The Bomb and the Cage: Doree Anne (17 page)

I went with Dale and Eugene to check the gas station. If there were any marauders inside, they weren’t going to ambush us this time. The large windows that went the length of the building were covered with advertisements. I tried the glass door, but it was locked. I leaned against it, shielding my eyes from the reflection caused by the sun. I couldn’t see much. It looked like any other convenience store. I don’t even know what I was expecting to see. If it was marauders they would have just shot me the moment I put my face against the glass. If it was
Gray Eyes
would it matter if we saw them before we opened the door?

“I guess they’re closed Williams.” Eugene said. Dale waved us away and smashed the glass with the butt of his assault rifle.

“Not anymore they’re not.” Dale crouched down and looked inside, before sticking his hand in to open the door. When he saw it was clear, he unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Dale went in first, Eugene, and then me. Dale and Eugene were carrying assault rifles, while I stuck to my pistol. Pistols were better for close-quarters. I may not get as many shots out as they did but I could fight in a smaller space with it. Besides, if I couldn’t put down a target with fifteen shots then I shouldn’t be carrying.

              There was a humming sound the compressor of refrigerators. The power was still on, but there was no telling for how long. Eventually the power plants would fail. There weren’t any nuclear plants within a hundred and fifty miles of us. I couldn’t imagine having the
Grays
and radiation to worry about. It raised new questions, what would the radiation do to them? If this was a viral infection or a super bug, would the radiation destroy it like Chemo to cancer?

The store had three aisles. We were in luck, they sold t-shirts and sweat pants. After clearing the building and making sure the back door was locked, we started distributing the clothing. They weren’t the most fashion forward and I was sure they would make people suspicious. After all, who wears these cloths? Jacobs and I would continue to wear our uniforms at least until we were able to establish a good size group. Being
law enforcement
would help establish us as leaders. We were leaders before the
plague
after all.

              Once the vans were gassed up we moved them behind the building along the fence. We couldn’t afford to lose another van. After everything was locked up, we met inside for a little meeting.

“Williams, what do you want to do about the trailer park behind us?” Jacobs asked.

“Well, I was thinking about paying a visit over there. See what kind of supplies we can get those good people to give us.”

“What if they don’t want to give us anything?” Eugene asked.

“Then we’ll take it.” I smiled one of those big PR smiles. I held it, waited for the rest of the group to join me. Once everyone had, I continued. “We need better clothing, jeans preferably. We’re driving around in prison vans and you’re all wearing tourist shirts and sweat pants, it just looks suspicious if you ask me.” The group smiled, this time they smiled without me having to smile first. The only one who didn’t smile was Robby. Something didn’t feel right about him. I always trusted my gut, and my gut was telling me something was wrong. I would have to watch Robby.

Chapter 38

09/18/2004 1217 Hours

E.M.T. Bruce Howard

              I was not optimistic when I agreed to take Robert to the library. With all of the
Biters
at the mechanic shop it didn’t look good for the area. However, that didn’t mean the library was doomed already. Most of my hope had been diminished by now. Leefield was far from the prison and already being overrun. I unfortunately was right about the library.

The library was a brown brick, one-story building with a flat roof. There were two large double doors in the front which were broken into. There were
Biters
walking in and out through the opening. It was impossible to tell what was inside because three years ago the library attempted to be more energy efficient by having the windows tinted. However, with all the
Biters
walking around, I could only imagine everyone inside was already dead or turned.

“I’m sorry Robert.” I said.

He was sitting in the back with his mouth open staring at the things walking around. There was nothing we could do and I started to do a U-Turn when Robert stood straight up.

“Robert, get down!”

“Stop the truck! I need to make sure she’s dead!” I looked at Linda and she nodded her head.

“Sit down, we’ll go with you.” Robert sat down and we went around to the back of the library.

“Over there!” Robert was pointing to a door in the back near a bench and trash can. “That’s the employee entrance.”

I stopped the truck, we got out, and I handed Robert a combat knife.

“Listen, these things are attracted to noise. If you want to get out of here alive then you need to be quiet. We have a few rape alerts but not many.”

“Rape alerts?” Robert asked. I looked over at Linda, she was smiling.

“Has anyone heard of rape alerts?”

“Maybe they’re not called that.” Linda spoke up.

“Well, whatever, they make a high pitch sound when you pull the cord. If you get in a bad situation throw it to attract attention away from you. Here take one but don’t use it unless you have to.”

Two
Biters
were walking by the door thirty feet away. They stopped and looked over at us. There were a few more in the back, but none that were close to us. I aimed my crossbow at one and Linda aimed hers at the other.

“I got the left one. You get the right, fire on three Linda, one, two, and three.” We both shot at the same time and both of us hit our targets in the head. I walked over to them, pulled the bolts out, wiped them off, put one in my backpack, and loaded the other. Robert opened and I stepped in.

“Stay close and let’s not attract any attention.”

              The door entered a long empty hallway with florescent lights. The hallway was carpeted with a tan carpet, which was stained with time. The walls were white with the occasional black scrap. This was all that was in the hallway.

At the end, were two doors one straight ahead and the other on the left. The doors were unmarked.  I listened for a moment for any sort of sound that might reveal what was on the other side. When there was only silence I opened the door on the left first. It was a janitor’s closet. Inside were all the things that you would expect to find in janitor closets across the country.

After taking a breath I opened the other door slowly. Looking through the crack I saw this door led to an area behind the front desk. Beyond the desk was the rest of the library. There were several
Biters
walking around in an almost drugged way. The important thing was that none of them seemed to be in active pursuit of anyone. I closed the door back.

“There are maybe seven of them in the library. I don’t know if we can get around them. We might be able to take them out one by one without alerting any of them.” I said.

“I don’t like the idea of sneaking around that many.” Linda said.

“Yeah, what if we get cornered once we get in there?”

“Okay, then it’s decided. We’ll take them out.” 

              I took off my backpack, opened it for easy access to the bolts, and opened the door halfway. The front desk overlooked most of the library. To the right, in the far corner was the children’s section. The walls were painted a sky blue with clouds painted in funny shapes. There were rows of four feet high bookshelves in that area. The bookshelves made it easy to spot the four
Biters
in the area. However, we were not as fortunate for the rest of the library.

The rest of the selves went straight to the ceiling and only some of the rows of shelves faced us. There was no telling how many might be in the aisles. Then two
Biters
walked in front of the counter.

There was the sound of someone gasping from behind. I raised my crossbow and fired at one of the two
Biters
walking in front of us. The bolt went right into its ear where it was stuck. Then as it fell I heard the sound of Linda shooting her crossbow. I felt my heart beating hard as I waited to see if the others noticed their fallen comrades. None of them did.

There was another one walking down one of the long aisles straight ahead.

“I’ll get the biter down the tall rows.” I said. I took a deep breath and put my sight a foot above where it was.

This one was once a man. He was wearing a white dress shirt and black dress pants, both of which were ripped and covered in blood. By the way, he walked from side to side, I could tell he had an injury to his left leg.

When he faced me, I depressed the trigger. The bolt flew through the air and struck him in the neck. It went clean through and shattered a window directly behind him. I cringed, reloaded, and fired again, this time killing it. It fell to the ground as another came around the corner.

A woman in a teal sundress. The dress had been almost completely torn off and exposed a good majority of her tan flesh. When I pictured the undead, she was nowhere near the image I thought of. I guess even the undead have to start somewhere.

She came to investigate the window and turned around as I had finished loading the crossbow. Her body and what was left of her dress were covered in bloody handprints. Her right bicep hung down in a gory chunk. I fired the crossbow and the bolt hit her in the head with such force it threw her back, nailing her to the wall behind her.   

              I waited for more to come towards the two, but they never did. I opened the door a little more and saw that the four in the children’s section were still hanging around.

“Okay Linda we need to take these out quickly. I’ll get the two on the left you get the two on the right. Fire, reload, fire, and make those shots count.” Linda nodded. “Robert, be ready with that knife just in case we can’t take them out quickly enough.”

“Okay, I’m ready.” Linda said. I put my sights on the closest one. I couldn’t see much of it besides the head and shoulders. By its size it had to have been a child and was harder to sight because the head was smaller.

Linda counted down this time and when she said
three
, I fired. The bolt hit the child in the head, pinning him against one of the bookshelves. I didn’t look to see if Linda hit hers. I reloaded, aimed at the other which was now moving in our direction, and fired. The bolt went through its head and pulled the
Biter
back from the impact. I reloaded and saw that Linda had taken out both of hers.

“Nice shooting Bruce.” Robert said from behind.

“Thanks, I had one of these when I was a kid. I used to be able to take the eraser off a pencil from twenty-five yards away. But back to business, let’s go search this building.”

Chapter 39

09/18/2004 1217 Hours

Officer Ted Bryant

              After the gas station shootout, we decided Leefield would be a better choice than Clearwater. With extra distance the electrical truck wouldn’t be a good mode of transportation. It used too much gas and wasn’t maneuverable enough. We managed to squeeze everyone inside the truck and drove back to where the three police cars were. When we got there, they were gone.

“
Biters
don’t drive. Heck, they could barely open a door knob.” Mendez said.

“I guess this means others must have gotten out too.” I said.

“We didn’t see them pass, so they must be heading towards Leefield.” Fender said.

“I hope they’re friendly.” Gus said.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.” Mendez said. “We still need to find a different mode of transportation, any ideas?”

“There’s a place near the hotel that sells handicap vehicles.” I said. “Besides the built in ramps they’re just like normal vehicles.”

“That’s a great idea. Maybe we can find a van that’s open on the inside, give us more room for supplies.”

The dealership was called
Mobility Freedom
. A singlewide trailer with five vehicles parked in front, one car, two vans, and two buses. We pulled off to the side of the rode and got out with our weapons hot.

Mendez and I went to clear the building while Fender and Gus watched the highway. There didn’t seem to have been any activity here, but we weren’t taking any chances. Mendez tried the door and when it didn’t open, I kicked it in. We waited a moment for the sounds of anything moving, when there was only silence, we entered.

Directly across from the entrance was a desk with a large black cloth chair and two mental folding chairs in front. To the right, a large brown couch that was oversized for the room with a coffee table in front of it, and several different magazines laid neatly on top. There were also two doors on the back wall. To the left of the entrance was a small kitchen that had a drain rack on the counter that was filled with drying dishes. Past the kitchen was a short hallway that led to another door. It appeared that this wasn’t just a business, but a home as well.

“Where do you think the owner is?” I said.

“I don’t know. They shouldn’t be far.”

I went behind the desk, opened the drawers, and searched for the keys to the vehicles. Mendez went through the kitchen to search the rest of the building. I pulled the drawer and the drawer came out dumping several things the ground. I put my gun on top of the desk and crouched down to pick up the drawer when I felt something grab me. It pulled me backwards and off balanced. There was a sharp stick of something into my side.

“Don’t even think about screaming.” A male voice whispered into my ear.

“I’m a-”the stick in my side turned into a burn. I was in uniform and whoever grabbed me knew this and didn’t care.

“Who are you, whisper it.”

“My name is Ted Bryant. I work for the Clearwater police department. I’m not here to hurt you.” My gun was still on the desk.