Foamers (5 page)

“Thirsty much?” Ashton asked as she leaned against the refrigerator unit.

Kade wiped his mouth with the back of his arm. “You trust her?”

“I know her. We played together for close to six years. Would I trust her to carry
her weight and play hard every game? Yeah, but I can’t say this is the same situation.
I never cared much for her brothers. They look at me like a lot of guys do—like I’m
some kind of meat—which just seems silly now. If you’re asking me if I think they
should come along, yes, but this is your area of expertise,” Ashton replied.

“I can’t say I really know what I’m doing here.”

“Everyone has faith in you.” She held a small, brown paper–wrapped rectangle, about
the size of a harmonica. “I was going to give you this for Christmas.”

For a moment, he forgot all of his problems and took the deceivingly heavy package.
He peeled back the single piece of duct tape. Lying on the unwrapped paper was a
set of blue rubber knuckles.

“Do you like them?” she asked.

Kade hugged her to him while he slid the knuckles onto his right hand, feeling the
comfort of their fit.

* * *

After grabbing some food, the two groups set out into the rain to clear the blocked
road. As Kade eyed the long line of cars, he realized that his time table was hopeless.

He walked the dotted white line between the dead cars toward the blocked intersection.
On both sides, the parking lots of super mart stores and restaurants lay silent.
He felt like he was wandering between tombstones. A chill ran the length of his spine,
causing him to stop and wipe the rain from his brow as he slung his shotgun over
his shoulder. This time, it
was
fear. The whole world had gone to sleep and never
awakened. Death didn’t just await him now; it lurked around every corner in the
Primal Age. His fear wasn’t for himself, but for his friends.

Ear-splitting screeches pierced the air, sending his heart into overdrive. He calmed
his nerves as a flock of seagulls took flight. He let out a sigh, happy that something
was the same.

He continued along the line to where he could see the accident ahead of him. At the
intersection, a car making a left had been T-boned. This would have been when people
called 911, only to realize that no help would come. Some of the cars in the line
were left with their doors wide open, where the passengers had abandoned them. The
engines left running had overheated and caught fire.

The creepiest were the cars with closed doors, which served as Pharaoh’s tombs to
their passengers. He tried not to look inside, but stopped at a white Prius. There
was a baby, still strapped into a car seat, its head slumped forward. The sight turned
Kade’s stomach. The driver of the car moved in a mannequin-like fashion. The woman’s
eyes met Kade’s. Before he thought, he opened the door.

“Ma’am, it’s going to be—”

The woman pounced on him. The heels of his shoes slipped on the wet asphalt and they
crashed to the ground. His hands clenched her wrists, keeping her body suspended
above him. The rain ran off her face, collecting with the red foam around the corners
of her mouth, and dribbled onto his neck. Her hair dangled around her head, like
a raging octopus, as she bared her teeth. Kade’s heart pounded so loudly he didn’t
hear the gunshots, but he saw the side of her head burst in a red cloud.

Kade heard footsteps, and then felt the foamer get knocked from its perch.

“What the hell was that?” Will asked, hoisting Kade to his feet. Tiny was a few car
lengths away, with her rifle still tucked to her shoulder. Kade sent her a nod.

Kade studied the red foam at the corner of the woman’s mouth. “A foamer.”

“A what?”

“Sixty percent of the people who got the vaccine turned into those things.” Kade
straightened his legs and made his face go slack, emotionless. He knew it was a foamer,
but it still looked like a dead person to him. At least from this encounter they
could deduce that a foamer didn’t have the dexterity or thought process to open
a door. Kade would have to gather notes on these monsters to learn their strengths
and weaknesses.

“Are you some sort of scientist?” Will asked.

“No,” Kade said. “But my brother is the Dr. Frankenstein behind these monsters.”

“Where is he?”

“I wish I knew. He’s out there somewhere.”

“Then how do you know about … foamers.”

“He sent me a letter. Day late to save the world, but at least able to save a few.”

“Are you a man of fate or a man of luck?”

“I’m a man of bad luck,” Kade said.

“You should revaluate that sometime, but it seems like we have a situation we didn’t
expect with these creatures. Trapped in their cars they are pretty defenseless it
would seem, and I know you probably aren’t too keen on giving me back my gun, but
I’ll volunteer me and my brothers to putting down the threat,” Will said.

Kade wiped his hand. “Don’t make me regret it.”

They split the group into three teams. The first team, Ashton, Grace, and Victoria,
had been given the easy job of clearing the cars that were still functional. They
were able to drive some of those out of the life-sized Tetris grid, though most of
the cars either didn’t have keys or weren’t running. Those that didn’t have keys,
but could still roll, were put in neutral and pushed along the road until the team
could get enough space to dump the cars into the parking lots.

The Wilson brothers hunted and killed the foamers trapped inside the cars. Kade could
hear their gunfire echoing through the silent world, followed by hyena-like laughter.
The amusement they took in putting down the foamers gave Kade goose bumps. Monsters
they may be now, but once they were people. However, Kade figured folk like the Wilson
brothers were the type that would thrive in the Primal Age, and it was better to
have them on his side.

Kade, Tiny, X, Mick, and Lucas prepared to roll the two car frames that had fused
into charred skeletons from the accident. None of them were looking forward to the
work, but they had no other option if they were going to keep the convoy traveling
to Houghton. Argos was lying on the pavement. The rain soaked his fur, while he
watched the team with contented amusement. They lined up along the destroyed car.
Half of the group squatted and grabbed the bottom of the frame, while the others
faced the wreck with their hands on the upper frame.

Kade placed his back against the remains of the car. “One. Two. Three.”

A collective grunt rose from the group. Kade’s legs flexed as he gritted his teeth.
The cars lifted off of the ground until all of the team was standing tall. One at
a time, they switched to help push the cars over. As they lifted the frame, the wreck
passed the apex and gravity crashed the cars onto the pavement.

All of them lined up and went through the process again.

By the time they were on the last flip, Kade couldn’t tell his sweat from the rain.
His mind wrestled with a decision on the Wilsons. They had their own vehicle packed
full of supplies, most of which he hadn’t thought to bring. With them, they would
have a solid fortress and would increase their chances of having plumbing and electricity.
The brothers had weapons and weren’t afraid to use them. Plus, Ashton would be livid
with him if he sent away her friend.

The only reasons he hesitated to accept the Wilsons was their initial attitude. He
had trouble holding that against them. After all, guns had been pointed both ways.

His quads and calves flexed as they rolled the wreck clear of the road. They all
stretched, looking back at the now-open road. The sun dropped into evening and the
streetlights flickered on. Clearing the road had cost them a day. The time table
Kade had hoped for was long gone.

X flipped water from the brim of his hat. “Let’s go get some dry clothes on.”

The sore group shuffled toward the Sheetz like a moaning horde of zombies.

Will jogged to Kade. “Have you decided yet?”

Kade shook his head.

Will nodded and went back with the group. Tiny grabbed Kade’s wrist, allowing the
others to move out of earshot.

“What did you decide?” Tiny asked, her black Under Armour wicking the drops of rain
off her body.

“Open to ideas,” he replied, tapping his fingers off his thumb.

She spiked his wet hair with an amused smile on her face. “Let them join us, or kill
them.”

He found the casual nature of her toying with his hair, something she had done hundreds
of times before, compounded with the weight of her suggestion, to be unnerving.
He had to remind himself this wasn’t the first time she had faced such dire circumstances,
and he was grateful to have her guidance.

“Kill?”

“They’re armed, and they know where we’re going. The last thing we want is a militia
arriving on our doorstep.”

Kade hated that Tiny was right.

___________

Lucas was unsure what to make of the teenager sitting beside him. Sure he understood
why
she had ended up in his SUV, but he still didn’t like it. They were over stuffed
in the Wilson’s van, and Grace was the one they wanted gone. He didn’t know her,
and he didn’t trust her. Every move she made caught his attention like he was waiting
for her to sabotage him.

“Is this your car?” Grace asked.

“Yeah,” Lucas replied.

Grace ran her hands over the leather seats. “No offense, but you don’t look like
the premium package type.”

“Because of this?” Lucas asked, stroking his mountain man beard.

“Yeah, you look a bit like you should be walking on water and living the life of
poverty.”

“News for you girl, there is nothing glorious in being hungry. I have—had—a small
company that specialized in green energy.” Lucas opened up the glove box and handed
her a business card. “Looking like Hippy Jesus boosted sales over 20 percent.”

“I wouldn’t have ever guessed you were a businessman,” she replied.

“And what do you do?”

“I’m a senior in high school, but I work for my brothers and before them my father.
Very few things I can’t build, install, or fix.”

“So, I can count on you to give me a hand installing solar panels when we get there?”

“Of course. That is if you don’t mind taking orders from a younger woman.”

Lucas laughed. “I said you could help, not be my boss.”

“I have found most bosses to be incompetent. So, I repeat, as long as you don’t
mind taking orders from a younger woman.”

“I think I will have to speak with your union representative before I can allow
you on the project.”

Grace leaned back in her seat and put her boots on the dashboard. “You just wait.
You’ll be begging for my help.”

Lucas shoved her feet off of the dash. “I’m not the begging type.”

Grace flashed him a smile. “That’s what they all say.”

* * *

They rode in the dark, accompanied by the hypnotic squeal of the wiper blades against
the glass. Kade sat with his back to the wall of the bus, his legs extending into
the aisle, resting on top of Argos. Tiny, behind the wheel, kept the bus focused
on the taillights ahead.

The sports car scouted in front of the convoy. The lead car was the SUV, driven by
Lucas with Grace as his copilot. Old Yeller was next in line, where Kade enjoyed
his chocolate milk, a last luxury of the Old World. Behind them was Victoria, driving
the ambulance; Mick followed in the cop car with the Wilson Brothers in the rear.
Kade took another swig of chocolate milk and grabbed the walkie.

“Old Yeller to X,” he said, for the fourteenth time. “Damn it, X, report.”

He didn’t need a blood pressure cuff to know his was escalating.

“Kade, relax,” Tiny said. “They could be out of range, or the battery might have
died. If the road is clear, they should be fine.”

He couldn’t relax. Ashton was out there, and he didn’t know if she was okay.

The SUV swerved across the road, swaying the trailer behind, before skidding to
a stop. Tiny stood on the brakes to avoid hitting the trailer. The bags in the bus
poured forward like an avalanche, burying Kade in the front seat. A hard case of
road flares smacked into the back of his head while a bat bag landed on his lap,
pinning him under the weight. Argos whined at the pile of gear that trapped Kade.
Tiny laughed, then started digging Kade free.

“
We’ve got a flat. Just going to be a quick minute while we fix this
,” Lucas’s voice
said over the walkie.

Back in the cop car, Mick grabbed the door handle to go help, when the headlights
from the Wilsons’ van illuminated the interior. The van plowed into the police cruiser.
Mick fought the steering wheel away from the ambulance. The impact sent the police
car across the shoulder and rolling over the embankment. Mick’s forehead crashed
into the steering wheel, knocking him unconscious.

The screws of the bulletproof lining in the police car punctured the gas tank. The
car rolled onto its roof, causing the screws to spark against the metal. The gas
ignited from the spark setting the rear of the car ablaze. The flames were too much
for the rain to put out, and each drop landed with a hiss. Mick dangled upside-down
unaware of the fiery doom creeping toward him.

Lucas stopped jacking up the SUV and rushed to the side of the road. The blaze of
the fire reflected the panic in his pupils.

The slap of his shoes against the pavement changed to the wet slop of mud. Lucas
dropped to his knees beside the upside-down car and grabbed the thick fabric of the
seat belt. His hands slid along the belt toward the clasp. The heat drove sweat from
his body.

A gunshot broke through the night. Lucas was slammed against the police car. Blood
rushed down his shirt from a bullet hole. The moment he saw the wound, pain coursed
from the disconnected muscles. With the pain came the realization that they were
under attack, which gave Lucas the boost of courage he needed to get Mick to safety.
He gritted his teeth and unhooked the seatbelt. Mick fell onto the roof of the car
and Lucas pulled him out through the window. Mick’s eyes blinked and focused on Lucas’s
face. Mick smiled like he had just awakened from a nice dream.

“I got ya,” Lucas said, before a bullet tore through the base of his skull, bursting
teeth and blood out the front. Lucas’s body collapsed beside Mick, who rolled onto
his belly searching the darkness for their attacker. He patted his holstered handgun
to be sure it was there before he crawled around the burning vehicle. For the first
time in Mick’s life he felt rage. He pushed the rage aside and cleared his mind to
focus his efforts on the attack and not on the loss of his friend.

Like popcorn, the ammunition in the backseat discharged as the fire crept to the
interior. Mick threw himself behind the engine. The popcorn effect burst into rapid
succession as the flames found more powder. Covering his head, Mick buried his face
in the mud.

On the road, Will made his way along the passenger side of the convoy. He stood on
his tiptoes to see into the ambulance. Victoria had wedged herself on the ground
between the seats and curled up with her hands on top of her head. Satisfied she
wasn’t a threat, Will moved forward with his AK-47 aimed at the doorway of the bus.
The stop sign extended as the door opened and Kade stepped out. Will tapped two shots
into Kade’s chest, sprawling him near the front tire of the bus.

Will glanced over his shoulder to be sure his brothers were in place. His sight never
budged as he rushed toward the middle of the bus.

“We don’t want to kill you, Tiny. We could use a woman of your talents. Just throw
your gun out, and you can join us.”

The assault rifle bounced off the first step. Will grinned. “I am going to need your
sidearm and knife too.”

A snarl reverberated from under the bus as Argos leapt out, seizing Will’s forearm
in his powerful jaws. Argos shook with his iron-like neck muscles until the bone
snapped. Will screamed and dropped his rifle. With his free arm, he beat Argos, but
the dog refused to let go. Tiny stepped out of the bus, her pistol aimed at Will’s
forehead. His eyes met hers as her bullet met his forehead. Argos released Will’s
arm as the body crashed to the ground.

Before he landed, Tiny had retrieved her assault rifle and was hobble-sprinting toward
the end of the bus. She slammed into the front of the ambulance using it for cover.
Her heart was disintegrating ounce by ounce, knowing that Kade was gone, but with
each piece that crumbled away, hatred took its place. They took from her the man
she loved. She would take each of their lives in return. They had brought to her
a war, and war she knew well. She stood, poised and listening, the high beams from
the van casting light around everything but the shadow in which she was lurking.

“It’s me. It’s me. It’s me,” Mick said, diving to the wet ground at Tiny’s feet.
A bullet, meant for Mick, pinged into the rear of the bus. Mick moved his mud-covered
body beside Tiny.

“I killed Will, but he got Kade,” she said.

Mick shook his head. “Lucas is dead.”

His words were heard, and she understood what he had said, but she had tuned out
feeling in preparation for combat. There was nothing left but the warrior she had
spent years harnessing. Not even her impaired leg crossed her mind. She had an objective,
and she would see it through. She slid toward Mick’s side of the ambulance. The
whites of his eyes were the only recognizable feature in his mud-slicked face.

“Close your eyes. I’ll turn off the lights,” he said.

Moving away from the ambulance, she faced the front bumper and brought her rifle
to her shoulder. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, feeling her calm warrior-self
fully emerge to meet the chaos. Mick patted her leg, and then stepped out of the
cover of the ambulance. With the base of the pistol resting in the palm of his right
hand, he fired off two rounds at each light. The bullets shattered the bulbs and
the world went dark.

Opening her eyes, Tiny slid to her knees beside the ambulance. Mick rotated behind
her, using the vehicle as cover. She waited, holding her breath. The running engines
purred in the otherwise silent night. Tiny felt her comfort level rise.

A glint of light reflected in a rifle scope on her side of the van. A soft touch
of her trigger launched three rounds into the owner’s chest, dropping the dark mass
to the ground. Tiny could dimly see the silhouette crawling toward the van. She kept
her sight on the creeping body as her eyes scanned for other movement. Seeing nothing
else, she unleashed another burst, and the body was still. She had taken care of
two of them, but the job wasn’t done.

Tiny slipped back behind the ambulance with Mick. “I got him.”

“The other brother is by the van. I have no idea where the girl went,” Mick replied.

Tiny glanced around. “Stay to the left. Head toward the front. Find her.”

“You sure we should split up?” Mick asked.

“Go,” Tiny commanded. She spun around the ambulance with her rifle ready, aiming
at the cross side of the van. She took short, smooth steps, keeping her aim steady
and easing her damaged leg. Crossing the distance to the van, the cold wind drew
tears from her eyes, which she allowed to run freely. Her jaw was clenched and her
breathing steady as she pressed her back to the driver’s side door. She peered inside,
but found no one.

She lifted Chris’s forehead with her toe and let him drop. His skull crashed into
the pavement with a hollow thud. Tiny slid toward the back of the van, keeping her
eyes on the darkness. Cutting around the corner, she scanned for motion, but the
zone was empty.

She stepped around the back as Grace sprinted along the convoy in her direction.
Tiny tucked the stock snug against her shoulder and let her cheek rest against the
side of the rifle. Taking a deep breath, she lined the sight at hip level. Her finger
moved into the trigger guard.

A rusty hinge creaked, drawing her attention. The van door flung open and knocked
her to the ground. Her rifle clattered away and warm blood ran from her nose. Brian
climbed out with his rifle trained on her forehead. “Do you know from this distance
it will take the top of your head clean off? You’d have been our queen.”

Tiny knew well what would happen at this range. She knew that and so much more. During
her time as a combat medic she had seen more carnage than she had ever thought possible.
She knew what a rocket did to a person if it hit him directly. She knew what places
a bullet would instantly kill the target. She knew immediately if she could save
someone or not, and she knew no matter what she still had to try. She knew what an
IED did to her squad. She knew the way it would shred flesh like butter. She knew
what it was like to have one of her men bleed out in her hands. She knew what it
was like to watch her friends get zipped up in a black bag. She knew death and she
was not afraid of dying.

Grace stopped on the other side of Tiny. She held her double barrel in a white knuckle
grip. “Brian, what the hell are you doing?”

Brian’s white sneer could be seen even in the darkness. “It was such a good plan.
Kill the men. Keep the women. Take the supplies.” He pointed a finger at Tiny. “You
ruined it.”

Brian aimed down the sight.

Tiny kept her eyes wide open, watching the barrel and waiting for an opening. She
wasn’t going to die here at his hands. All it would take was the right moment. He
had the advantage, but that didn’t mean he had the victory. Her chest rose and fell
with quick breaths.

Brian’s finger rested on the trigger. Tiny sensed her opening wasn’t coming.

Grace screamed and pulled both triggers, tearing a double blast of thunder through
her brother. His mangled body dropped to the wet pavement. The double-barrel shotgun
crashed and bounced off the road. Grace squatted, sobbing into her hands.

Tiny’s breathing leveled out as she composed herself and sat up. She grabbed her
rifle as her eyes darted between Brian’s shredded body and Grace’s double barrel.

Grace’s wet hair stuck to her crying face. “What the hell is happening?”

Tiny moved beside Grace. “Kade, Lucas, and your brothers are dead.”

Grace shook her head. “No, no, no.”

“I’m sorry,” Tiny said, laying a comforting arm around a girl she hardly knew.

Grace showed her half-moon of puncture wounds. “The dog bit me when I checked Kade’s
pulse. He’s alive.”

Tiny was on her feet, hobbling as fast as she could. The pain of her mangled leg
radiated through her with each stride and made her wish she could move faster. She
leapt over Will and dropped to the ground beside Kade. She propped his head in her
lap and placed two fingers on his jugular. Argos rose from under the bus and growled
at her. She glared back at the dog, which went silent and watched her. She could
hear her own heart rush in confirmation of his pulse.