Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (136 page)

“
I have to find her, Cage.
If she is one of those things, then fine, I will leave her, but I
would never forgive myself if somehow she is still
alive.”

“
Dad, you saw what
happened. That place is crawling with them; we were lucky we made
it out of there.” Cage was trying to reason with him, but I could
see the internal struggle he was having about the thought of
finding his mother.

“
My truck, my rules, we
are going back and that is final.” Trent continued to drive back to
Alexander and none of us could really protest.

Trent took us back to the same exit
and maneuvered around the discarded and wrecked vehicles that
blocked the road. A feeling of unease settled in my stomach and no
one said anything as we pulled into the town of Alexander again,
just asking for trouble.

I was about to ask Trent how he was
going to find anyone, alive or dead, in this ghost town when he put
the brakes on and turned the truck off. We were in the middle of
the street at the same location we had seen the woman from Evelyn’s
church group.

Trent got out and stood in front of
the truck.

“
What is he doing?” I
looked at Cage and he just shrugged. Trent took out his pistol and
fired it into the air one time. He looked back at us and nodded. I
assumed that was how he planned to get their attention.

At first I didn’t think anything was
going to happen, but then I saw them coming. There were two of them
and they were moving fast.

“
Trent, look
out!”

I screamed too late, as one of them
jumped on him and squeezed him tightly. Realizing she was hugging
him, I assumed we had found Ms. Trent. I was going to have to ask
them what their last name was. She was a little shorter than Trent
and had the same color dark hair as Cage. I could see tears rolling
down her cheeks as she kissed her husband and then turned to her
son, who finally ran to her after staring for an uncomfortable
minute. I knew why he was hesitant; her face had been scratched,
badly. The open gash started at her temple and went diagonal across
her nose, down the other cheek. She had been bitten on the neck and
the wound was spreading its black poison in both
directions.

I turned to the other woman who had
run out with Mrs. Trent. She didn’t look like she had been bitten
but the significant amount of blood on the bottom of her pale pink
t-shirt suggested otherwise.

“
We have to go back to the
house; it’s not safe out here,” She spoke to the woman, clinging to
her family, who stiffened suddenly, as if she realized
something.

“
Trent, you aren’t
infected.” Inhaling her husband’s scent deeply, her eyes darkened a
bit, and she changed her tune immediately. “Cage, get your father
out of here; it won’t be safe for him here. You shouldn’t have come
here, and you three shouldn’t be around him.” She glared at Rose
and I and I noticed that her skin had started to turn gray. She was
further along in this than we were, and I could tell she was
struggling with her hunger when Trent was near.

“
Mom, we just found you.
We are not leaving you out here.” Cage’s voice went up in
frustration as he gestured to the desolate town. As he was pleading
with his mother, a loud engine noise sounded from behind us, and I
turned in time to see a big white truck barreling towards us. I
could see passengers and a guy hanging off the bed with an assault
rifle pointed directly at us. The first shot was followed by a loud
holler and the truck speeding up. Where these people
crazy?

“
Run,” the blonde lady was
yelling at us as she tried to move. “Damn vigilantes trying to save
the world.” She wasn’t moving very fast, and the truck was gaining
on us. I found myself dragging Rose with me as I followed her, and
vaguely heard Trent yelling behind us. I assumed she was leading us
back to wherever she had been staying. The truck barely missed me
as it raced past and ran over the blonde lady. The sound of her
screaming mixed with the cackles of the gang of men was hard to
take.

“
Cindy!” Cage’s mom
stopped and screamed as I ran past her. I didn’t know where I was
going. I was running for my life and couldn’t bring myself to look
back at the woman in the street. I heard the truck stop, heard the
footfalls of the men running up to her, and heard the gun shot
that, more than likely, was to the head, ensuring she would no
longer get up once she was dead, and then they were running after
us.

I heard Trent urging her on and heard
a gun fire close to us, followed by the scream of one of the
vigilantes, and then silence. I tripped over something on the
ground and yelled as the dirt and my face became acquainted.
Hearing a low groan, I scrambled to my feet and looked down at what
I had tripped over. He was dead, but still moving. It looked like
he had been shot in the head, but the shooter missed his mark and
only grazed it, blowing off a piece of his scalp, but didn’t end
him. It was gross and he was reaching for me slowly, but, just
backing up a little, I was able to escape his grasp. I was sure
this was the work of the men who had just plowed over Cindy. They
were retreating now due to Trent shooting one of them in the leg, a
quick glance over my shoulder told me that they were swearing and
promising to come back with more weapons. Trent helped his wife up
off the ground, where she knelt beside her friend.

“
Give me the gun, Trent.”
Holding her hand out and taking the forty five from her husband,
she aimed and shot Cindy directly between the eyes. Handing the gun
back, she moved away from the woman’s body as the blood pooled
around her head.

She didn’t say anything as she led
the way to a building set back off the road. There were decaying
bodies strewn around in front of the grey building, blood visible
on the outside walls from where they had, undoubtedly, been
executed after they had turned completely. I shivered as I realized
that was my fate if there was truly no cure. I was close to being
one of those monsters, and so were my companions. Trent was crazy
to stay around us; he should hole up somewhere until we all had
decayed away. Who knows how long it takes the living dead to
expire?

Walking inside their safe house
didn’t give me much comfort, as the inside was similar to the
outside. Blood was splattered on the walls and there was a horrible
stench that felt like it would permanently be imbedded in my nose.
At least there were no dead bodies inside, that we could see.
Evelyn led us back through a hallway and down a set of stairs,
where several people were sitting around, most of whom had been
bitten. At least, I could see bites on most of them; the ones I
couldn’t see were, undoubtedly, turning as well.

“
We were scouting for
water and food for those of us who can still keep it down. The gun
shots alerted us that someone was nearby. I thought it was the
idiots who think they are going to save the world. I couldn’t
believe it when I saw you standing there. I had to see you one last
time. Now Cindy is dead because I was stupid. I should have turned
around and let you think I was dead.”

Trent walked over to his wife,
rubbing her arms reassuringly. “Sweetheart, I am glad to see you.
It isn’t your fault Cindy is dead. Where did those assholes come
from anyway?”

The other people in the basement had
taken an interest in Trent. I didn’t like the way they were looking
at him. I, of course, had noticed that he smelled better to me
every day, but I had been able to control it. These were the eyes
of people on the brink of death and they were looking at Trent like
he was a juicy rib eye in a sea of hamburger steaks. I felt tired
and achy all over, thinking it would be great to lay down and take
a nap, but Evelyn dashed my dreams when she had other
plans.

“
They have a camp, as
well, on the outskirts of town. Some of the men saw them loading up
food from the store down the street and followed them. They aren’t
your problem though, honey. You have to leave. It isn’t safe here
for you without the infection. Even I am having a hard time being
near you, and you should get away from these three, as well. They
are just on the cusp of turning on you.” Her eyes looked sad as she
told him what I knew he already had been thinking about.

“
I don’t care, Evelyn. I
am ready to accept my fate. In case you haven’t realized it, I am
surrounded by a lot of people that want to eat me. It is just a
matter of time before I get taken down. I would rather go down with
you and let them come back, if they find the cure.”

The whole scene was touching, and it
was as sincere as I had seen Trent behave. It made me want to save
him from our fate even more, and I had this thought that some
people had to stay uninfected to rebuild the world when all the
zombies were finally gone.

Despite his wife’s urging that we
leave as soon as possible, Trent determined we would spend the
night in the basement and set out again in the morning. By the time
she had gotten us all settled with sleeping bags, it was around ten
o’clock and I passed out as soon as I lay down.

I woke up to an unbelievable scene; I
thought I was dreaming. Trent was standing across from me, leaned
up against the wall. The other people in the room had started
stirring. I saw Evelyn holding on to her husband’s leg with a crazy
look in her eyes, Trent was looking down at her with wide eyes, and
Cage was standing over them with the pistol pointing at his mother.
I could see blood on his pants where Evelyn’s nails had dug into
him, and the aroma filled the room. All of the infected were
looking at them, waiting to see what would happen next.

“
Mom, let go of him.” Cage
was not allowing his voice to tremble but his hands were shaking
slightly. I couldn’t believe we had come this far, with Trent not
getting infected, to have it end like this. I didn’t know if Cage
would be able to shoot his mother, but she was still going to bite
Trent and it looked like he wouldn’t have a choice.

Without warning, Cage launched at
Evelyn pushing her away from Trent. Her arms flailed wildly,
knocking the gun from his hands. She was growling, animalistic,
beneath him, gnashing her teeth as he held her face away from him
with one hand, the other reaching around aimlessly for the gun.
There was no doubt she had made the full transformation into a
being driven only by her hunger. It had been a mistake to stay here
with her.

I watched her bite into Cage’s arm,
as he frantically tried to pry her away from him.

“
Punch her, Cage,” I was
moving closer to them, yelling at him to fight back. Of course, he
didn’t punch her, but they had managed to stand up and she was
trying to jump onto his back. I watched, in horror, as she buried
her hand in his wound and started to tear at it. His cries of pure
pain broke my heart and, before I knew what I was doing, I picked
up the gun, aimed, and shot Evelyn.

I hit her in the leg, which was not
what I was aiming for, but I had never fired a gun before. She
screamed and it was enough of a distraction for Cage to push her
off and grab hold of his Dad.

“
We’re leaving, Mom; we
love you.” Trent looked at his wife, the woman he loved, who had
just tried to make a meal out of him and sighed.

“
I would have stayed here,
Evelyn, but one of us has got to try to help our boy. I love you.”
With those final words and Evelyn writhing around on the floor,
holding her leg, I tried not to think about what I had just
done.

As the others in the basement smelled
her blood, they begin to twitch, and a couple moved in closer to
her. I had a feeling that they would turn on one of their own if
they were injured. How we managed to get Trent out of the basement
without getting bit by at least one person was beyond me, but we
did and now we were all four headed back to the safety of the
truck.

Driving back out of Alexander, NC as
quickly as possible, no one said anything about what had just
happened. Truthfully, I was glad I hadn’t killed her, and I was
glad that the remaining people squatting in the basement were still
scared enough to get shot that they didn’t attack us. As traumatic
as the whole scenario was, Trent seemed to find closure. He had
relaxed a little and was looking at a map, adding numbers on his
fingers.

“
According to my
calculations, we are about four hours away from the next safety
camp. We can, hopefully, find a cure there.” He explained that we
were heading north to Virginia, where the safety camp was housed in
Sawville.

Trent had been listening to the radio
in order to find out where the other safety camps were. When we had
started driving earlier, the radio was still broadcasting. It
stopped working about an hour into the trip, and Trent couldn’t
tune in to a station. We didn’t feel like this was a good sign
about the state of the country.

Looks were exchanged, but no one said
anything. There was a gas station coming up on the
right.

“
Dad, pull in there and we
will get some drinks. I need to stretch my legs a bit.” Trent
pulled into the parking lot of the gas station, and we all stepped
out to stretch. Cage walked inside to check out the situation,
while we walked around outside, waiting for the signal to come in
for some supplies. I noticed his movements looked stiff like mine
had been earlier, but figured it was from being cramped in the
car.