The Survivor Chronicles (Book 2): The Divide (19 page)

Xander shifted his stance as he adjusted his hold on the pipe. Peter stepped next to him and nudged Josh back. Molly rocked back and forth on her heels as her gaze slid over them. She opened her mouth to reveal a flickering black tongue. Even from this distance, the foul scent coming from Molly's mouth wafted over her. She imagined it was what road kill smelled like after a week in the Arizona sun.

Xander and Bobby took a step back and Peter lifted his arm to block his nose. Josh's eyes rolled in his head as he took a staggering step into her. Mary Ellen grabbed his arm to steady him, but she kept hold of his arm because she needed some kind of contact with another,
normal
human being.

Molly's tongue flickered over her teeth before she released a loud breath and rushed at them. Xander and Bobby jumped out of the way. Josh grabbed Mary Ellen and jerked her down. They scurried under the lift holding the car as Molly careened past them and into the shadows. Mary Ellen poked her head out from under the lift but she couldn't see the girl.

The hair on her arms stood on end. It had been bad enough to see the teen munching on a mouse, but not knowing where she was right now was a whole different bag of worms. She contemplated staying under the lift but all she could picture was Molly crawling through the darkness at her. That thought spurred her into action as she pushed Josh away from where Molly had disappeared.

"Go," she urged when Josh hesitated.

The kid scurried out from under the lift and leapt to his feet. Mary Ellen was almost out behind him when a small hand seized hold of her ankle. A startled squeak escaped her as she was jerked back with enough force to pull her knees out from under her. Her chin smacked off the floor, stars burst before her eyes, and blood filled her mouth from the tongue she bit down on.

Fingernails snapped as she attempted to stop her backwards slide under the lift. She tried to scream but the blood pooling in her mouth made the sound come out garbled. She kicked out behind her in an attempt to knock the surprisingly solid grip free as she was pulled back another three feet.

Light flared over her as Xander appeared beside Molly. His metal pipe clattered to the ground as he grabbed the girl around the waist and tried to jerk her free. Spitting and hissing sounds escaped the child but she didn't release Mary Ellen's leg as she kicked wildly at the girl. Bobby seized hold of Molly's arms and tried to pry her free.

The girl only clamped down more forcefully and Mary Ellen thought Molly might actually be able to break her bone if she kept squeezing. Mary Ellen managed to turn over on her back and kick out at the girl/creature within Xander's arms. "Let go!" Bobby commanded as he tugged harder.

Molly's teeth clacked together fiercely as the girl bit at him. Bobby's face scrunched up, he leaned back as he tried to avoid the insistent clicking of her teeth. Peter appeared on the other side of her. "I'm sorry," he apologized before he swung his wrench down on Molly's arms.

The girl squealed but she finally released her death grip on Mary Ellen's ankle. Xander staggered and fell backward with her as he was thrown off balance by Molly's sudden release. They tumbled over and rolled head over heels into the workbench. Xander released Molly and staggered back to his feet as Molly scurried like a spider into the shadows.

Mary Ellen stumbled as she stood up. Josh steadied her, but her head was throbbing so forcefully that she could barely see straight. Xander snagged his pole back up and braced himself like a batter at the plate. Bobby and Peter stood on either side of him as they studied the shadows.

Mary Ellen blinked as she turned to survey the garage. She could hear something moving through the gloom but it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where Molly was. She'd lost her screwdriver under the lift but she wasn't about to go looking for it as she stepped further away from the contraption.

Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She wiped it quickly away; she was concerned that it would somehow attract the creature scurrying through the garage like a vulture to carrion. "Where is she?" Josh whispered.

"Shh," Peter hissed.

Something clattered on their left and caused all of them to jump as they spun toward the source of the noise. Mary Ellen caught a brief flash of something within the shadows before Molly flew out of the darkness like a demon from Hell. The beam splashed over her blistered face, illuminating it starkly against the darkness. A hideous, mucus filled shriek rattled out of her throat as she barreled down on Xander with her arms raised and her blackened mouth gaping open.

Xander hesitated briefly before swinging forward with the full force of his might. The reverberating thump echoed throughout the garage as he connected with her head. Blood exploded over all of them as the left side of her skull caved beneath the impact. Molly staggered to the side and fell against the lift. The whole thing shifted and groaned beneath the impact of her weight before tilting to the right. There was no stopping the domino effect as the lift collapsed and the car crashed onto the floor with enough force to shake the garage doors.

Molly tried to climb to her feet but she fell back to the ground. Xander's shoulders slumped, the pole dropped down by his side as he stared at the body lying within a growing pool of blood.

"It's on us," Josh whispered. "Her blood, it's on
us
."

Mary Ellen wiped at the splatters on her face but it didn't matter, if whatever was wrong with Molly was in her blood than it was already crawling and creeping over them. Perhaps it was
already
inside of them. She shuddered at the thought but they had all been in this garage, they had all been within that school, and now they had all been covered with Molly's tainted blood. There was nothing they could do about it and she wasn't about to try now.

She glanced back at Molly's prone body; she thought she should feel worse about the girl, she
had
spent most of yesterday trying to comfort her. All she felt was relief.

"We have to go," Xander said.

"Her blood," Josh said again.

"Yes we get it, her blood is on us. She also breathed the same air as us all night and was locked in that room with the two of you for hours. You're still alright, but unless we get out of here
right
now there are going to be even more like her coming at us. We weren't exactly quiet."

Josh glanced toward the windows, the color drained from his face as his mouth dropped. Mary Ellen realized that it had become darker within the garage. She had to force herself to turn toward the windows on the other side. Her stomach plummeted at the sight of the blistered faces pressed against the filthy glass.

CHAPTER 15

Riley

Franklin, Mass.

"There are more of them out there," Al murmured.

Riley didn't dare take her eyes off the road to look at the figures she could see from the corner of her eye. She felt her teeth might just shatter as her jaw began to ache but she couldn't bring herself to unclench them. There was a part of her that just yearned to scream until she lost her voice and couldn't scream anymore. The other part of her was tempted to floor the beat up car as fast as it could go regardless of the holes and obstacles that littered the asphalt.

She somehow managed to keep herself restrained as she hunched over the wheel and unerringly swerved around the obstructions in their way. Al handed her a pair of sunglasses that had seen better days, but then again so had she. She slipped them on but the scratches on them made it even more difficult to see than the strange glare that illuminated the cloudy sky. She took them off and went back to squinting as she maneuvered around a broken cedar lying half in the road.

She glanced in the rearview at the truck close on her bumper and Lee. He was leaning forward with his head in his hands and his surfer hair falling forward to shield his features. "Are you ok Lee?"

"Just have a headache," he muttered.

"I've got some aspirin," Al offered and opened the glove box. The pills rattled in the bottle as he pulled them out and handed them back.

Riley's hands twisted on the steering wheel. Lee hadn't seemed right since he'd woken but she'd chalked it up to the events of the past day. Now she couldn't shake the thought that it was something more, even though she had a dull throb pulsating in her temples too. She was tempted to rub them but she didn't think she could remove her hands from the wheel right now.

Lee shook out a couple of aspirin and handed them back. He was starting to look like a statue in a wax museum that had no air conditioning. She turned down another side road and spotted a medical complex in the distance. "Al…"

"I see."

"Should we?" she glanced back at Lee who had returned to being bent over with his head in his hands.

Al leaned forward and rested his hand on the dash. "It looks like it's in fairly good condition but I don't see any people. Drive around it."

Riley had to drive over a front lawn in order to get toward the right side of the building. It was a doctor's office complex with a host of specialties marking the glass doors and windows. A few of the windows had shattered, but they were mostly on the second floor. The only broken door was on the backside of the building and hung haphazardly in the frame. Though she hadn't noticed much of a breeze, a broken metal pole clinked against the concrete walkway.

"They were either looted or…" Al's voice trailed off as one of those crazy looking ones with the oozing face and blistering sores appeared at a lower window. "Or something was looking for them."

Riley glanced nervously in the backseat again as Lee lifted his head and blinked at the windshield. His eyes were beginning to look like he'd been on a weeklong bender; actually
all
of him was beginning to look like he'd been on one. He tugged at his hair before he dropped his head into his hands again.

She'd known Lee since she was a child, they'd run in the same circles most of their lives. They'd never been what she would consider friends, but they'd been friendly and had exchanged plenty of conversations over the years. She'd lost her family today, she'd lost Carol, she had no idea where Bobby and Xander were, or if they were even still alive. She couldn't lose Lee too, she simply couldn't.

"We have to find a doctor," she blurted around the lump forming in her throat. Al rested a hand on her arm as he glanced nervously in the backseat. Lee's hand was wrapped around the back of his neck as he rubbed at it.

"We will," he assured her.

She was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe, and it had nothing to do with the stale and humid air. Al's touch was surprisingly comforting considering he had been a stranger less than twenty four hours ago. She was able to battle back the burning in her chest and eyes as they arrived at the backside of the building.

She was so focused on trying to get around a lamppost that she didn't see what it was that caught Al's attention until he leaned over her and thrust a finger at the window. "Look."

Riley didn't want to ease off the gas too much but she still chanced a glance out the window. A flash of white caught her attention and then disappeared. The towel reappeared as someone waved it out the window again. "They're alive," she breathed. "They might be doctors."

"Maybe."

She glanced in the mirror again as Lee rested his head against the window and pulled a t-shirt from the floor over his head. "We're getting him in there."

"Riley, we don't know who those people are and there are a bunch of loonies all around us."

"He's not right."

"I feel fine," Lee insisted. "I'm just tired."

"We all are," Riley assured him, but they weren't curling up under a t-shirt in hundred plus degree weather. She may also look like something the cat had drug in, but at least she didn't appear half chewed up and spit out on top of it. "But you're not looking so good Lee."

"You don't look so hot right now either, Ri."

"Yes, but a little bit of make-up and I'll perk right up again." She was trying to sound cheerful, but it sounded false even to her ears.

Lee didn't bother to answer her and he didn't look out from under the t-shirt either. "I don't think it's a good idea to stop right now," Al said. "Not until we can ditch our entourage."

Riley glanced at the truck again, she wished there was some way to communicate with them, to hear what they had to say on this issue. But as she began to circle the building again she noticed that their following was growing. It almost felt like bugs were crawling up and down her skin as they turned the back corner of the building again and she spotted figures moving within the shadowed hall. The towel appeared out the window, fluttered for a bit before disappearing once more.

"It's an S.O.S.," Al muttered.

"What?" Riley asked.

"That's what they're signaling with the towel," he explained.

"We can't just leave them here."

"You do remember what those guys on the street were going to do to Carl, John and Rochelle," Al said.

"Yes, but…"

"Do you think we'll make it out of this car and into that building alive with those strange people all around us?"

Riley glanced out the window at the people hovering at the edges of the building. Since Carl had shot the one they hadn't dared to come much closer, but it was only a matter of time before they gathered the courage, or the insanity, to do so. It wouldn't take much for them to overwhelm both vehicles.

"Keep going Ri," Lee muttered from the back. "I really am just tired, maybe a little headachy but that's from lack of sleep."

He'd gotten far more sleep than any of them but she wasn't going to remind him of that. "The antibiotics are in the trunk, maybe we can get to them somehow," she suggested.

"I'm fine," Lee insisted.

"Better safe than sorry and a dose of antibiotics might do us all some good."

"Don't you know you're not supposed to take them if you're not sick?" Lee retorted.

"Lee, please."

He pulled the t-shirt back a little to peep out at her. "When we have an opportunity to safely stop I'll pop some pills,
mom
."