Torn Apart (Book 1): Terror In Texas (17 page)

He was heading back to the van with the last of his poached supplies when movement at the back of the van caught his eye. His concern ratcheted up several notches as he set his armful of supplies in the floorboard of the van and picked up the crowbar. He headed around the back of the van just as Della appeared in the doorway of the store.

“Look out!” Della yelled.

Startled, he turned back to face a woman covered in blood and gore. A narrow strip of scalp hung from the side of her head and rivulets of blood streamed down her shirt.

The monster stumbled toward Martha leaning in the open van door. She turned at Della warning and jumped back just as Steve grabbed the infected woman’s shoulder and spun the monster toward the cinderblock wall. He stumbled back against the van, slamming the tire iron against the van.

“Get in the van now!” He shouted at the open door.

Steve struggled to get his balance standing still on the blades. He pushed off the van and raised the tire iron. Martha and Sandy stumbled back from the door just as the infected woman raised and turned to attack Steve. He swung the tire iron. It slammed into the side of the bloody head of the woman and she collapsed on the ramp.

The girls stood inside the stored screaming at sight of the bloody body sprawled across the ramp. Steve grabbed a leg and drug the body a few feet away from the door. “Let’s get moving!”

Della turned Martha from the body and pushed her into the van. “Shush…now, you’re alright, Martha.” The rest of the kids appeared and rushed into the van.

Martha wailed. “We’re going to die.”

Zack pulled Martha toward the back seat. “Stop this shit, Martha. We’re all afraid so get over it.” He pushed her down onto the seat and looked at her with a hardness that hadn’t been there before. “Now get a grip!”

Martha grew silent and slid the back of her hand under her nose while tears streamed down her cheeks. She pointed at the body slumped against the storefront. “Is someone going to bury her?”

Zack stepped out of the van and answered.  “No! Get off your ass and help us.”

He and Jimmy picked up the remaining crates of food and loaded them into the van. Sandy and Martha got up and moved the scavenged supplies behind the back seat.

“Anyone need a final bathroom break?” Steve asked. Everyone shook their head. “Well, I have to go.” He stepped around the corner of the building while Zack and Jimmy got back in the van. When Steve reappeared, a sudden boom in the distance stopped him in his tracks.

“In the van everybody!” Steve called out.

“Look.” Sandy shrieked as she pointed to billowing smoke above the treetops.

“Now! Let’s move.” Steve ordered as he raced around the van to the driver’s door.

Della jumped in the passenger seat while Zack slammed his palm against the red button above the side door. The ramp eased up and the door slid closed.

“Should we try to help?” Della whispered. “People might be there.”

Steve steered the van out of the parking lot and toward the billowing cloud of black smoke just beyond a stand of trees. The van raced down the road, with the speedometer reaching nearly seventy miles an hour when they cleared the trees.

A red pickup sat in front of a two-story farmhouse fully engulfed in flames.

Steve reduced speed until he finally drew to a stop. “I guess we know where the guy took his daughter. That must have been him when I heard the shot earlier.”

“Better than turning,” Zack commented.

“We have to find a place to stop for the night,” Della whispered as she moved her right hand in the sign of the cross.

“It’s okay, baby girl. I got you.” Matt comforted Amy.

He carried the child from the bathroom to the Humvee and eased her through the open door to the back seat. When she eased her grip on his collar, he pulled her hands from his neck.

Matt whispered. “I am so sorry, sweetie. I will never let that happen again.”

Jake and Larry mirrored the concern etched on Matt’s face.

Jake huffed. “Man, what the fuck happened?”

Matt answered. “I fucked up. There was an infected woman in the room behind the bathroom. She almost got the kid.”

“Shit!” hissed Larry. “Is she okay?”

“She didn’t get bit, but okay, I don’t know.” Matt studied the two men in front of him.

Larry turned to Matt with his face creased in a deep frown. “You have to get your head out of your ass. You’re hung over and not paying attention. It almost got that little girl killed.”

Jake interrupted. “We can’t take things for granted anymore. It’s going to get someone hurt.”

“I know. I screwed up in the Sand Box, but I won’t be doing the same thing here.” Matt dumped three white pills from the bottle of Tylenol into his palm and dry swallowed them.

Both men nodded. “You got a plan.”

“We get the kids to a safe place as quickly as possible,” Matt answered. “Larry, drive. Jake and I clear the gate. We keep it tight and quiet.”

Larry chuckled. “It’s about time.”

Matt nodded at Jake. “Let’s do this as quiet as we can.”

Jake pulled his machete from its scabbard. “I agree. No point in drawing attention.”

Through Larry’s open door, Matt looked into the back seat and smiled. “It’s going to be alright, Amy. We’re going to take care of you and find your mom.”

Amy gave a tentative smile while Claire cooed and grabbed at her bare feet. Matt straightened up and tapped the window frame. “Button it up.”

Matt and Jake made their way around the back row of storage units and jogged toward the entrance. The red sports car rested where it had crashed into the post. The gate leaned against the side of the vehicle. The impact knocked the wheels from the track and the gate only hung by a length of bicycle chain running from the edge of the gate to the power box.

Jake whispered. “The truck can roll right over the gate, but we have to move the car.”

“Just what I was thinking.” Matt responded.

Matt looked back over his shoulder to see the Humvee had moved to the edge of the building and Larry cut the engine. He could watch them and roll in if things went south, but the sound of an idling engine wouldn’t draw attention.

“We can lay the gate on the pavement and crack a few skulls then put the car in neutral to push it off the post. Once it’s clear, we can run it into the ditch.” Jake whispered.

“I count five. You take the two on the right and I’ll take the two at the back and that poor bastard in the ditch.”

When Jake shrugged, Matt pointed his machete tip toward a shambling figure on the opposite side of the road in a shallow trench.

The shredded-faced, creature seemed confused by the steep slope of the incline and unable to make its way up to the road. Blackish gore covered his shorts and a sports shirt. A sandal, with a tire tread sole, dangling from one ankle. The infected started up the incline, stumbled then landed face-down on the asphalt. He embedded more gravel into his raw face as he wallowed on the rough road’s edge until he got to his feet again. A few steps later it happened all over again.

“When he hits the ground next time, I’ll take him out. I don’t want him stumbling out of the gully when I have my back turned.” Matt whispered. “Let’s get the gate down then clear the rest of ‘em.”

Matt remained behind the brick support post at the side of the gate while Jake duck-walked behind the sports car to the opposite side of the gate. When he got to the brick support, he nodded at Matt and together they reached up and tilted the gate upright and off the rail. They slowly eased the wrought iron over and to the ground with only the gentle clatter of the chain.

An infected woman wearing a pink housedress covered in blood turned from the remains in the car. She stuck her nose up in the air, sniffed twice then went back to gnawing on the arm clutched to her face. A large man in gray overalls and a plaid shirt nudged the woman aside and reached into the driver’s midsection. He raised a chunk of dark liver to his mouth and tore a piece from the bloodied organ. He chewed as dark red blood ran from the corners of his mouth.

Matt walked up to the pair and kicked out at pink dress’ right knee. She fell to the ground in a heap. He turned and swung the machete at the second monster, splitting the top of the man’s skull. The woman rolled to her side and Matt raised his leg and slammed his booted foot into her head. The skull shattered and gray gunk exploded from the inside.

Matt turned to see Jake finishing off the second of two infected golfers. Both had had substantial damage to their legs so they were barely mobile. One had been clutching a nine-iron in his gloved hand and now it lay on the ground next to him.

The infected man in the ditch turned at the commotion and began fumbling to his feet again. Matt took three quick steps to the prone figure and jammed his knife into the top of the man’s skull. He hurried back to the sports car and tried to ignore the gore that had once been the woman driver.

He jammed the shifter into neutral and manhandled the steering wheel to the left while pushing back against the doorframe. With the gentle slap of Jake’s palms against the front fender of the car, the vehicle moved.

They pushed the sports car around a bright yellow parking barrier and into the grass filled ditch. The engine of the Humvee roared to life in the distance as the car crashed into the ditch leaving only the bumper, back axle and truck visible.

Matt turned and waved at Larry and the Humvee moved forward.

“That was a crime against a good looking car.” Jake brushed his hand together with a grunt.

“You really wanted to ride around with what’s left of the last driver still inside?” Matt asked as he turned to walk toward the Humvee.

A distant moan drew both men up short. Matt turned back to the road. He heard the crunch of gravel under foot but could only see the dim shadows of morning light.

Jake followed his gaze and pointed as half a dozen figures emerged from the gloom stumbling toward them. Matt held up his hand to stop the Humvee. Jake and Matt jogged into the road and studied the dead as they approached.

They would have to take them out or go over them once they got in the vehicle.

“This sucks,” Jake commented.

Matt held up his machete for Larry to see then pointed at the approaching dead. He took several steps away from Jake. “I’ll take the three on the left then if you need help with the others.”

Jake snorted. “Like I need your help with anything.”

He grinned as he stepped forward and took a round-house swing with a machete at a thin, stumbling man with half his face frayed. The top quarter of the man’s head caved and the body slumped to the ground. Jake stepped over the body and a second swing took out a lumbering overweight woman with arms covered in dozens of bites and patches of missing flesh. With the impact of the machete, the gurgling moan from her torn and ragged throat silenced. She fell to the ground in a quivering heap.

Matt lopped off the head of a teen, stepped back then stabbed his machete into the eye socket of another. The monster stumbled over the gate and landed face down at his feet. Matt slammed the machete down and split the crown of its head. He looked up just in time to see a pair of bloodied hands inches from his shoulder.

Matt spun around and jammed his elbow into the middle of the face, shattering nose and bones around the eye socket. When the infected stumbled back, Matt swung the blade into the middle of its forehead. He turned just in time to see Jake kicking the knee from under the last infected. When the blonde-haired woman slumped to the ground, Jake slammed the knife into the side of her head.

Both men stood together panting as they stared at the mayhem they had visited on the miserable beings that had once been living, breathing people. They had been people with lives, loved ones and futures. Now they would all stay where they had fallen.

Matt looked at the last of them. The woman had been pretty before the gray complexion and blackened lips. Her neck and bare chest hung in shreds exposing a single silicone implant. The other side of her chest was nothing more than a gaping wound.

“And I thought Iraq sucked,” Jake commented as he wiped the black sludge from his blade on the woman’s skirt.

“Let’s go,” Matt answered as swiped his blade against the back of another monster.

Larry drove up in the Humvee and threw damp rags at them. They climbed in the vehicle after wiping blood and gore from their clothes. He guided the vehicle through the quiet morning streets avoiding the roaming infected as much as possible until they left the suburbs and found a farm-to-market road.

They drove for an hour before it looked safe enough to stop and change the baby, fix a bottle and eat some breakfast. Matt dug in the stash behind the seat and opened plastic trays of pasta to pass around.

Larry accepted a meal then scrunched up his face toward the back seat making Amy giggle. “I’d rather have cereal for breakfast. You couldn’t have picked some Coco-Puffs?”

Matt held out his hand. “No milk. If you don’t like it, hand it back. I’ll eat it.” He laughed.

Larry pulled the tray back into the front seat. “You’re mean.” He made a thumbs-up sign at Amy and she mimicked it laughing.

Jake and Matt chuckled at Larry’s antics. Once the meal was finished, Amy changed Claire and they tossed the diaper into the grass. She looked embarrassed then whispered. I have to go to the bathroom.

Matt sighed. “We’re going to have to do things a little different now. We don’t have a bathroom handy. Have you ever been camping, Amy?”

She moved her head from right to left. “No.”

Matt took a deep breath. “We had to learn in the Army. Now we’re going to show you how it’s done.” He looked toward the front seat. “Larry will show you while Jake and I keep watch.”

Larry snorted then opened his door and climbed out of the vehicle. He opened Amy’s door and helped her out of the Humvee. He held out his hand and she took it in hers. She followed him around the front of the vehicle.

It was all Matt could do not to burst out laughing when Larry demonstrated squatting and waving at his butt with a wad of toilet paper. After a quick look around he pointed to a nearby bush and deliberately turned his back. Amy disappeared out of sight. A few minutes later she reappeared with a grin on her face. She and Larry walked back to the Humvee.

“All set?” Matt asked.

Amy answered with a thumbs-up.

They drove while the rising sun climbing toward the apex of midday. They made terrible time. They had to turn around and take side roads when they neared major roads. The roads were all congested with traffic and any place with traffic was overrun with infected. Matt figured they had traveled less than fifty miles when they stopped again to eat. After another bathroom break, they got back in the Humvee to head northwest again.

After a few minutes of driving, they reached the top of a hill and Larry stopped the vehicle. They sat on the asphalt strip of highway staring at a graveyard of cars along both sides of the road. At the side of the road near the base of the hill was a roadside rest park that stretched back from the road at least a three hundred yards to the edge of an open field. Scattered across the parking lot were bodies; bodies of the dead and the undead alike.

The three men studied the open fields around a rest park trying to make sense of the scene when Jake pointed at the center of the chaos where several buses had been parked.

“This must have been an organized evacuation by the military. They probably picked up a few infected among the survivors before they realized what was going on.” Matt commented. “Only explanation I can imagine.”

“It would explain what we’re seeing.” Larry sighed. “There’re military tents and a vehicle or two.”

The trio debated about traveling through the confusion of vehicles. They saw the vehicles had been pulled off the road and parked in a neat row at the edge of the park. The remains of a temporary camp had been strewn around the center of the park. Several civilian vehicles were sitting with doors open at the back of the park while three military vehicles sat amid the disorder at the road edge.

“We don’t have a choice.” Matt finally whispered.

Larry slipped the vehicle in gear and let it begin to move forward while they watched the chaos in front of them.

Movement could be seen among the scattering of vehicles. A few walking bodies took notice and began to move toward them, then more and more they began the halting march toward the Humvee. The moaning rose above the sound of the Humvee’s engine.

“Look! A Stryker on its side.” Jake interrupted. “Infected are bunched around it.”

“Do you think anyone is in there?” Larry asked as he stepped on the break.

Matt studied the vehicle tipped on its side at the side of the road. “If there is, they’re trapped with all the infected around.”