“Like hell that’s going to happen. Lorraine, we’re closing him up now,” Quinton told her and Malcolm looked over at the operating table.
“You’re finished already?” he asked.
“I got the bullet out,” Quinton replied, not looking up from Craig. “That’s good enough.”
“No fucking way. Good enough wasn’t the deal. You do it right,” Malcolm ordered and Quinton rounded on him, eyes glinting dangerously above the surgical mask.
“I’m not going to let a couple of strange men take my sisters off to god knows where,” Quinton spat out. “I’ll sew him up and then I’m going to get my sisters. You tell them to stay where they are, I’ll be there soon.”
“Did you not hear me?” Malcolm asked. “We’re surrounded. We’re not getting out of here any time soon.”
“Don’t worry, doc,” Alan spoke up, Quinton’s shouting having roused him. “My baby brother’s got a big soft spot. He’ll make sure your sisters are okay. He’s like a knight in shining armour, he can’t resist a damsel in distress. He’ll keep ‘em safe.”
“I don’t want them at your damn camp. I want them with me.”
Lorraine reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder. “Jose and Travis are good men. There are only women and children back at the camp. I know exactly what you are worried about and I promise you, your sisters will be safe. If anything happens, I will answer for it, I swear it. Just, please, finish up with Craig. He saved my life, you have to save his.
Please
.”
Something unspoken passed between Quinton and Lorraine as they stared at each other. The doctor’s shoulders finally relaxed and he nodded, stepping back up to the table. Lorraine sighed with relief and Malcolm gave her a nod of thanks before she went to change out her gloves for a fresh pair.
Now all Malcolm had to worry about was that Travis and Jose got those sisters back to the camp safe and sound. If they didn’t, they were going to be in big trouble with the doctor.
Subject File # 750
Administrator - I want to talk about the accident.
Subject - It wasn’t an accident. It was murder, plain and simple.
Administrator - Do you blame yourself?
Subject - No, I blame
them
.
“Okay, we make a straight run for the cruisers. Keep your eyes peeled, we don’t know that all the freaks left.”
Veronica and Jose nodded at Travis’ instructions, checking their weapons as they stood at one of the emergency exits at the back of the station. The door was solid steel, with no windows in or around it and they had no idea what was on the other side. It wasn’t the best strategy but it was better than the lobby where they knew some freaks still lingered.
Veronica had explained the plan to Claudia, trying her hardest to get the girl to respond verbally but she had only nodded, and that was only after Veronica had used Quinton’s tactic of shaking her.
But now was not the time to worry about Claudia. She needed to focus on what they were about to do. There would be time after they got out of this to worry about Claudia.
Travis pushed the door open, sunlight streaming into the dark hallway and momentarily blinding them. The narrow strip of pavement outside the door was empty and Travis led the way followed by Jose and Veronica nudged Claudia to follow him.
They had come out on the opposite side of the parking lot from the cruisers but the expanse of asphalt in front of them was empty. They moved fast, running parallel to the back wall of the station until it turned a corner and the rest of the lot and the driveway came into view.
This would be the dangerous part, crossing the lot out in the open without cover. If anyone or anything had been lurking outside, this would be their chance to make a move against them.
Travis stopped when they reached the end of the wall, peeking around the corner and then turning back to gesture silently that they keep their eyes open and move fast. They nodded their understanding and Travis shot off, the rest of them hot on his heels.
Veronica kept her eyes on the street and she was relieved when there was no sign of movement.
Thank God
. The freaks that had been in the lobby must have wandered off in search of another meal.
As her harsh breathing calmed, no longer drowning out the sounds of the world around her, her ears picked up strange noises coming from the far side of the cruisers. She looked to Travis and Jose and knew by their fearful expressions they heard it too.
Travis slipped the duffel bag of weapons off his shoulder and set it carefully on the ground and nodded at Veronica to do the same before he pointed her to the back end of the cruiser. She nodded her understanding, creeping to the rear while Travis went around the hood, weapons ready as they both moved to the other side of the cruiser.
Now she knew what had drawn the freaks away from the station.
Eight of them were huddled over a bloody carcass, growling and slurping as they tore into their fresh meal. A flash of metal near the feet of one of the freaks caught her attention. It was a set of ID tags on a blue dog collar. Poor thing must have been abandoned, left to wander around the town and had stumbled out here to end up a meal for the freaks.
One of the freaks tore open an intestine and a foul stench filled the air. Veronica could not help but gag and choke at the smell. As if they had rehearsed it, all the freaks turned their heads in their direction and hair-raising howls slipped from between their bloody foam coated lips.
Travis was the first to fire, pumping a round of buckshot into the chest of one freak and sending him flying back into two others. Veronica fired at the one closest to her, blowing off its lower jaw and it crumpled to the ground, tripping up another freak as it tried to lunge in her direction. She put another round in it and glanced back to check on Claudia. She was pressed against the other side of the cruiser, hands over her ears and eyes squeezed shut.
One of the freaks had managed to get by Travis and Jose took it out with a head shot, the close range spraying blood and gore everywhere as it exploded. The shot got the attention of another freak and it lunged for Jose forcing him back onto the hood of the cruiser. The freak was on top of him in an instant, gnashing its teeth and spraying pink foam all over Jose as they struggled.
Veronica dropped her shotgun and pulled out her .38, putting a round in the side of the freak’s head, sending it toppling off of Jose and onto the ground. She said a silent pray of thanks to her father for forcing hours of marksmanship training on her. Travis fired off a few more rounds, taking out what was left of the freaks, watching their bodies carefully for any signs of life.
Veronica turned her attention back to Claudia, who had slid to the pavement next to the cruiser, sobbing around the hand clamped over her mouth. Veronica bent down and wrapped her arms around her, murmuring comforting words into her ear as she rocked her back and forth but she had no idea if it would help. There was only so much Claudia’s mind could take in such a short time. What if she was too far gone now to help?
“They’re done for,” Travis said. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
She pulled Claudia to her feet and helped her into the back seat of the cruiser, pressing a kiss to her forehead. She grabbed the duffel bag and put it in beside Claudia while Travis took his bag to the other cruiser.
Jose walked over to Veronica, looking in at Claudia, who was now laying down in the back seat, using the duffel as a pillow. “Is she okay?”
“I have no idea,” Veronica said, her voice catching as she struggled to keep herself from breaking. The last thing they needed was for her to dissolve into tears now. Instead she focused on Jose and his face and chest covered in pink foam and bloody gore from the freaks. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, thanks to you,” he replied with a smile, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. “I owe you my life. I don’t know how to repay you.”
She smiled wearily. “How about we worry about that when we get out of here?”
“Agreed.”
“Fuck!”
Travis’ curse had her looking up to see several dozen freaks running into the parking lot from the street. “The gunfire must have drawn them!”
He fired off several shots at the mob and Veronica followed suit, circling around the front of the cruiser to give Travis cover so he could get over to the driver side of his car. Shit, this had become a complete clusterfuck.
She glanced back to see Jose at the driver door of the other cruiser, Claudia cowering in the back. Veronica tossed Jose the keys to the cruiser and began to reload. “Get her out of here, Jose!”
“No, I won’t leave you!” he yelled as he fired off a few more rounds but at this distance, his aim was off and he hit nothing. There were too many of them. They had to get out of here right now.
“Go! I’m with Travis! You can draw some of them off of us!”
Jose shot twice more before his gun fired dry and he finally jumped into the cruiser. He didn’t waste any time getting it in gear and tearing out of the parking lot, several freaks bouncing off the cruiser, several others turning and following it as it took off down the street.
She and Travis took advantage of the momentary distraction and got in the cruiser, Travis taking the wheel. The tires squealed across the pavement as Travis hauled ass out of the parking lot and headed in the direction Jose had gone.
The only sound in the cruiser was their harsh breathing as they sped down the street, closing in on a four way intersection. When they got closer they realized that the intersection and the streets leading from it were filling with freaks who had been drawn by the gunfire.
Malcolm had been right. This town belonged to the freaks now.
“Looks like we’ll be taking the scenic route to camp,” Travis quipped, putting the car in reverse and heading back to the last side street and hanging a left.
It was a residential street made up of small family homes, bicycles and skateboards left on the lawns, a tire swing hanging from a tree, twisting in the wind. The street was eerily quiet, like the pressing silence of a graveyard. The homes were markers of the lives that had once been. Now the people who had lived here were a few streets away, a mindless mob of flesh eating monsters.
She was thankful when the street dipped down, leading them away from the homes and into a wooded ravine. Here life was thriving, birds flitting from tree to tree, squirrels scrambling amongst the underbrush on the ground. The morose feeling from before eased but not enough for all her anxiety to fade away, especially as she kept straining to see further up the road, hoping to spot the tail lights of the other cruiser.
“Do you think this is the same way Jose took?”
“I’m not sure but I wouldn’t worry, he’s the one who did all the scouting of the routes before we came into town. If anyone knows the best ways to get back to camp, it’s him.”
“What if they ran into the men who shot your friend?”
“Hey now, no need to go down that road. You’ll drive yourself crazy if you do. We’re not too far behind them. They would have seen the same freak jam we did. He’s probably just a mile or two up this road. We might even run into them around the next bend. Don’t worry.”
Easier said than done. She couldn’t help but run through all the ways things could go wrong, leaving Claudia alone and vulnerable.
Then there was Quinton, still stuck in the clinic, surrounded by the infected. What if they had gotten to him? What if his group had tried to leave and had come under attack like they did? For all she knew, she was the only one left of her family now.
Nope, not going to think like that
.
“What’s your camp like?” she asked Travis as a distraction.
“We’re holed up in an abandoned ranger station in the park. It’s off the beaten path. I’m betting there aren’t many people who even know it’s there. We never would have found it if Malcolm didn’t have a map leading us there.”
“How did he know about it?”
“Malcolm used to work for the CIA. They used it as a safe house. It was stocked with some crazy supplies. Weapons, gas masks, hazmat suits, even a freaking Geiger counter.”
Well, that was an interesting twist on this group.
“What are your people like?”
“They’re good people. Jenny, my brother’s pregnant wife, I told you about her, and Ana, Jose’s wife. Malcolm’s sister and her kids. There’s also Kim and her son.”
“Women and children,” Veronica said and Travis nodded.
“Your sister will be safe with them, I promise.”
Veronica believed him. He and Jose had been nothing but stand up guys since she met them. They could have abandoned her and Claudia at any point but they hadn’t. Instead they had helped them and that had gone a long way to earn her trust.
“You worried about your brother?” she asked.
“Yeah I am,” he admitted. “We haven’t always gotten along and I don’t always agree with the things that he does but he’s my big brother and I love him.”
It was a raw and honest admission and she felt compelled to give her own. “My brother and sister are all I’ve got left. I don’t think I could go on if I lost them.”
“I get it. With the way the world is right now, family is all you can trust in.”