The Bomb and the Cage: Doree Anne (14 page)

The arsenal wasn’t impressive in terms of
modern
weapons. However, there were lots of weapons, much more than I thought I’d find in a
prison
arsenal. There was enough weapons and ammunition to start a small army. There was five
Bushmaster AR-15’s
, twenty
Smith and Wesson Model 16
six-shot revolvers, and ten
Remington 870
Shotguns, as well several large boxes of ammunition for each weapon and we took them all. Outside Williams and Jacobs placed them into three piles.

“Brandon, put this in your van.” Jacobs handed me an AR-15, four revolvers, and two shotguns. Next to where the guns had been was a group of neatly stacked boxes.

“How much ammunition is that?”

“One hundred boxes for each weapon.” Jacobs looked at his hand where he had been writing down the math for the ammunition. “I gave you twenty boxes of each caliber, that’s four hundred for the AR, one thousand for the revolvers, and one hundred and fifty for the shotguns.” It’s not evenly split three ways, but it’s fair. We had been given the least amount of ammunition. But I kept it to myself. At least we were getting
something
.  

If the air hadn’t smelled like burning rubber, you’d never know that the day had contained so much horror. The future days would never be the same. However, everyone seemed happy. Smiles were rare in prison, but now, even after the dead started walking, everyone was smiling. Everyone except Robby. Robby was standing by the third van watching the road that lead to the front of the prison. I had never seen Robby sad, at least not since being transferred to Clearwater.

“Robby, are you okay?” He broke his stare long enough to see who I was.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just don’t see anything to smile about. All our loved ones might be dead. Yet here we are, alive and free.”

“That’s a bad way of looking at things. We’re getting our second chance. We’re going to save people.” Robby turned towards me. I saw his eyes focus on the group behind me. He leaned towards me.

“Do you really think any of that is true? Williams scares me, heck everyone scares me. We were all locked up for a reason.” Robby was right, Williams was scary, but if it wasn’t for him, we’d all be sitting in our cells waiting for the power to go back out.

“Let’s just give him a chance. If things get
too
crazy we can always get out.”

“I’m telling you, there is something wrong with him. Rogers had a mouth on him sure, but to break his legs and use him as
Grey
bait?”

“Give him a chance. I’m sure you’re just worrying for nothing.” Maybe he wasn’t, but it wasn’t time to start questioning our leader. At least not until we establish ourselves somewhere.

Chapter 32

09/18/2004 1120 Hours

E.M.T. Bruce Howard

We’d been walking for over an hour through the wooded area that hugged the highway going south towards the city of Clearwater. Whatever was causing this had already spread to the surrounding area. They seemed to stay away from the woods, but every now and then one would get too close and we would have to stop. Their vision wasn’t good. As long as we stayed more than twenty feet away we were safe. They seemed to hunt on sight and sound. A wrong move meant having to fight one hand-to-hand and that was far too risky.

There was a car dealership I remember being ten minutes south of the prison. But things often seem closer when you’re going fifty five miles an hour, not slowly walking through woods trying not to attract attention.

It was very apparent as we walked that this was the end of the world. One subdivision we passed was on fire. People were trapped inside their burning homes, having to choose between burning to death and being eaten alive. Some went outside and fought them, but there was just too many. At one point, a woman was running through the street being chased by three of those things. One of the houses opened their front door and yelled for her to come in. She made it. However, the monsters followed her and were beat on the door till it collapsed inward. We couldn’t be like them, the good Samaritans, it was about
our
survival. Besides when there was so many of them there wasn’t much we could do. We needed weapons and a vehicle first.

I wondered what Linda was thinking.
Was she scared? Was she worried like I was? We’re on our own and would be from here on out. I doubted help was going to arrive, unless it already had arrived and were already dead. Maybe help was off in other sections. Maybe if we kept going we would reach a large perimeter where we would be shot on sight. It was possible, anything was possible.

“Bruce.” Linda whispered.

“Yes.”

“Over there.” I looked over and saw the dealership. Through the trees, you could see only the parts of the backside of a large cinderblock building. It was the only large building till and I knew we hadn’t passed it by mistake.

“Okay, stay close.”

We made our way from the concealment of the trees and ran to the building. There weren’t any of those things in sight and hopefully there wouldn’t be any in the dealership.

“We’ll need to be quick. I’d like to find a small truck.”

“But I wanted a convertible.” Linda said smiling. “Okay fine, we can get your truck, but only if you let me drive.”

“The last time I let you drive, you drove us into a lake.”

“One mistake and I’m going to have to hear about it forever.” Linda let out a small laugh.

“Let’s go find us a ride.”

The front doors were locked. There were several large windows that went the stretch of the building. If I broke any of them, I knew it would set off an alarm.

“Linda, I’m going to have to break a window to get in.”

“How about that
Ford Ranger
over there?” Linda pointed to a red truck.

“That will be perfect.”

I heard the sound of movement and saw several monsters walking near the road, coming towards us.

“Bruce, they’re coming.” Linda whispered.

“It will be okay, I just need to get inside, find the keys, and get back.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Stay near the truck, I’m going to go inside and find the keys. You need to stay out of sight.”

“Okay, good luck.” I smiled and went towards the door.

There was a trashcan used for cigarettes to the left of the doors. It was solid metal and felt like it weighed fifty pounds. I threw it against the window and for a moment time slowed to a crawl. The glass rippled up, and once it reached the top it shattered. The glass cascaded down like a waterfall. There was beauty in the destruction. I stood watching it and knew for the first time, why children broke windows of abandoned houses.

The whoop, whoop sound of the alarm broke my daze. The sound drowned out everything, including my own voice as I ran across the empty showroom floor. Looking for the key room, I felt it would be in the back. I ran to a door there and it was locked. I kicked it open and the wood door gave. A large metal box was on the wall open. A note attached to the front read in big, bold writing
Always lock when not in use
. It was the key box and inside was rows and rows of keys. I searched for the key. Halfway through and I found it, a regular looking black key with a tag that read, 2005
Ford Ranger -
Red.

Outside Linda was crouched down at the corner where I had left her. 
Why didn’t she go to the
truck? The things were running towards the building from roadway, and the truck was almost halfway between us. We needed to get to the truck before they did. There were now twenty of them only thirty yards past the truck.

“Linda, Red
Ford Ranger
!” I yelled running full speed with her behind me. One of the monsters passed the truck, no longer coming to the dealership’s alarm, but to me. I lowered my head and rammed him. My weight forced him back, just past the driver’s side door. Quickly, I unlocked the truck. I pulled the door open as hard as I could and it smacked the monster as he was getting back up. I got in, and slammed the door shut just as the next of the monsters got to me. I put the key in the ignition. This was the moment of truth.
What if there was two red Ford Rangers
? If there was and I grabbed the wrong key, we were dead. The key turned and the engine started. I threw it into drive just as there was a loud thud in the back. Through the rearview mirror I saw Linda had jumped in.

“Go! Get out of here!” Her voice sounded a million miles away. I slammed the gas, ramming three of the monsters in front of me.

Chapter 33

09/18/2004 1130 Hours

Officer Ted Bryant

We pulled into a small gas station with four pumps and a convenience store called
Bob’s Place
. We parked our truck in the back, out of view from the Highway, which ran alongside it. There hadn’t been any other cars on the road besides three police cars abandoned when we first got on the Highway. There weren’t any police officers alive or
dead
in sight. I hoped my partner made it to safety, but when I called his cell phone it went straight to voice mail.

Mendez and I searched the building while Fender split up the supplies equally into four bags.  Gus went out by the road as a lookout. We were only five minutes from the prison and didn’t want to get ambushed. We planned on raiding the store, then getting back on the road. With at least five hours of daylight, there wasn’t a rush to find a secure place for the night. But why take a chance? Once we got what we needed, we’d be back on the road towards Clearwater

Inside the store it was a mess. The shelves were bare and whatever wasn’t taken was smashed on the floor. The power was still on and the light from the florescent bulbs lit up the destruction. There was a smell of rotting watermelon. It reminded me of the summer I had a part-time at a fruit store. I gagged and felt the room spinning. I braced myself with the front counter and waited for the dizzy spell to pass.

“Ted, you okay?” Mendez asked.

“Yeah, just a dizzy spell. It’s got to be the smell of this place.”

“It smells terrible.”

On the counter where I was leaning was a display case with several pipes and two large knives. The knives, the kind modeled after movies. They weren’t practical for everyday use. However, they were still sharp and would be good at least once or twice. I took the one which had a blade about twelve inches long and a handle which was a black dragon. Mendez took the other, a dagger used in a gladiator pit.

As we walked to the back, the stronger the odor got. There were four doors in the back.  Each was labeled, except for one, a large metal door that was obviously a freezer. The others were labeled: restroom, office, emergency exit. I tried the freezer and it was locked. Next the office where there might be a key to the freezer, the door opened.

The smell had been coming from here. Behind a desk, sitting in an office chair was a white male leaning back. His head was against the wall looking to the ceiling. Streaks of blood went from him to the ceiling, like a gory firework display. He had killed himself.

“At least he did it right.” Mendez said. He bent down and picked up a silver
Derringer
pistol. Mendez wiped the pistol off using the man’s shirt then opened up the pistol.

“Still has a shot left. Do you want it?” I shook my head and he put it in his back pocket. We searched the office and found a box of bullets and the key to the freezer. The freezer was almost empty, except for two boxes of ice cream.

              Walking back to the front we saw three vans pull into the gas station. We crouched down behind the nearest shelve towards the front. Gus was walked up to the vans. The door of the first van flung open and a black male in a blue prison uniform got. There was a loud gunshot. Gus stumbled backwards, falling against one of the pumps. Mendez went to go run outside, but I grabbed him by the back of his pants and pulled him down.

“Who are those people?”

“They’re inmates in prison vans.”

“How many do those vans hold?”

“Eight in the back three in the front, only looks like only two in the front. I doubt they filled up the uncomfortable spots and left room in the front. Those have steel cages in the back, gets real hot. We need to stop them, they shot Gus!”     

“No! We need to wait. See how many of them there are first.”

Another black male got out of the van and joined the other who was staring down at Gus. He raised his gun to shot him again, but the other put his hand up and pushed the gun down. They exchanged some words then started walking towards the store.

“Those are the Battle brothers, but they were in confinement.”

“Well it looks like they got out. We need to take them out, quietly.” I pulled out my dagger. “Follow me, we need to go to the back of the store.” He nodded and we went into the office, hiding on opposite sides of the door, and waited.
I hoped Fender stayed where he was and didn’t go to see what happened. I was sure he stayed put and if they did go around back I was sure he would be ready
.

There were the sounds of footsteps growing louder. One of them was complaining about the smell and the other was joking about the owner needing to clean the place. The doorknob of the office door started to turn. I felt my heart beating harder as I gripped the knife harder.

The door opened, it was quicker than I had expected. I almost let out a gasp of surprise. Two men entered the small room and before they could react we had them. I stabbed the first in the upper chest. HE went to grab for the knife and kicked his knee. As he fell backwards, my knife still sticking out of his chest, I went with him. Falling, into Mendez and the other guy, then to the ground. I pulled the knife out and then stabbed him through his right hand, which tried to deflect my stab, then into his throat. I twisted the blade until the life faded from his eyes. I looked over and saw that Mendez had stabbed his in the mouth. He pulled the knife out and stood up. Blood dripped from his knife and he flicked it towards the wall, blood splattered onto it.