Deadland Rising (Deadland Saga) (S) (16 page)

Jase put the truck into park. When he went to open his door, I yanked his arm. “Wait.”

He turned to me, confused.

I pointed to the row of shrubs outlining the parking lot. “Look.”

Hundreds of glistening eyes peered out at us.

Chapter XI

The steel door to the back entrance opened a crack, and Griz’s face appeared. “Pull up as close as you can to this door,” he said. “That way, you can get inside without getting pounced.”

Jase reversed and pulled the truck up to the entrance, leaving only a few feet in between the driver’s side of the truck and the steel door. He cut the engine and grabbed the keys. I grabbed my bag.

Griz threw open the door, and it dinged into the truck. “Careful,” Jase said as he opened his door and jumped inside. Tom slid across the seat, followed last by me. I heard movement behind me, and I shoved forward, falling into Tom and onto the floor of the store as the door slammed shut.

I looked up to see a hand reaching out. I grabbed it, and Griz tugged me to my feet and into a hard embrace. “It’s good to see some friendly faces around here,” he said.

“Now, we can get out of here and back home,” Marco said.

“Hey, Marco.” I gave him a hug.

Jase waved. “Polo!” Marco waved back.

“What happened here?” I asked. “Where are your trucks?”

“That’s the question of the day,” Griz replied. “We just about had them loaded, and then some asshats blocked the door and took off with our trucks, like we were a drive-through window.”

“We tried to reach you by radio,” Jase said. “You guys had us worried.”

“Batteries are dead,” Griz said. “Hard to believe, but there’s nothing to recharge them in here. You’d think a giant store like this would have generators, but not a single one left on the shelves, and the store’s backup generators were bone-dry.”

Solar stake lights were lying down all the aisles, bringing light to the shadows. Three men came around a corner, and I ran toward them. Clutch barely had time to stop before I jumped into his arms. He lifted me, and I hugged him. When I pulled away, I gave him a halfhearted glare. “You see? I told you I’d come after you.”

He smiled. “I figured as much.” Then, his smile faded. “But, you shouldn’t have come. It’s dangerous out there.”

I shot him a hard look, and he lowered me to my feet. “Which is exactly why we came for you. You don’t think we’d leave you guys out here to die, do you?”

Jase came up and slapped Clutch’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you, man. What do you think of my new truck?”

Clutch’s brow rose. “A 1957 Chevy? She’s a beaut. How’d you come across her?”

“Long story,” I said. “Jase can fill you in on the drive back. Speaking of which, what needs done so we can hit the road?”

“We’ve been waiting out the hungry mouths outside,” Clutch replied. “Once we knew the bandits weren’t coming back, we switched gears to finding new vehicles. Unfortunately, that turned out to be much easier said than done.”

“That’s an understatement,” Griz said. “We didn’t get more than five feet out the back door before a pack of mangy dogs came at us. Within an hour, there were probably two hundred of the buggers out there. Although, a city the size of this, there’s bound to be thousands of dogs that managed to get free and survive. Anyway, we moved to the front of the store and cut through the back of the big rig. The bandits left it running when they used it to block the doors. But, by the time we cut through the box to get to the cab, its fuel tanks were dry. We’d already burned our ammo to clear the store, so we’ve been waiting for the dogs to find something more interesting. But, they’re persistent and ornery little bastards.”

“Why’d you have to kill the zeds inside?” Tom asked. “They should’ve been frozen through and through.”

Clutch chuckled drily. “The ones outside may be frozen, but the ones inside still had plenty of life left in them. The building’s insulation must buffer enough of the cold, and they must still generate enough body heat that the temps need to drop more to stiffen them up.”

I grimaced, though I’d feared as much. “So, we still have all the zeds trapped inside buildings to deal with.”

“At some point, yeah,” Clutch said. “But, if we wait until the temps drop more, we can take them one building at a time, like we did this one.”

“Except we won’t have any ammo to do this to all the buildings,” I countered. “We’ll have to get creative.”

“And, we will. Later. Right now, we need to send out recon to secure us some transportation home,” Clutch said.

“I’m guessing you already have a plan,” I said.

Clutch nodded. “An easy grab-and-go. Bring our transportation to us and load up. We’ve collected over twenty sets of keys from the shoppers still in the store. At least a couple vehicles in the parking lot should still have juice. But, the damn mutts are between us and our wheels.”

“We figured they’d get hungry and leave,” Griz said. “The numbers are already down quite a bit. Within a week or so, they would’ve been gone.” He grinned. “But now we don’t have to wait for the flea-bitten mongrels to leave or eat each other.”

“We’ll head out in ten,” Clutch said. “Griz, Marco, and I will take the truck—”

“I’ll drive,” Jase inserted.

Clutch watched the teenager for a moment, before giving a tight nod. “Okay. Jase will drive. The rest of us will ride in the back.”

“Isn’t that too dangerous?” I asked. “Can’t the dogs jump up and reach you back there?”

“They could,” Clutch said. “Except all of them are half-starved and many of them are sick. We should be able to block the few that can get up that high.” He pointed at me. “Do you have ammo?”

“Not much. A little.”

“How much is ‘a little?’”

“Thirty-five rounds.”

He frowned. “That’s enough. I want you covering us from the roof in case this heads south.” He looked around. “Everyone else, be ready to defend a perimeter at the back door and load up. We’re not going to stick around this shithole once we have transportation.”

A guy named Jack led me to the roof, while everyone else stayed below and prepared for what Jase called Operation: Carjack.

On the flat, empty rooftop, frostbite posed the only danger. I walked the edge of the roof until I found the right spot overlooking the parking lot. I settled onto my stomach and set up my rifle. Below, I didn’t see any dogs, though some of the ones waiting out back were bound to follow the truck.

The sound of the Chevy’s engine cut through the frozen air, and I focused on waiting for the truck to enter my line of sight. Once it did, I watched Jase drive the truck, with three men standing on back. Clutch stood with his sword drawn. Griz and Marco each had machetes, and Griz had added an axe to his collection.

Behind the truck followed a dozen mangy dogs. Most were large, but there were a couple mid-sized ones, though I couldn’t make out any particular breeds. The procession reminded me of the Pied Piper plan we’d used several times against the zeds. Only this time, we
didn’t
want to be followed.

The truck drove slowly, and I watched Marco dump a bag full of keys onto the roof of the truck. He picked them up, one by one, holding them out toward the parked cars. When the lights flashed on a red minivan, Marco thumped the roof, and the truck pulled to a stop, making a tight ‘T’ with the van.

The dogs circled the truck. I could hear their snarls from my position. None had jumped yet, but I had no idea how they were going to get from the truck to the van. Then, Marco jumped off the truck and onto the hood of the van. A dog lunged at him, and I fired. The dog fell back with a yelp. This incensed the other dogs, and their growls grew in volume.

“Nice shot,” Jack said, and I ignored him.

Marco wiped the windshield and looked inside. He gave the truck a thumbs up. Jase pulled away slowly, and Clutch and Griz yelled out at the dogs. Nearly all snapped around and followed them, leaving only two who seemed to be concentrating on Marco. He looked up at me, and I fired twice. Each shot took out a dog. Marco jumped down and was inside the van in no time.

The van’s engine turned over and engaged, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I wanted this to be over. I hated killing animals, especially what had once been pets. There was something horribly wrong about it. The poor things were only trying to survive. We had done this to them. We had raised them as pets and then abandoned them. It only made sense for them to return to their wolf roots to survive. It made me think of Diesel. He’d be one of these dogs if he didn’t have Frost or Benji to look after him. He could’ve been one of the dogs I’d just shot.

I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them. The truck stopped at a green SUV. This time, Griz jumped onto the hood. Fewer dogs followed Clutch’s voice this time. They were learning. After I killed five dogs, at least one of which I could’ve sworn was a gray wolf, Griz climbed inside the SUV, and started it up.

All three vehicles—the Chevy, the SUV, and the minivan—headed back around the building.

The remaining dogs attacked their fallen comrades. It was a kill-or-be-killed world now. My shooting wasn’t perfect today; they weren’t all kill shots, and the injured dogs screamed in agony as the others tore into them. I couldn’t get any clear shots on the poor animals. The bile rose in my throat, and I jumped to my feet. Without looking back, I crossed the roof in time to see the three vehicles form a tight semicircle around the back door.

For the second time, I got down and aimed my rifle. Now, nearly all the dogs cautiously stepped toward the vehicles. Their bristled fur and growls made it clear they weren’t coming out to play.

The doors popped open, and the men ran inside. Thankfully, none of the dogs managed to get around the cars before the back door closed, so I didn’t have to shoot anything else. I yanked open the access door and jogged down the stairs to find men stuffing items into shopping carts. It seemed about half of the carts were filled with beer.

Clutch shook his head. “This mission is a scrub. We don’t have space for the supplies. We’ll come back next week with a plan and better equipment.”

“We should get the semi-truck going then,” Tom said. “Take what we can now.”

Clutch pursed his lips. “Good luck finding diesel. Besides, we don’t know when those guys who left the truck will be back. We have no ammo and no plan to hold them off. We need to get back to New Eden and regroup. Our lives are more important than this stuff.” He motioned around him. “We have three vehicles and fourteen people. Do the math. Take what you can, but what doesn’t fit will get left behind.”

There was some grumbling, but no one outright argued against Clutch’s plan.

He continued. “When it comes time to move, you’d better move. I don’t like the look of those dogs. Be careful out there. If you get rabies, game over.”

“The dogs will eat anything,” Jack said from behind me. “To buy us time to load, we should shoot a few. Give the rest something to keep busy with.”

Shock sent me jerking around. “You can’t be serious.”

“It’s a good idea,” Clutch said. “We can use the distraction.”

I hemmed for a moment. Finally, I spoke. “Why don’t we throw them some food from here? There has to be something in here that we can feed them. They’re starving.”

“They’re also sick. Their aggression could trump their hunger,” Clutch said.

I narrowed my eyes.

“But, we can give it a shot,” he added, and turned to the squadron. “Hey, Tom. Where was the dog food you came across earlier?”

“It’s over by the shop area,” one of the guys said.

Clutch held out a hand. “Then go get it.”

He jumped, grabbed an empty cart, and headed in the direction he’d pointed. Two other men rushed to follow.

I took a seat and shook my head. “Why didn’t you guys try feeding the dogs before? Maybe once they had food, they would’ve moved on.”

Griz chuckled. “A city girl like you never had strays before, huh.”

I frowned. “No. Why?”

“The food would attract anything hungry in the area,” Griz said. “And once they got hungry again, they’d be back for more.”

“This diversion will work one time,” Clutch said. “It’ll keep the ones here busy for a few minutes, but at the same time, it’s going to draw in a shitload more.”

“Oh.” I stared off for a moment. “We can try something else instead.”

Clutch shook his head. “No. It’s a good plan.”

Ten minutes later, we had hauled ten fifty-pound bags of dog food up to the roof. I didn’t carry a bag, but followed them up the stairs. Outside, we all stood along the roof edge, looking down.

“Here goes nothing,” Griz said, and dropped his bag. It fell the thirty-foot drop and exploded when it hit the ground.

A dog crept forward, and then three more followed. They sniffed the food before scooping up mouthfuls of the kibble.

I couldn’t help but smile. “It’s working.”

“Bombs away,” Jase said, and dropped his bag. The remaining bags dropped, and soon, all the dogs in the area came to enjoy the feast.

“That should buy us a couple minutes,” Clutch said. “Let’s get out of here.”

We all jogged toward the stairs. “Thanks,” I said when Clutch had me go before him. “It means a lot.”

He didn’t say anything, but I could see in his gaze that he understood. There was enough death out there already. Anything we could do to leave one fewer scar on our souls was worth it.

“Move it, move it,” Clutch ordered, and we all rushed toward the back entrance. “Head to your DV!”

Several men had full carts, and I had no idea where they were going to find room for everything. Three vehicles for fourteen people? They must’ve figured we had clown cars sitting out there with bottomless trunks. Not wanting to get blocked behind their carts, I squeezed between them, and Clutch did the same. Jase managed to climb over the carts, and Griz and Marco shoved their way through.

All I took from the store was a bag full of mini first-aid kits, two paperback novels, and the insert I broke free from a religious photo frame. It had the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. When I was a little girl, my mother used to sing that prayer when she washed dishes. Clutch carried a single bottle of whiskey. I didn’t see what Griz had stuffed into his backpack.