Journal of the Undead (Book 1): Littleville Uprising (30 page)

“God, I
wish
I could fit in your jeans. What are you, a size zero?” Cassie laughed. “And I’m sorry I snapped at you like that. You were only trying to help.”

Instead, it was Kate who gave Cassie some clothes. Ryan ditched the tie and tossed his trench coat into the back of the police cruiser. Evan invited the couple to join them at the cabin but they politely declined.

“Thanks, but we’re headed to Marietta, Ohio,” Ryan explained. “We need to find Cassie’s parents and grandmother. I’m gonna commandeer this police cruiser and continue on Route 50 all the way to Ohio.”

Evan wished them luck as he backed the truck down the on ramp and pulled onto the highway. Lucy waved as the police car slowly maneuvered around the abandoned cars. To signal goodbye, Ryan flashed the lights and Cassie waved.

Back on the highway, Evan checked his watch and groaned. The only way they would make it to the cabin before sundown was if there were no more interruptions, so he kept the gas pedal floored the rest of the way. Steadily applying pressure to the accelerator, Evan urged the truck to move faster. The rest of Interstate 79 was a blur. One by one, his passengers drifted off to sleep but Evan’s determination kept him wide awake.

A loud bang, like a gunshot, woke them. The truck was skidding out of control and Evan half-screamed/half-prayed as he wrestled with the steering wheel. Lucy shrieked as Kate shouted, “Everybody hold on!”

The back end of the truck finally lodged into the guardrail and brought them to an abrupt halt.

“Is everyone okay?” Evan asked his voice still shaky. “Oh my God! Matt, you’re bleeding.”

Emma dug the first aid kit from her bag and leaned forward to assess the damage. Soaking a gauze pad with some peroxide, Emma cleaned away the blood streaking down the side of Matt’s face. She dabbed gently over the cut and using a dry piece of gauze, applied pressure to the wound.

“What’s the verdict, Doc, am I gonna make it?” Matt quipped.

“Yeah, I think so. You only hit your head. Not likely to be much damage there,” Emma teased. “Seriously, it’s a very tiny cut. Head wounds just bleed a lot. See that, the bleeding stopped already. Do you feel dizzy or nauseated?”

Matt said he felt fine, but Evan’s face was pale and his eyes were still wide with fear.

“Hey, I said I’m fine,” Matt said as he gave Evan a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Relax. Man, that was some excellent driving. I doubt I could have kept this beast on the road after a blowout like that. Look, there’s strips of shredded tire all over the road.”

So it wasn’t a gunshot after all
, Emma thought. Looking out the back window she saw what Matt was talking about; the road was littered with pieces of tire.

“Well, we’re only a few miles away from the cabin,” Evan said once he found his voice again. “We’d better get moving if we want to get there before sunset.”

Everyone piled out of the truck. Evan was lifting their bikes from the bed of the truck when a rusty old pickup pulled up alongside of them.

“That was quite a blow out, huh?” bellowed a heavily drawled voice from inside the truck. “You’ns need a lift?”

“What’s a yinz?” Matt whispered to Emma.

Shrugging, Emma whispered back, “I have no idea.” Kate shushed the twins and out of habit wrapped a protective arm around Lucy.

“Boy, git in the back so these nice ladies can ride up front. Folks’d think ya ain’t got no manners,” the voice commanded to his son who was riding shotgun.

A boy of about fourteen hopped out of the truck and held the door open for Kate.

“Hey, Evan, why don’t you ride up front with your mom and Lucy so you can give directions?” Matt suggested, not wanting to leave just the women up front with a stranger. “Emma and I can hop in the back.”

Matt was already handing their bikes up to a younger boy standing in the bed of the rusted Ford as Evan begrudgingly climbed into the front cab. He wanted to keep Emma close, but Evan knew Matt would protect her. Kate slid in next to Evan and Emma helped boost Lucy up onto Kate’s lap before she went back to hop onto the tailgate and settled in next to Matt. She found it peculiar that no one seemed bothered by letting strangers with guns into their truck.

“You’ns in?” the stranger asked, grinding into first gear.

Emma smiled at the young boy sitting across from her and he blushed.

“You ain’t from ‘round here,” the older boy observed as he eyed Emma appreciatively.

Their driver introduced himself as Darryl and his boys, Cody and Logan, who were in the back. Evan made their introductions, putting a heavy emphasis on ‘my girlfriend’ when he introduced Emma. Claiming they were going camping seemed easier than explaining the truth and it was certainly plausible. Darryl followed Evan’s directions as they chugged along the winding roads.

Soon the roads were no longer paved and gravel sprayed out behind the old, balding tires. As the truck groaned further up the side of the mountain, the gravel grew scarce. As a result of the previous night’s heavy rains, the truck was sinking deeper and deeper into the muddy path. Finally, the tires were churning out sprays of mud and the truck was no longer moving.

“Well, “fraid that’s as far as we’re gonna make it,” Darryl said apologetically. “How much further up d’ya have to go?”

“Not too far,” Evan replied and thanked Darryl for his help.

As the boys were unloading their gear from the truck, Cody warned the strangers to get where they were headed before sundown.

“There’s been talk of somethin’ in the woods,” Cody said, his eyes wide with fear.

“Now hush your mouth, boy! Don’t be scaring the girls with your foolish talk,” Darryl scolded. “There’s
nothin’
in the woods ‘cept what’s supposed to be in the woods.”

“But Pappaw said …” Cody began defensively.

“Never mind what Pappaw said,” Darryl interrupted. He smiled at Kate and whispered, “The crazy old kook was probably drunk and telling tales to my boys.”

So that his father couldn’t hear, Cody leaned forward and whispered to Emma, “Pappaw said there was some kind of wolf-man in the woods. At night you can hear the wolf-man groaning up at the moon. He ain’t able t’howl no more. They say his throat was torn open when he was bit.”

According to Cody, the wolf man had even tried to bite his Uncle Ed. Emma thanked Cody for the warning and promised she would keep an eye out. With a little shove, Evan and Matt were able to push Darryl’s truck out of the rut and the old Ford puttered back down the mountain. Waving, they called out thanks and watched Darryl’s truck disappear around the bend. Waiting until the rusty, old pick up was out of sight, Matt voiced his earlier question.

“Okay,
now
what’s a yinz?” Matt demanded.

“It’s just a regional colloquialism,” Kate replied, laughing. “Just like in the deep South they say y’all, here they say you’ns. They say it in Pittsburgh too.”

Matt nodded like he understood but, whispering, he asked Emma to define colloquialism. Emma rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief before explaining it to her brother.

“So, how close are we?” Emma asked, noticing that the sun was drooping closer to the horizon.

“Less than a mile,” Evan answered, scooping Emma’s hand into his own. “Say, what was that boy whispering to you?”

Making sure that Lucy wasn’t close enough to overhear, Emma told Evan what Cody had told her. Matt scoffed, assuming he’d just been trying to scare her. Cody had looked so frightened that Emma doubted he was playing a joke. Evan wondered aloud if it had been a zombie in the woods, not a wolf-man. It seemed probable since Cody said it had tried to bite someone. With the lack of media, there were bound to be all kinds of urban legends cropping up.

Deciding it was best to be on the defensive, the three had their guns ready. Evan took the lead while Matt and Emma brought up the rear to make sure there was nothing behind them. Oblivious to any danger, Lucy picked wild flowers and ran after the chipmunks that scurried off as she drew near. She squealed with excitement when Evan accidentally flushed out a pair of pheasants. It wasn’t until Lucy went off the path to chase rabbits that Evan put his foot down. Charging after his little sister, Evan caught her quickly and marched her back to the path. Snatching her hand, Evan pulled Lucy alongside of him to keep her from wandering off again. Up ahead there was a clearing with a dilapidated old trailer held up on cinder blocks.

“Finally,” Evan sighed. “We made it.”

Emma looked at the broken-down hovel and wanted to scream. Why did they leave the safety of Kate’s fenced-in Colonial back in Littleville for a singlewide trailer with a sagging roof? Emma was convinced that the whole thing would blow apart from one strong gust of wind—even the rickety little shed about thirty yards off seemed more stable. On further examination, Emma realized that the shed was actually an outhouse. Emma felt a knot clench in her stomach. She resisted the urge to go chasing after Darryl and beg him to get her as far away from there as possible.

“It’s, um, great,” Emma managed to say not too convincingly.

Evan took one look at Emma’s face and burst into laughter. “Honey, that’s not the cabin,” he said, still laughing. “Follow me.”

Propping their bikes against a tree, Evan took Emma’s hand and she followed him into the trailer. Evan lifted a loose board from the wall to reveal a control panel. After punching in a code, Evan quickly replaced the board and guided Emma back outside. Without saying a word, Evan pointed to the side of the mountain. They heard a loud grinding noise and part of the mountainside began to rise and retract, reminding Emma of the way a garage door opened. Her eyes narrowed in scrutiny.

“Are you Batman?” Emma asked in an exaggeratedly suspicious tone.

Laughing, Evan pulled Emma close and kissed her. She found it amusing that little things like mentioning comic books or super heroes evoked such a fervent response. Matt stared at the opening in the mountainside in amazement.

“Wow,” he breathed. I never would have expected that!”

Kate explained that the trailer was there to fool the county assessors. They didn’t want the locals getting suspicious. A moment later, Emma noticed Lucy was missing. Growing increasingly annoyed with his little sister, Evan shouted Lucy’s name and waited for a reply. When she didn’t reply, they branched out to look for her.

“I see her,” Emma called from the brush. She could just see the top of Lucy’s head as she climbed over a felled tree. Grabbing Evan’s arm, she stopped him from charging after his wayward sister. Instead, Emma offered to go while he and Matt gathered their gear. Evan’s temper had reached its boiling point and Emma preferred to shield Lucy from his anger.

Rushing to catch up and not lose sight of Lucy’s little blonde head, Emma hurdled over branches and stepped into a clearing. Lucy softly shushed Emma as she had been stomping loudly through the underbrush. Beside a small stream, a family of red foxes had stopped for a drink. Emma watched them until a nearby groundhog distracted her as it nibbled on acorns. When the foxes leapt across the stream without warning and ran into the woods, Emma called to Lucy to warn her that Evan was angry.

“C’mon, Lucy. We’d better head back before Evan comes after us.”

They trudged through the brush and back toward the cabin but the disappointment was clearly etched on Lucy’s face.

“Evan used to come with me so we could watch for deer and the other animals,” Lucy said, pouting. “He’s no fun anymore.”

Emma was about to reply when she heard a horrible groaning sound off in the distance. Emma’s rifle, which had been slung across her back, was now raised and ready. Motioning for Lucy to stay down, Emma crept through the brush as quietly as she could. To her horror, Emma saw the moaning body latch onto Evan from behind.

“Evan!” she screamed.

In an instant, Emma had the monster in her sights and was taking aim.

“NO!” Kate shrieked and hurled her body into Emma’s, knocking the barrel of the rifle off its mark.

The creature fell back, screaming in agony. Writhing on the ground and howling was a boy who looked to be only a little older than Lucy. Emma dug in her backpack for the first aid kit as she ran full speed toward the injured child. Evan was kneeling over the boy trying to ascertain the damage.

“R.J., are you alright? Let me see!” Evan was shouting.

People of all ages came running out from the opening to the cabin. Someone shouted, “Get Doc!” another, “Find Bev!” Swallowing her guilt, Emma knelt next to the boy and asked him as calmly as she could to show her where he was hurt. The tearful boy started to pull away until he looked up and saw Emma. He instantly stopped crying and with starry eyes and a dopey, lovesick grin, the boy told Emma he was pretty sure he’d been shot in the shoulder.

Evan huffed loudly and muttered, “Oh for God’s sake.”

Emma shot Evan a dirty look as she helped the boy remove his jacket.

“Haven’t you done enough already?” Matt joked when he saw Emma kneeling over the boy.

With one stern look from Kate, Matt was silenced. Emma was too busy cleaning out the wound to notice a crowd had formed around them. Once the blood was mopped away, she found only a superficial laceration. The wound was so small it wouldn’t even require stitches. Applying pressure to the wound, Emma assured the boy that he would be fine.