Devour: Death & Decay Book 1 (20 page)

Day 4
9:12 pm

“This is…a lot more frightening than I thought it would be.” Liv’s voice was barely a whisper as they crouched behind a car on the south side of Highway 364. “I didn’t really think it would be a walk in the park, but I’m starting to think I was a little unstable when I proposed this plan.” She took deep breaths as she tried to steady her racing heart.

The low light cast by the distant stars was not nearly bright enough to banish her fears. While the ferals stood motionless in the streets, in the tall grass, and between the abandoned cars, she couldn’t relinquish the fear that one of them, still moving, would stumble upon them and alert the others. The long shadows created in the dark night played tricks on her mind. Were the shadows moving? Was it the wind? Was it a feral? Should they hide? Should they keep pushing forward?

And the night was incredibly dark. Darker than she had imagined night could be. She had been camping before. Been to areas where the only light was from the moon and the stars. But this was different. The houses were empty, their porch lights unlit and their windows black without occupants to turn them on.

They could see a few sparse lights—whether from streetlamps or the timed lights from businesses that still had power, they couldn’t tell. These few lights weren’t bright beacons of hope. They were a stark reminder of what was missing.

“I will be more concerned about anyone who comes out of this with their mental health intact,” Corey whispered.

“Well,” Jen whispered, her voice so low it was barely audible, “we might as well get going. I certainly don’t want to wait around to see if it’s going to get any darker.”

They all nodded, though Liv almost couldn’t see the head movement.

They stood and inched forward. Corey went first, taking his usual position in the lead. Liv followed him, her hand on his shoulder as she gripped a fistful of his jacket. Jen was at the rear, holding the edge of the plastic sled on Liv’s back.

Instead of verbal communication, they used their close proximity and the shifting of the person ahead of them to direct their path. Corey, the one who could see what lay before them, forged ahead.

Liv had lulled Elli to sleep earlier that night. It hadn’t been easy. Even after the exhaustion of the last few days, the little girl had resisted sleep as though it were her mortal enemy. Once Liv was sure that Elli was sound asleep, Corey and Jen had crept in and helped move Elli to the carrier on Liv’s back as smoothly as possible. Elli had stirred but had been lulled asleep again quickly. Liv hoped that the gentle swaying as they walked would keep the child asleep through the night.

Liv’s grip on Corey’s shoulder inadvertently tightened as her feet brushed against the asphalt. Cars loomed out of the darkness like icebergs in the sea.

One of the shadows resolved into a feral merely feet from them. Liv suppressed a yelp.

The monster just swayed gently on its feet.

At that moment, Liv was grateful that the darkness kept its features in shadows. She had seen the horrific wounds they bore and she didn’t care to see more than she had to. Yet, the ones that looked untouched, whose wounds were small or hidden, were worse. They still looked human. Sometimes hardly even sick. It became hard to view them as monsters rather than people.

Corey swerved suddenly to the right. Without thinking, Liv sidestepped to follow his path. Just inches from her, one of the ferals hungrily gnashed its teeth in its sleep. Liv shuddered and shied away from the creature, feeling Jen following her motions behind her.

Corey quickly stuck out his arm, warning her from moving too far to the right. Her head snapped around and directly on her other side was another feral. Liv threw her arm out against Jen, sending the same warning.

With the horrors to her sides, Liv refocused her attention to the back of Corey’s head.

Just step where he steps
, she thought
. Just do what he does.
Don’t look around. There’s no need to look around. You’ll be fine.

Her steps were small. Not shuffling, but short, low, and slow so she could detect any change in footing without tripping. Elli had taken great delight watching them practice the small steps in the house, giggling and shuffling after them as they walked through the rooms.

Now, as Liv slowly inched forward, she felt her feet slide into the grass. They had reached the large median that divided the east and westbound lanes. They were halfway across. Like Old Highway 94, the grassy median was snared with clusters of cars. Some were smashed together in failed last-ditch efforts to escape. Others had simply pulled off to the side.

Several times Corey stopped suddenly and turned to the side as he found a feral blocking their narrow path between the cars.

Time seemed to stretch on. Even though the crossing seemed to be going as well as planned, Liv couldn’t help the tension that invaded every muscle fiber. Until they were out of the mess and more free to move about, she couldn’t relax.

Finally, her feet hit asphalt again. The other side. They were almost there. With each small step, the fear eased away, replaced with giddy excitement.

Without warning, Corey froze. The unexpected halt almost caused Liv to run right into him. His shoulders heaved up and down as his breathing quickened and his head turned side to side. Liv’s breathing quickened as Corey’s panic began to infect her. What did he see? Carefully, she leaned to the side to peer around him.

She couldn’t breathe.

“Back up,” Corey hissed.

With a quick motion to Jen, they spun around 180 degrees. Jen led them to a cluster of wrecked cars and they threw themselves behind them.

“What happened?” Jen whispered. Though hidden from many of the ferals, they could still be heard.

Liv peeked over the car door through the broken window. The figures were indistinct silhouettes now, lost among the trees and tall grass. Her eyes filled with tears as she stared at the figures, willing them to be nothing more than shadows.

“What happened?” Jen asked more urgently when neither Corey nor Liv replied.

Corey looked around wildly. He and Liv locked eyes and she could see the sheer panic in them. But they couldn’t say anything.

“You trust me, right?” said Corey. Jen’s eyes grew wide. Fear seemed to make her smaller than her already delicate frame and she nodded silently. “I need you to trust me. Absolutely. I need you to do exactly what I say. Do you understand?”

“What is going on?” she begged.

“Do you understand?” Corey’s words were harsh and fearful.

“Yes,” Jen said meekly.

“Good.” Corey breathed a sigh of relief. “Now, I’m going to carry you for a while and I need you to keep your eyes closed.”

“I don’t understand.” Jen looked to Liv for answers.

“It’s better.” Liv nodded. If Jen saw what lay ahead, it would destroy her already fragile psyche.

And it was true. Of all the horrors she had seen recently, she would give anything to have never seen what was spread out before them.

“Do you understand?” Though Corey’s voice was calmer now, Liv could still hear the underlying panic. “Alright.”

Corey stood up and held out his arms to Jen. She approached him slowly and he scooped her up in his arms. After a moment, he thought better of it and instead shifted her so she lay over his shoulder.

With a nod to Liv, they turned and started forward again. Liv led as Corey followed her with his hand on her shoulder.

They hadn’t retreated far, and soon the shadows once again began to resolve themselves.

Out of the darkness, the form of a small boy appeared. Shadows hid the finer details of his features and, in that moment, Liv had never been so glad they had decided to do this leg of their journey at night.

The boy sat on the ground, his small head barely coming to her knee. His legs splayed out before him as he gently shifted back and forth. His left leg ended abruptly just before knee in a mess of raggedly torn ligaments and tendons.

Liv turned from the boy, trying to block him out of her mind.

Even as she tried to divert her attention, another feral caught it. There was a cluster of the creatures near a larger opening between the cars. Three of the ferals were tall enough to be adults. Around them clustered about a dozen smaller shadows. They surrounded a large yellow school bus that had tipped onto its side in a large crash that included at least a dozen other cars. The kids must have been going to or from some summer program when the outbreak occurred.

Liv swallowed the lump in her throat and pushed forward. A car reared up out of the darkness to block their path, and Liv shuffled sideways around it. She could feel the tug of Corey’s hand on her jacket as he followed her. After what seemed like too long, the cars finally gave way to a narrow opening.

They had to turn sideways to squeeze through the narrow openings between the cars. Liv slowed down as Corey twisted and turned to make it through the gap while juggling Jen. For just a moment, Liv steeled herself before turning to face forward again.

They were off the highway now, facing a small hill that backed against more houses.

Against the starry sky, the black shadows of the ferals looked down at the three. They lined up along the edge for as far as Liv could see in either direction. The ferals swayed slightly as they slept.

Liv plunged forward, tears stinging her eyes. Too many of the dark silhouettes were too small. If she thought about it too much, she would lose her nerve and run.

The hill was steep and she dug her feet into the dirt to keep her balance. At the crest, Liv slowly stood upright. She sucked in a quick breath with a hiss and slapped her hands over her mouth to prevent any sound from escaping.

The other side was a thick mass of swaying bodies. Many of them were small. They were a mass of teenagers and younger children interspersed with a few adults.

They aren’t children anymore
, Liv repeated the words like a mantra in her mind. It didn’t matter what they had been before. They were monsters now. Sleeping monster that could wake at any second and rip them to pieces. Nevertheless, tears rolled down her cheeks as her eyes swept over the dark faces of the lost children.

Liv turned this way and that as she moved through the crowd, careful not to touch any of the closely packed ferals. By morning, they would be a horde large enough to rival the one from the church.

Behind her, Corey’s steps faltered and Liv whirled around. In the darkness, Corey held up his hand and motioned for her to move forward.

They crossed the backyard of the house using an intricate dance pattern, their footsteps zigzagging as they wove their way through the ferals.

Beyond the houses, the ferals began to thin out and Liv breathed a sigh of relief. Their pace quickened as they hurried away from the scene behind them.

She and Corey sprinted across Feise Road, the openness a welcome change from the claustrophobic highway as they ate up the distance.

“Let’s stop,” Corey finally said as they entered the next neighborhood. Liv halted, her breath ragged, and turned towards Corey and Jen.

Corey set Jen down and she staggered a bit before finally gaining her footing.

“One highway down.” Jen tugged her clothes back into place. “One more to go.” She let out a small, nervous laugh.

“I’ll just be glad when we’re in the country,” said Corey, “and we don’t have to keep looking over our shoulders.” Liv was unnerved by this seemingly normal response. In his most tense moments, he always made some kind of joke. Now, his seriousness frightened her.

“Admittedly,” Liv puffed, “I’m just glad I didn’t end up face first in the asphalt covered in ferals.”

“There’s always a silver lining,” Jen mused.

“Yeah, I guess I’d call that one a win,” Corey agreed.

“So.” Some of the nervousness crept back into Jen’s voice as she looked around the dark street. “Are we just going to stand around and wait for the sunrise, or are we going to try to cover some ground while the night is on our side?”

Corey looked around and regained his bearings.

“This way.” He finally pointed. “Let’s try to get to the boulevard and shadow that.”

The boulevard was Lake St. Louis Boulevard, a curvy road that wound around a small lake and through the beautiful, lakeside homes. Depending on where they met up with it, the boulevard should be no more than a mile and a half away.

Liv’s feet ached. Though it was dark out, the humidity was still suffocating. She was tired in a way that she had never been before. A weariness permeated her body that seemed to take root in her very soul. But there wasn’t time for sleep yet. The next time she slept she wanted to be in her own bed. So instead of lying down she trudged forward after Corey.

Day 4
10:26 pm

It hadn’t taken long to find the boulevard. Though the two-lane road wasn’t congested, cars sat silently along its side. Some were smashed into trees and lampposts while others just sat abandoned on the roads.

Tall, old oaks reached up towards the sky and obscured the pale starlight, making the night darker than Liv had ever thought possible as they ran through the open yards. Shadows no longer stretched across the roads. Instead, the road became the shadows themselves. The houses that bordered the street rose up suddenly out of the darkness as ominous monsters that blocked their path.

Ferals lurked along the road and in the yards. Their faces were now entirely obscured by the darkness. Several times they would get within feet of one before realizing it was there.

“I think we should get out onto the road,” Corey whispered as they crouched next to a house just a dozen yards from the gently curving road. “They haven’t been moving around at all. They’re dead asleep.” He chuckled to himself, his dark sense of humor returning. “It’ll be easier to see them on the road than through the trees and grass. If the road gets jammed up, we can always go around.”

“I don’t care how we do it. Let’s just get out of here.” Jen’s voice was tense. Though they hadn’t run into any trouble, her nerves were fraying.

“Lead the way,” Liv said and gestured ahead.

The flat paved road was a welcome change. Long grass didn’t cling to their feet. Branches no longer clawed at their faces. The level asphalt didn’t threaten to twist her ankles. Though the road rolled up and down and side to side, the pavement was as smooth as butter compared to the dips in the dirt and underbrush.

The steady rhythm of their feet was like a soothing lullaby. The quiet slaps of their shoes on the pavement was only occasionally broken as someone dragged their weary feet.

They were almost there. It would still be a few more hours, but Liv knew this area. It was her home. And already she felt a bit safer.

“I think,” Jen whispered quietly to Liv, “the eeriest thing about all of this, besides the fighting and death, is the cars.” She paused as they passed a small pack of ferals huddled together near one of the stationary vehicles as they slept. “They were our lives. You can hardly find a job within walking distance of your house. We needed cars for everything. To get to work or school. To get groceries and go to the doctor.”

Liv nodded. “I couldn’t imagine not having one. Until four days ago, at least. Now, it’ll be a long time and a lot of therapy before I sit in one willingly again.”

“Do you think that if this all blows over in the next couple days, people will come back for them?”

Liv thought about it. Would she go back for her car? Surely it was still sitting, the doors open, on Highway 40 near the bridge. She supposed, if life was returning to normal, she would have to.

She shuddered as she thought about returning to the awful scene. The blood. The screams. The bodies. If this all blew over in a couple of days, or even a couple of weeks, could she really return to her life like nothing had ever happened? Go back to work and to school. Bustle around as if the world hadn’t almost ended.

Or would the government just cart all of the cars away to the junkyard?

“Some might,” she said quietly. “Even if things get under control, I think it will take a lot more time for things to return to normal, at least as we have always thought of it.”

“Do you think they will?” Jen asked tentatively. “Ever return to normal?”

No
. Liv didn’t say the word but she felt it in her gut. How could the world ever return to normal after this? Diseases could be eradicated. But they were never really gone, simply dormant. Old diseases had been cropping up here and there in small, isolated outbreaks as if simply to remind people that they were still around. And the threat of this disease would loom over them until the end of time.

A screech echoed through the silent night and the ferals around them twitched at the sound. The screech wasn’t human. It wasn’t feral, either. Liv, Jen, and Corey stopped and looked around wildly for the sound’s source.

“What the hell was that?” Jen whispered.

Another screech reverberated off the houses again, this time closer.

“Fuck,” Corey swore as the ferals cried out in agitation as they woke up. “Screw stealth. Just run.” When neither Liv nor Jen moved, he growled, “We are about to be in a whole new world of shit. I said run!”

Another screech ripped through the night air. It was accompanied by a chorus of moans and screams as ferals too near to them were awakened by the sound.

“Get off the road.” Ferals around them snarled, now fully awake at the sound of Corey’s voice, no longer a whisper.

A low hum reached Liv ears underneath the chorus of angry cries. Liv swore and pushed herself harder, faster. Lights suddenly illuminated the street in front of them with blinding intensity.

“Get off the road!” Corey’s voice now barely reached her ears over the roar of her own blood and her wheezing breath. She dove to the side, her fingers clawing at the ground, and she scrabbled as far away as possible. Elli stirred and whimpered on her back, the sudden jerking movements stirring her from sleep.

The car’s tires screeched again, and Liv’s head snapped up to watch it. It was moving fast. Too fast. The small two-door sedan rocked dangerously as it swerved to avoid a group of ferals that was running straight at the vehicle. For a second, the car evened out. The ferals turned, attempting to grab the car as it sped by.

One of the ferals bounced off the side of the car and fell underneath its back wheel. The human speed bump proved to be too much for the unsteady vehicle, which lurched and rocked from side to side.

As the driver attempted to regain control, the car swung wildly to the left and careened straight into a short brick wall that surrounded one of the homes.

The horn blared mercilessly from the now immobile car.

Enraged cries rose up all around her, and Liv frantically scrambled to pick herself up.

Ferals rushed in towards the car. Dozens of them. From all directions. Liv cast about frantically for Jen and Corey. She had lost them when she dove off the road and out of the way of the car.

Hands grabbed ahold of her and a scream rose in her throat as another hand clamped over her mouth.

This is it
, she thought as she began to flail wildly against the strong grip.
This is where it ends.

“Keep quiet.” Corey’s voice was low. “We need to get out of here now while they are still distracted.” Relief flooded through Liv and she nodded, her heart still racing.

Corey released her. They scurried off, close together as they tried to stay as low to the ground as possible to avoid drawing the attention of the awakened and enraged ferals. The mallet was heavy and comforting in her hands as she readjusted her grip on its handle.

One of the ferals blazed out of the darkness with a shriek and slammed into Jen. She screamed as it fell on top of her. For a moment, the creature seemed stunned, but in a split second, it was moving again. Its teeth snapped at Jen’s face as it tried to use her shoulders to pull itself closer to her.

Corey ran and tackled the creature to the ground. Liv zipped in behind him, her mallet raised.

“Move!” Liv shouted. Corey shifted aside as he straddled the feral, pinning the writhing creature to the ground. Liv brought the mallet down quickly, squarely on the creature’s face.

Instantly Corey leapt up and pulled Jen to her feet. “Are you alright?” he asked as he frantically looked her over. “You aren’t bitten, are you?”

“We have to go.” Liv glanced over her shoulder at them.

“I-I-I don’t think so.”

“We’ve attracted some attention, guys.” Liv took a few steps back towards them. “We have to go now!”

Jen and Corey looked up suddenly. The car’s horn still blared in front of them. The red rear light cast a menacing glow across the road. Ferals had started to drift away from the car, no longer interested in it. Instead, their focus had shifted. The small skirmish had attracted their attention and they were advancing on Liv, Jen, and Corey.

“Weapons ready,” Corey hissed. “Let’s go.”

They bolted forward and some of the ferals shrieked in protest. One shoved aside another and sprinted towards them. Corey raised his hatchet and struck it across the shoulder, spinning it around and sending it to the ground.

The ferals’ pace quickened as their prey moved to escape. Screams of rage echoed around them. Ahead of them, Liv could hear more screams. Distant answering cries. Her heart fell. More were headed this way as they responded to their brethren. If Liv, Jen, and Corey couldn’t cover a lot of ground quickly, they would be overwhelmed. If they weren’t already.

“Where should we go?” Corey’s voice, just ahead of her, broke into her thoughts.

“I thought we were heading to Liv’s home. Shouldn’t that be far enough that we can lose these guys?” Jen words came in short puffs.

Corey shook his head. “We can’t cross the highway like this. It’ll become a death trap.”

“We can’t turn west,” Liv said desperately between gasps. “There’s a hospital not too far that way. That place has to be a mess.”

“Then east?” Corey asked. “We certainly can’t go back the way we came.”

Liv’s heart fell. East would take them away from her home. Away from Slag Stead.

“If we go east,” Jen said, shaking her head, “there will be a lot of apartments, but I think that’s our only choice.”

They turned down Bent Oak Drive, which ran parallel to the highway, each step taking them in the wrong direction.

“Shit!” Corey skidded to a halt. Jen and Liv slid into him. Elli whimpered as she was once again jostled in her carrier.

Ahead of them was another horde of ferals, awake and shambling in their direction. Shrieks rose from the horde. The sound was deafening. Liv clapped her hands over her ears in an attempt to drown out the sound. Then, without warning, the horde was moving, running right for them.

“Fuck it! Just run!” Liv shouted and they bolted. Their footsteps pounded against the pavement. Their breathing wheezed in and out raggedly as they pushed on. Liv’s heartbeat thrummed as though her heart were trying to beat straight out of her chest.

Suddenly, Bent Oak Drive opened on to Veterans Memorial Parkway, the service road that ran along the south edge of Highway 70.

“Which way do we go?” Liv asked frantically.

“Forward! We sure as shit can’t go back,” Corey shouted. They plunged into the sea of cars. Liv dropped her mallet into the loop on her belt and pulled out a knife. In the compact space, it would be too difficult to swing the large weapon effectively.

All six lanes of traffic were packed tightly with cars. The three threw themselves into the stagnant traffic, desperately trying to put barriers between themselves and the horde. But the lanes contained ferals as well.

Hundreds of them.

The hundreds of snarling ferals wouldn’t be able to reach for them all at once. Finally, they had some luck. The cars were close enough together that the ferals were forced into a few long, clambering lines as they tried to reach the three. Though the monsters swarmed through and around the cars, they were forced down into a few long lines to actually reach their prey.

Corey swung his hatchet, burying it deep in the skull of a feral directly ahead of them. Another feral struggled to reach them between two bumpers and Liv lashed out, her knife sinking deep into his left eye and through the bony socket.

“We’re too slow and there’s too many of them.” Jen had to shout to be heard above the moans and wails. “We’re getting surrounded.”

Liv struck down a feral that squirmed towards them from underneath another car and looked around wildly. The ferals were moving in from all sides. The horde that had followed them was seeping between the cars from the south, fanning out as they attempted to reach them. To their north, ferals rushed at them in droves from where they had slept between the cars.

“Go up!” Liv shouted, scrambling up over the bumper of a sedan and onto the trunk. After a brief moment of confusion, Jen and Corey followed. As the other two climbed up, Liv took two large steps up to the car’s roof.

“We have to space out,” she shouted over the maddeningly loud groans of the ferals. “If we put too much pressure on any part of the car, it might buckle or crack.”

Jen and Corey nodded. In one swift movement, Liv put away her knife and pulled out her mallet. She turned, striding over the roof and onto the hood of the car. Two ferals stood between her and the next car. With two swings, she knocked them down. Once they fell, she lunged onto the next car.

Jen and Corey followed, the car shaking as they leapt behind her. The ferals howled behind them, enraged that their prey was escaping.

Another swing and another leap. Then suddenly the path to her right was clear and Liv leapt into the next lane. A towering blockade now stood before her. An 18-wheeler semitruck.

Liv turned left again and leapt onto the next car.

Run. Swing. Jump. Run. Swing. Jump. Run. Swing. Jump.

A van reared up ahead of her. Liv looked frantically from side to side. She would never make the jump to the van’s high roof. To the left of it, a car had been turned on its side and lay haphazardly across another vehicle. The semi had rolled onto the bed of a pickup truck when it had come too close. The pickup reared up underneath the weight of the semi.

The options were closing quickly. If they stopped moving, the ferals would surround them. Eventually, the monsters would either overturn their tiny oasis or clamber up on top of each other to get to them. Either way, they were in trouble.

Liv turned abruptly and flung herself at the pickup. As her leading foot landed on the truck, she wobbled precariously. Elli’s weight on her back threatening to topple her. With all her might, she threw her body forward, finally planting her other foot on the hood.

But the momentum was too much and she staggered forward. Her foot slipped off the hood of the crushed truck.

Without a second thought, she pushed off the truck and jumped precariously to the narrow cement center guard. Again she jumped, not letting her body think about the movement, towards the long hood of an SUV.