windshield wipers on full blast. Beyond the blur of rain Zs reached out, their hands slapping the side of the vehicle, beating out a rhythm. I looked off to my right and saw a Z impaled on a pole. Someone had driven a metal pole through its stomach and fixed it into the ground.
“There’s a gun shop two streets from here on Chaney Avenue. It’s a small white clapboard house on the left,” Daniels said. He motioned with a hand towards a road coming up. We cut a right down Broad Street, and the truck mounted the curb and barreled through two front yards so we could get around a blockade of vehicles.
“How are we doing for gas?” I asked.
Jamal glanced down at the panel. “It’s good for now.”
Daniels leaned forward and Jamal flinched. “Over there. That’s it.”
There were a lot of dead grouped together feeding.
“Lola, you got a full magazine?”
She pulled it out. “Eight rounds left.”
Daniels slapped a new magazine into the AR-15 and prepared to provide cover as we made a run for it. The only problem was the front door and windows had steel shutters over them. The owner must have taken precautionary steps prior to the event or they were closed.
“Ready?” Daniels asked.
I nodded and we burst out of the vehicle leaving Alexa, Jamal, Eli and Tobias inside. He’d pulled the vehicle up as close as he could to the store but with the dead scattered throughout the neighborhood, it didn’t take long for them to notice. Daniels unleashed a flurry of rounds at the fast ones bounding towards us and shouted for Lola to fire at the lock of two of the shutters, one on either side of the building. For a kid who looked to be around the same age as us, she certainly knew how to handle a gun. She unloaded two rounds at a shutter, the lock gave way, and she ran around to the other side to do the same. I tore off the lock and pushed up the shutter to reveal a window, one hard jab with the machete and it shattered. Lola returned to help her father.
“Speed it up!” he hollered as the slew of Zs increased around us. I motioned for everyone to get inside. My pulse sped up as I launched forward to ward off an attack from a fucked-up looking woman. She was hungry, drooling and foaming at the mouth, a bloody mixture of shit that I certainly didn’t want to get on me. Behind her several more staggered and lurched forward, some stumbling over but always getting back up.
Killing them was all about timing. Strike too soon and you might get caught off balance, too late, and you were liable to become a human happy meal. Of course it doesn’t help if you don’t have a gun but I was hoping our little shopping trip would remedy that. I shouted over my shoulder.
“Just grab whatever you can and let’s get out of here.”
“I’m out of ammo!” Lola yelled. Her father moved in closer to her and I stepped forward and pushed her back.
“Get inside,” I said as a blur of death and teeth lunged forward. I jammed the steely end of the machete deep into her cavernous mouth and straight out the back of her head. She dropped to the floor, and another came at me, teeth first, I kicked just above the knee and brought him down, then followed through with a face stomp. His head caved in like a warm apple on the sidewalk in the heat of summer. Every Z was in a different state of decay. Some were easier to tackle than others, but it was the fresh ones that were the worst, they were faster and far stronger.
Lola slipped in through the window behind me as I continued to fend off the barrage of assaults.
“What the hell is taking them so long?” I yelled.
“I don’t know but I’m out of ammo.” Daniels turned and without another word catapulted himself through the open window leaving me there to decide if I wanted to go all Robin of Loxley on these dead assholes or turn and run like a bitch. I chose the latter.
Glass crunched beneath my feet as I reached up and yanked the shutter down just in the nick of time. The bodies of the dead slapped up against it, snarling and moaning. Now there weren’t many things good about the dead roaming the earth, but the fact that they weren’t smart was one. I didn’t have to worry about them pulling up the shutter and climbing in. I turned and squinted into the darkness. With all the windows covered, only a small band of thin light leaked in from around the shutters, the rest of the room and the corridor was cloaked in darkness. It took a second for my eyes to adjust but what I noticed was there was no noise. By now I figured Ryland, Lola and Daniels would be stomping around, loading up a duffel bag of goodies and laughing about how we’d just hit the mother lode. Nope.
“Guys?” I whispered. Why I was whispering?
No answer came back. Oh, shit! When you’re standing in a strange place, swallowed up by darkness, your mind goes into overdrive playing tricks on you. Every little silhouette is a potential problem. I clutched the machete tight waiting for the unexpected.
“This is not funny,” I said in a hushed tone.
I had visions of one of them jumping out and scaring the living daylights out of me. I pressed on, so far I couldn’t see any of the dead and there wasn’t that usual smell of death that lingered in a home after someone had succumbed to some horrible ending. I was about to step out into the corridor when I felt a hand clasp over my mouth and pull me down.
“Shh.”
It was Daniels. I tried to ask him what the hell was going on, but he’d clamped his hand real tight. All I could do was mumble. It didn’t matter; my answer soon came at the sound of a gruff voice.
“How many more of you are there?”
Lola replied. “It’s just us.”
“Get over there now. On your knees. Both of you.”
Daniels dragged me back behind the door and we waited in silence. The sound of boots approaching, a gun rattling around in someone’s grip was followed by the door widening. It let out a creak and came within inches of bumping into us. In those tense seconds, all that could be heard were the Zs outside slapping against the metal shutter. I fully expected the stranger behind the door to walk in but instead he closed it, and we breathed a sigh of relief as the slap of boots grew faint. More voices, this time muffled ones from beyond the closed door.
Daniels removed his hand slowly. “Stay here and give me your machete.”
I handed it over without hesitation. If anyone was more prepared to deal with some armed psycho, it was a cop. He put a finger up to his lips as he shuffled across to the other side of the door and reached up for the handle. Once it was unlocked, he pulled the door open just a few inches to scope out if the coast was clear. Satisfied, he moved it just enough to get himself through. I moved up into his place and watched as he stayed low, hugging the wall and making his way down the darkened corridor. Nothing more than a mound of darkness.
Voices carried, a back and forth between our group and whoever this stranger was.
“I’m so sick and tired of you self-entitled assholes thinking you can just take whatever you want. Well you can’t. This is all I have and believe me when the military get here, and they will, I won’t have any qualms about handing you over to the authorities.”
“Mister, you are out of your mind if you think the world is going back to the way it was before this. Have you even been outside since this kicked off?” Ryland asked.
“Don’t talk down to me. I know what’s going on. I’m not blind. And you are not the first to try and get in here. Hell, didn’t you see that I took my sign down? Have you even stopped for a second to ask yourself why I sell guns in a regular home? It’s so that when the shit storm of the century kicked off, I’d be able to batten down the hatches and appear like any other home on this street.” He paused. “That and of course the fact that owning a regular store is just damn expensive, but that’s neither here nor there. My point is…”
He continued to rattle on as Daniels got closer to where the voices were emanating from. I just hoped he knew what he was doing. As confident as I was in his ability to take this guy out, I’d already seen how quickly things could go belly-up and I wasn’t going to risk it. I pulled the smaller hunting knife from its sheath and edged my way out. Daniels glanced back and his eyes widened. He motioned with his hand for me to go back inside but fuck that. Realizing I wasn’t listening he pressed on until he was at the far end of the hallway.
“Now you, use these.” I heard something hit the hardwood floor. “Zip tie your friend.”
“Are you kidding? How about we just leave?” Ryland replied.
“Leave? Didn’t you hear what I said? You aren’t going anywhere until the military get here. Nope, breaking and entering, attempted assault with a deadly weapon, you will do some serious time for this.”
“You’re a fucking loony!” Ryland shot back. I had to give it to that kid, he certainly didn’t give a rat’s ass or fear anyone with a gun. Stupidity? Yeah, I think there was a bit of that. Alright, maybe a lot of that. Honestly, I was beginning to wonder if he had a death wish. Ryland let out a groan after what I assumed was the man striking him with the butt of his gun.
“Hey! There’s no need for that,” Lola yelled.
“Then shut your mouths. Now tie him up.”
Daniels looked back at me for a second then peered around the corner. I could see him preparing to make his move. He cocked his head from side to side, and I figured he would burst forward like a lion — nope, wrong again, he slid around the corner and disappeared out of sight. The next thing I heard was the crack of a gun, and a struggle ensue. I sprinted forward just in time to find Daniels on the ground, his legs and arms wrapped around the man like a boa constrictor. He had him in a choke hold. Ryland stepped in and kicked the M4 nearby away from his reach until Daniels made the stranger go unconscious.
Captives
“Is he dead?” Ryland said looming over his motionless body.
“No.” Daniels got up and brushed himself off. “If I’d held on for a full minute, he would be. Five to ten seconds and they pass out.” He motioned for Lola to start looking around for ammo. That was one thing I noticed about him. He wasn’t into wasting time. In, out, get the job done and move on.
“Damn, he didn’t even tap out,” I muttered as Daniels flipped the guy over and used one of the zip ties that was going to be used on Ryland and Lola. He rose to his feet just as the guy came to. He began coughing hard.
Daniels patted him on the back. “All right. All right. You’re going to be okay. Just breathe,” Daniels said, strong-arming the man up and over to a chair. The guy slumped down and looked overwhelmed. He couldn’t have been a day over sixty but he was definitely getting on in years.
Daniels crouched down in front of him, resting his hands on his knees. “We’re not going to hurt you. We just need a few items.”
“You mean you want to rob me?”
“Rob? I don’t like that term. Borrow, I think is better.”
“You’re not going to pay me, so it’s theft.”
“Mister. I think making rent money should be the least of your concerns right now. There is a war going on outside between the living and the dead and if you expect us to tackle it with nothing more than a butter knife, well you’re as stupid as you look,” Ryland said, walking away and heading for the counter.
We were in the heart of his store. It was a simple setup. What would have been his living room and open kitchen had been converted for the sale of guns. There was an arsenal of weapons hanging on the wall, certainly more than we could ever use but we planned on taking whatever we needed. I gazed up at the AR-15’s, bolt-action rifles, TAC shotguns, TAC pistols and other various rifles. Behind a glass counter was a wide selection of scopes, flashlights, knives, holsters, magazines, optics and boxes of ammo.
“You got the keys to these, or should I just smash the glass?” Ryland said with a smirk on his face.
“Please, don’t. It will cost a fortune to replace that.”
My expression became pinched. “Man, you really do believe our country will survive this shift fest, don’t you?”
He gave one short nod. “I have faith in the government. It’s served me well.”
There was silence for a few seconds.
“How many years did you serve?” Daniels asked.
“Twelve in the infantry. You?”
