Bowe was thrashing violently on the floor, long limbs flailing wildly, trying to dislodge Earl. He grabbed Earl’s thin neck and tried to push him off, but Earl wouldn’t let go. Either that, or its teeth had sunk so deeply into Bowe’s flesh that it couldn’t be pried loose even by the Jaws of Life.
Keo unslung the MP5SD and fired.
Despite the attached metal suppressor, the submachine gun wasn’t completely silent as Keo concentrated half of the magazine’s thirty rounds into Earl’s back. Dark liquid
(blood?)
sprayed the air and walls and Earl twitched. Levy had stumbled back down the hallway, throwing his hands over his face to keep back the blood splatters and chunks of flesh and muscle that came loose from Earl’s body with every impacting 9mm round.
When Keo finally stopped shooting, Earl looked up and seemed to sneer at him. For a moment, Keo wondered why he thought shooting it would work. Shotguns hadn’t done a damn thing, so why did he think submachine gun rounds would prove different?
You’re a world class idiot, that’s why.
Earl climbed off Bowe, who had stopped moving on the floor. It wasn’t because Earl had feasted on him (though that probably had a little something to do with it, too), but Bowe was now bleeding from not just the neck, but also from three bullet holes in his chest. Keo’s bullets, he realized, because the creatures had soft bodies and bullets went right through them. What didn’t hit Bowe had slammed into the ground around him.
Keo stumbled back, feeling slightly sick to his stomach.
Aw, Jesus. I shot him. I shot Bowe.
Earl had forgotten about Keo, Norris, and Levy, and he
(it?)
grabbed Bowe by one leg and pulled him toward the door. Bowe didn’t struggle. He didn’t have the strength. His eyes were glassy and blood trickled out of the wounds across his body, though they were nothing compared to the stream
slurping
out of the gash in his neck where Earl had bitten him. How a bite could possibly be worse than bullet wounds defied logic.
The second Bowe’s body disappeared into the room, Norris rushed forward and grabbed the doorknob and slammed the door shut.
“Hold on,” Keo said.
“I got nowhere else to be,” Norris grunted back.
Norris gripped the doorknob with both hands, but he didn’t really have to. There were no movements from the other side, no loud crashing against the door, or any attempts by Earl to come back out. Because he—
it
—didn’t want to come out. Not yet, anyway. It was busy in the room.
With Bowe…
As if to confirm it, blood appeared out the bottom of the door, spreading into the hallway in a thick
(way too thick)
gush.
“Jesus,” Norris said, and moved his feet away. “Do something, will you?”
Keo turned to leave the hallway, kicking spent shell casings from the MP5SD strewn across the floor. It was a timely reminder, and Keo pulled out the half-empty magazine and slapped in a full one.
Half-empty. Because I pumped three of them into Bowe, too.
Aw, Jesus.
He didn’t know why it bothered him so much. It wasn’t like this was the first time he had shot someone. Not even close. Of course, all those other times he had meant to do it. This time was a little different.
Gillian was at the kitchen with Gavin, holding a rag against his shoulder and trying to stanch the bleeding. It wasn’t working, and the proof were two similar rags already in a pile on the counter, both soaked with blood. She met Keo’s eyes, and he was impressed by the calmness he saw looking back at him.
What happened to the woman who shook for an hour after the ambush yesterday? She was gone, replaced by this Gillian, who though clearly terrified of what was happening managed to do her part anyway.
“Are you okay?” Keo asked.
She nodded back, probably because she didn’t trust herself to answer vocally.
“How’s Gavin?” he asked.
“He’s…fine,” she said hesitantly, but her face told him a different story. “He said he fell asleep and when he woke up…” She didn’t finish, because she didn’t have to.
If Gavin had heard their exchange, he didn’t say anything. He looked like he could barely stand, and if not for Gillian pinning him against the counter with her body, he might have toppled off the stool at any moment.
“Do the best you can,” Keo said.
“I will. Go back there and help Norris.”
He nodded and hurried back to the left side hallway.
Norris was still leaning against the door, both hands gripped tightly around the doorknob. He had positioned his feet to keep them away from the spreading blood on the floor, but he was quickly running out of space. How many pints of blood did a human body contain? Because it looked like all of it was coming out of Gavin’s room at the moment.
“You back already?” the ex-cop said.
Keo looked up the hallway at Levy, standing silently behind Norris. He was there, but he wasn’t really there. “Levy, you still with us?”
Levy glanced over at him. “What’s he going to do with Bowe?” he asked quietly.
You know damn well what he’s doing with Bowe right now,
Keo thought, but said, “You have anything in that basement to keep this door locked?”
“Why?”
“We need to keep Earl sealed inside until morning.”
And Bowe with him, too
.
And Gavin makes three…
“Right. Morning,” Levy said. He sounded robotic, on automatic pilot.
“I need you to go get something to lock this door with. Maybe the same kind of latches you guys put on the windows. Do you have any of those left?”
“I think so…”
“We’re going to need a screwdriver and screws, too. Grab a drill if you have one. Okay?”
“Okay,” Levy repeated, though he hadn’t moved.
“Levy,” Keo said. When that didn’t get any response from Levy, Keo said louder, “Levy.” The other man’s glazed eyes shifted back to him. “Go.
Now
.”
Levy nodded and hurried off. He was still clutching the Glock in one hand, though Keo wasn’t sure if he even knew that.
Norris looked after Levy. “He looked bad to you?”
“He just saw his best friend try to eat his other best friend, and actually succeeded in eating another one,” Keo said. “Hard to look good after that.”
“Good point.” Norris’s eyes drifted to the path of blood Gavin had left behind as he ran off. “That kid ain’t going to be okay. You know that, right?”
“You just worry about that door and I’ll worry about Gavin.”
Norris looked back at the door. “I don’t think he’s going to try to leave the room. Or if he does, I’m pretty sure I can stop him. Unless he can break down the door, he needs to turn this doorknob, and from what I’ve seen, they’re not that strong. So go on.”
“I’ll be back,” Keo said, and returned to the living room.
Gavin was lying on one of the couches now, with Gillian kneeling next to him, wrapping a thick roll of gauze tightly around his shoulder and looping them around his arm. She had already applied so much that Gavin looked like a baseball pitcher with a bag of ice taped to his throwing arm. Rachel was crouched nearby in pajamas and T-shirt, putting scissors away into an open first aid kit. Additional bloody rags were spread out on the floor around them.
Gavin didn’t look as if he was even aware the women were working on him. His face was ghostly pale and his eyes were closed. The women had turned on a second LED lamp nearby, and the room glowed unnaturally bright.
“The girls?” Keo said to Rachel.
“They’re inside my room,” Rachel said. “I told them not to come out unless I came to get them.”
“Are they okay?”
“Scared out of their minds from all the screaming and shooting, but I think—God, I can’t believe I’m saying this—they might be getting used to it by now. What about Bowe?”
Keo shook his head.
“You were right,” Rachel said. “If they bite you, it’s over.”
Keo walked over and got a closer look at Gavin. He looked asleep, and Rachel had wrapped a thick blanket around him. He was almost peaceful. For now, anyway.
He’s going to die. Then he’ll turn.
Like Delia.
Like Earl…
“Gillian,” Keo said.
“I know,” she said softly. She sat back on her haunches, staring at the bandages around Gavin’s shoulder as they slowly, ever so slowly, started to redden an inch at a time. “It won’t stop bleeding. Just like with Earl.”
“We need to put him someplace where he can’t hurt anyone.”
“Like where? There aren’t a lot of choices left, Keo.”
“There’s the basement,” Levy said, coming out of the right side hallway. He had a padlock and a steel hasp in one hand and a battery-operated power drill in the other. His Glock was stuffed into his front waistband, and Levy looked better than when Keo had last seen him a few minutes ago. He seemed to be more in control, as if the initial shock and paralysis had worn off. A little, anyway.
“The basement?” Gillian said. “Will that work?”
“It’s a big room and the door is pretty strong. He’d never be able to get out.”
“That’s not going to work,” Keo said.
“Why not? If he’s in the basement, he won’t be able to hurt anyone.”
“Exactly. He’ll be
in
the basement. You want to go down there to get him when he turns?”
“We don’t know—” he started to say, but quickly stopped himself. Levy looked down at the tools in his hands instead.
“Right,” Keo said. “We’re going to do this my way this time.”
After Levy went
back to the basement and got another set of locks, they drilled the steel plate over Gavin’s door first, then added the padlock and snapped it into place. Then they stepped back from the door and waited for the creature that used to be Earl to do something, but it never did.
How long does it take to drink Bowe dry?
Keo didn’t say it out loud, of course. Levy was standing next to him, and he already looked pale from just being so close to the room.
“You okay, Levy?” Keo asked.
Levy gave him a blank look, as if he didn’t quite understand the question. “Bowe’s in there.”
“Yeah.”
“Earl’s…eating Bowe?”
Drinking Bowe is more like it,
Keo thought, but said, “Try not to think about it. I know it’s hard, but it’s not going to do you any good imagining what’s happening behind this door.”
Levy nodded and looked away.
Norris tried opening the door by jiggling the doorknob. It opened just a few inches, but not enough to see inside. Which was good. Keo didn’t want to see what Earl was doing in there to Bowe anyway. He already knew.
“They’re not strong enough to break the door down,” Norris said. “We should be good.”
“There are two of them in there now,” Keo said.
“Shit, that’s right. Bowe, too.” He glanced over at Levy, but the younger man didn’t seem to have heard him. Levy was focused almost entirely on the thick puddle of blood under the door. Norris said to Keo, “You think it makes any difference?”
“I don’t know,” Keo said. “I guess we’ll find out.” He put a hand on Levy’s shoulder. “Let’s do your door next.”
“For Gavin…” Levy said absently.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have a choice. This is the only way.”
Levy looked down at his hands again. “I know,” he said quietly.
“Let’s get the room ready,” Norris said.
When they were done putting the lock on Levy’s door, Keo went back into the living room while Norris stayed behind with his M4 and stood guard outside Gavin’s room. Levy hadn’t moved to follow Keo, so he left him back in the hallway with the ex-cop.
Gillian sat in a chair next to the sofa and Gavin’s prone form. She had put a second blanket over him, tucking the corners under his shivering body. Rachel had returned to her room to be with the girls.
“Will the doors hold?” Gillian asked.
“I think so.”
“Even after Bowe turns, too?”
“They’re not very strong, so it should hold.”
Hopefully.
Keo sat down on another chair and took in a long breath. He didn’t realize how tiring running back and forth between the living room and the hallways could be. Maybe he was just out of shape. Or maybe the night was dragging on for way too long.
“It’ll be okay,” he said. “We’ll get through tonight and tomorrow, and the days after that will be better.”
“Do you really believe that?” she asked, looking at him intently.
“Absolutely.”
“You’re a terrible liar. We’re probably all going to die out here. Which would suck, because I always envisioned dying in France when I’m eighty years old with the love of my life holding my hand as I drift off to the big blue yonder.”
He smiled. “I’ll hold your hand.”
She gave him a half-smile. “What about France?”
“I can get you as close as Paris, Texas.”
She laughed softly despite herself, but it was only a short burst until the realization of their situation set in again. Still, it made him feel good to hear it from her.
“How many people you think are out there right now?” she asked. “Like us? Huddling around LED lamps.”
“I don’t know. But we got lucky. A lot of people could have gotten lucky, too.”
“For how long, though? We’re living on borrowed time.” She was looking at Gavin’s pale, sweat-slicked face. “A bite, Keo. That’s all it takes. A bite, and we become like Earl. Like Gavin…”
Keo closed his eyes and wanted to go to sleep. He was tired. Way more tired than he wanted to admit. It didn’t help that he barely slept last night on the dirt floor under the cabin in the RV park.
“We’ll be fine,” he said quietly. There wasn’t much confidence in his voice, and Gillian likely knew it, too.
“How can you say that? After everything that’s happened? After everything you’ve seen? They can’t be killed, Keo.”
“Sunlight kills them.”
“And sunlight doesn’t come up for half the day. That’s half of our lives we’ll be looking over our shoulders.” She shook her head. “That’s no way to live, Keo. That’s no way to survive. Maybe it’d be better if…”