The Returners (14 page)

“Think this may be the ones who were here?” Clayton asked.

Chris looked at the picture, the woman was very pretty. The girl didn't look like she was even a teenager yet. “Good chance of it, we'll show it to Andrew and see if it's the women he saw here just to be sure.”

Chris was about to walk out and show the picture to Andrew when the boy came into the cabin, his face pale white.

"I found Ray, at least I think it's Ray." His voice trembled with the news he delivered. 

This wasn't good, something had obviously gone wrong here and Chris knew it. First Dave's body, now possibly Ray's corpse. Chris shook his head and followed Andrew outside, Damien and Clayton right behind him. They moved to the mound Andrew had uncovered and looked down upon the body. Chris immediately knew it was Ray. He'd known the man long enough that he could tell by the clothes and build. Even without being able to make out any facial features he was sure.

"Yep, that’s Ray." Chris stood there looking down at the corpse. "Andrew cover him back up, and dig a grave for Dave as well."  

The boy went back to work while the three men went back inside the cabin, getting out of the rain. No one spoke for several minutes, looking out at the young man who was covering up what remained of their leader.

"I don't know who these people are, but we can't let them get away with this. Ray was our leader, the one who kept us alive. Dave was our friend, and who knows what's happened to Kyle, Jimmy and Joe. I doubt it's good." Chris's voice was filled with anger. 

"We don't know where they are Chris, how are we gonna find ‘em?" Clayton said trying to be logical about the situation. The last thing he or the others wanted was to go off on some wild goose chase that might get more of them killed.

"We've been all over these woods, we know there isn't many cabins out here. I'm surprised we hadn't come across this one before now. Where would you go if things got bad and you thought someone might be coming for ya?"

Both Clayton and Damien shrugged their shoulders, unsure of where Chris was going with this.

"You'd head back to the closest town or where you came from, at least that's the first thing I'd think to do." 

"The closest town's Greenstone. You think that's where they're headed?" Damien said as he sat down at the table.

"I almost guarantee it's where they're headed. We all cut wood up here for years, you've gotta get out to the main logging road to even get out of here. So they'd have to go there first. I'd say they've got quite a jump on us though." Chris looked out the door and saw Andrew starting to dig the grave for Dave's body.

"We've got vehicles back at camp. We can get back there tonight and head out first thing in the morning. If they're on foot we'll catch up to 'em or cut 'em off. Then they'll pay for doing this to our friends." 

Damien stood up and slammed his fist down on the table. "Payback." 

Clayton chimed in, "You're damn right."  

Chris walked to the door. "Let's get Dave buried and get back to camp, we've got some planning to do."

They finally made it out to the road, the last couple of miles had seemed to take as long as the entire first part of the trip. The ground had been muddy and slippery, every branch they hit covered them with water and soaked them to the bone. At least they'd made it this far, and with a decent amount of daylight left. They decided to start heading down the road in hopes of coming across something they could use for shelter.

They'd only gone about half a mile when they came across four vehicles partially blocking the road.

Jacob held up his hand for the group to stop. "Joe, Jessica come here. Briella and Emily you stay where you are." Both Jessica and Joe came to his side. "Let's go check that out, doesn't look like anyone's still around."

They approached the vehicles cautiously and could see they'd long since been abandoned. Upon first glance it looked like they were cleaned out of anything useful, but a more thorough check would need to be done to make sure. There was no point in not taking a few minutes to do that, you never knew what you might scrounge up. First glances weren't always the best indicator.

"People must have had the same idea as us about coming up here to get away from the populated areas," Jessica said as she tried turning the key of one of the cars, getting no response at all.

"Looks like it, where are the people though? If they got trapped out here in the winter they wouldn't have made it far," Joe said as he looked through a small duffel bag he'd found on the floor of one of the cars. He zipped it up and took it over to Jessica. "Found something you ladies might be able to use.”

Jessica took it and opened it up. Inside were a couple pairs of woman's pants and shirts, as well as other clothes. “Thanks."

“No problem,” Joe said as he leaned against the car Jessica had been trying to start.

Closing the bag up Jessica turned to Jacob. "What do you think we should do for now? We've got to find shelter, we could use these cars to sleep in and get out of the rain."  

Jacob pointed down the road a little further. "I think I might have found us our shelter."

Both Joe and Jessica looked at what he was pointing at. It was a large enclosed trailer for a chip truck, the type with the hard rubber top on it. 

"That looks perfect, keep us mostly out of the rain and we can even have a fire if we can get one going," Joe said as the group walked back to Emily and Briella.  

"Agreed," Both Jessica and Jacob said in unison, which made everyone chuckle. 

"So what did you guys find?" Briella asked as they made it back to her and Emily.

"Not much, the cars have been fairly well cleaned out, just a few odds and ends. Though Joe did find some clothes that might be useful for you, Jessica and Emily." Jacob pointed down the road. "See that trailer, we can use it for shelter tonight. It'll keep us out of the rain, we can have a fire for warmth and cooking. Plus it'll keep us off the ground. I have a feeling there might be some Returners around here. I don't want to be on the ground if there is."

"Why don't we just stay in the cars?" Emily asked as she looked to where Jacob was pointing.

Joe answered her question. "Well they can get through glass and we'd be in a lot of trouble if a horde of them came by. I wouldn't want to be trapped inside a car in that situation. I've actually seen it happen before and it didn't end well." 

"That makes sense," Emily said, satisfied with Joe's answer to her question.

"So if everyone understands the plan for tonight lets get going," Jacob said.

The group headed towards the trailer. About half way there they saw two shambling figures moving out from the tree line. Both looked like they'd been turned for awhile, their flesh was starting to turn a sickly gray color and pieces of skin had begun to rot off. It was a vile site to witness, making you feel an odd combination of repulsion and sorrow.

Jessica raised her gun and was about to shoot when Joe spoke, "Don't shoot. We don't want to alert these things we're in the area. There's only two of them, Jacob and I can take 'em out."

Jessica lowered her gun, these were the first Returners they'd seen since running into the one when leaving the cabin. Instincts had taken over, and the fact they had talked about not shooting unless necessary had slipped her mind. 

"You take the one on the left, I'll take the one on the right," Jacob said to Joe.

“Got it, just be careful and lets do this quick,” Joe said, getting his ax ready.

Both men moved swiftly but cautiously towards the two Returners, making sure they didn't do something stupid like trip. The Returners made low grunting noises, seemingly getting excited by the two men moving towards them. Knowing prey was close by both Returners stumbled forward with as much fervor as a corpse could muster.

As Joe approached he swung his ax doing his best to split the Returner's skull. His aim was off slightly and he missed, burying the blade into the creatures shoulder. The Returner seemed unfazed by the blow, one that would have dropped a normal man and kept moving towards him. Joe kicked, putting his boot into the creatures mid section and pulling on the handle of the ax at the same time. Hoping the force would loosen the blade. Instead his action rendered him off balance and he fell over, losing his grip on the ax which was still lodged in the Returner's shoulder. The Returner dropped on top of him, its gnashing teeth only inches from his face. A putrid smell emanated from it's open mouth. The foul odor causing him too gag. Reaching for his hunting knife he clamored to wrap his fingers around the hilt.

The Returner was single minded and unrelenting in it's pursuit as it continued to try and sink it's teeth into his flesh. Finally he managed to grab the knifes handle and pull it from its sheath. Using all his weight he pushed the Returner back enough to free his arm, and in one swift motion drove the knife into the creatures skull. He pushed the corpse off of him and looked to see how Jacob was faring.

Jacob apparently had an easier time and was walking towards him with his hand outstretched to help him up.

"You alright man?" Jacob asked as he grabbed Joe's hand and pulled him to his feet.

"Yeah I'm fine, kinda underestimated my task I guess. Good reminder too not be so cocky about it."

"It's easy to forget sometimes," Jacob said as he and Joe walked back to the girls.

Briella hugged Joe. "Glad your alright,  promise me you won’t do that again?"

"I Promise, It was just stupidity on my part."

Everyone kept a sharp eye out for more Returners as they continued towards the trailer, making it without any further incidents. Four large safety bolts held the gate to the trailer in place. The gate didn't completely cover the back end, only going about half way up. This worked out great because it would allow them to use it as a ramp once it was dropped down.

The group decided it was better to leave it down in-case they needed to make a quick exit. It would be difficult to latch from the inside anyway. The only downfall to doing it that way was someone would have to stay on guard at all times. The inside was musty smelling and still partially full of old wood chips, surprisingly most of them were dry. 

"This should work well, but we've got to be careful. We know there's a good chance of more Returners around here,"  Joe said, trying to figure out how they could have a fire in here without setting the whole thing ablaze. "Anyone got any ideas how we might be able to have a fire without burning the trailer down?" Everyone shrugged. "I’m going to go search around, see if I can find something. Briella you wanna come with me?"  

"Sure," Briella said as she set her things down.

The two of them went down the ramp while Emily, Jacob and Jessica stayed behind.

"If you ladies want to change into dry clothes I'll keep an eye out for Returners."

"That would be amazing, I'm soaked." Jessica said as she unzipped the duffel bag and took out the clothes. They looked kind of small for her, and way too big for Emily, but it was better than nothing. She handed Emily a pair of pants and a shirt before taking out a pair for herself. Jacob walked down the ramp so the girls could have some privacy.

              Joe and Briella walked back up the road to where the cars were. They were cautious, their ears and eyes open for any suspicious sounds or movements that might indicate a Returner was near. The forest was quiet and nothing happened to cause alarm. This was the first time they'd really had any alone time together since Joe had gotten her from the camp.

Briella slipped her hand into his as they walked. This caught him off guard and he stopped, turning toward her with a surprised look on his face. She leaned forward and kissed him, not thinking about what she was doing. Joe smiled, his face turning red as he stood there with a dumbfounded grin, unable to find words to respond.

"Better keep looking, it's going to be dark soon," Briella said, trying to bring Joe out his stupor even though she thought it was cute.

They were both smiling as they continued searching. Their hands still clasped together.

"Jacob, we're all changed, you can come back up now," Jessica said as she walked to the edge of the trailer. 

He turned and looked back up at her from the bottom of the ramp. The clothes were  slightly small on her, but she looked good in them. "You look great." 

"Thank you." Jessica blushed at the comment.

Emily appeared next to her mother. The clothes obviously way too big, making her look awkward and gangly in them. "I look like an idiot in these, but I'm dry. Beggars can't be choosers."

For some reason that comment made both Jessica and Jacob break out in laughter. Emily just looked at them with a weird look on her face, she didn't understand adults sometimes. Sitting down on the floor of the trailer she tired to adjust her pant legs. Jacob walked up the ramp and stood by Jessica while the three of them waited for Joe and Briella to come back.

It was getting dark, and it wasn't safe to be wandering around in an unfamiliar area. That worried Jacob, he didn't like them being out there by themselves, but he supposed they could take care of each other, at least he hoped so. He could tell by the expression on Jessica's face she was worried as well. The rain had almost let up completely and the forest now had that weirdly familiar comforting smell to it. One that gave you the sense life was renewing, that the circle of life was moving forward. Everything blending together, the trees that were budding and even the smell of the rotting leaves from the fall. It was strange to think smells of death and life mixing together could create such a peaceful feeling.

"Think maybe you should go look for them," Jessica said.

Jacob shook his head. "Not yet, they'll be back in a few minutes. If they aren't I'll go look for them."                

Another five minutes passed and there was still no sign, Jacob looked at Jessica who looked increasingly concerned.

"I'll go, watch the back of the trailer," Jacob said.  

Jessica nodded her head and watched him head off. He hadn't gone more than ten yards when Joe and Briella came into sight. Joe was carrying an old tire rim and Briella had a large flat piece of metal in her hand.  

"We found these, should be able to place the metal on top of the rim and use it for the fire. It'll mostly keep the heat off the floor, won’t be able to make it very big, but at least it'll give us some heat and something to cook on." He sat the rim down and Briella put the piece of metal on top of it to show them what Joe was talking about.

"That's awesome, good job. We can probably use those wood chips for the fire. They seem dry enough, but you and I should see if we can get some birch bark and any dry wood we can muster up as well. We've only got twenty minutes if we're lucky before it's going to be too dark to do that." 

"Good idea, let’s do that right now then," Joe said.

Jacob turned to the girls. "We'll be back soon, see if you can get some of those wood chips burning."

He and Joe stepped off the road and into the woods to see what they could find. Emily and Jessica came down the ramp to help Briella with the rim and sheet of metal. It wasn't long before they had it set up and began their attempt to get a fire going. The light was now fading fast as darkness quickly approached.