Into the Badlands (25 page)

Ed thought about it, struggling to come up with a plan. Had he really thought they could just walk right in? It wasn't going to be easy, that was for sure now. He considered turning around even; thinking maybe they could retreat and come up with a better solution.

Then Zach tugged on his father's sleeve.

Ed looked at his son and saw the fear clearly in his eyes. Zach said nothing, but simply pointed toward the stretch of highway behind them. As Ed turned to look he saw them; all of them. The others did as well.

There would be no turning back now.

CHAPTER 19

The first seven carriers encroached from behind. Ed thought it odd to see them approaching together in an obvious group; he hadn't often seen that kind of coordination between them. Three of the carriers were paralyzed, so severely they were barely able to walk. Four of them, however, were healthy enough to be formidable.

The four able-bodied carriers charged. A shiver passed through Ed's body; the sight of those filthy, ravenous animals was an absolutely terrifying sight to behold. Before he could move he saw Dave strike the first carrier in the head with his bloody baseball bat. The thing fell hard, shaking violently on the ground as dark, syrupy blood oozed from its cracked skull. It screamed, blood dripping from its blackened tongue, before it was swiftly silenced by Dave's bat.

Then a shot rang out; it was Mitchell. Ed watched one of the carriers fall lifeless to the ground, a small bullet hold pierced through its forehead. It had been within a foot of Dave's back, charging while he was busy dispatching the fallen carrier. Startled by the sound, Dave turned around, then swung at a third carrier as it approached. The bat struck the thing's bulky shoulder; they could all hear the collarbone break from the impact.

Another shot rang out and the fourth carrier fell. The men looked back to see Trish on one knee, Tammy's rifle still aimed at the fallen body.
So much for keeping the guns quiet
, Ed thought to himself. Any hope of sneaking through to the city was dashed.

“Boys, grab your guns!” Ed yelled to Zach and Jeremy. They drew their pistols as instructed. He turned around and then charged toward one of the paralyzed carriers, baseball bat in hand. A single blow to the head brought the thing down. It lay in a pool of its own blood; matted dreadlocks splayed out on the concrete around the thing's head. He then took the second one down, while Dave finished off the one with the broken collarbone. That finished off their biggest threats.

“Run!” Dave yelled to the others. They ran.

“More up ahead!” Trish yelled. Several carriers had come seemingly from nowhere, limping toward them. With so many nooks and crannies in the city the deadwalkers seemed to be coming from everywhere.

“Dad, behind us!” Jeremy yelled. Two more carriers filed in behind the group. Now they were nearly surrounded. Mitchell fired two rounds back to back, and both carriers behind them dropped. Then Dave yelled; Ed turned to see a carrier attacking him from behind, attempting to bite his throat. Ed ran to him then swung the bat, striking the carrier in the back. It screamed, released its grip, and fell to the ground. Ed brought the bat down on its head, silencing its screams.

Two more shots were then fired, both from Mitchell, and Ed watched in horror as two carriers fell to the ground just behind where Zach and Jeremy stood. They were thankfully unscathed.

More carriers began to appear from the buildings around them. The two closest threats in front of them were getting close; Trish fired a shot that missed, then landed a shot into one of them. Jeremy and Zach fired several shots each; some of them striking carriers, some of the missing them altogether.

They were being overrun. Ed knew they needed a plan, but they had no time to regroup and devise one. They had to make a quick decision. More carriers were blocking the road in front of them; passage would be impossible if they couldn't shoot them all. Their ammunition wasn't infinite; they had to conserve where they could.

They needed a place to hide where they could let things blow over; then they could figure out their next move. “Off the road!” Ed yelled. “Stay together and follow me!” He headed away from the road, ensuring his sons were in tow. Trish ran behind them, with Mitchell and Dave brining up the rear. Mitchell fired off several more shots, each one striking its target with incredible accuracy.

Ed searched desperately for a hiding place. Having successfully used a house as a hiding place while retrieving the antibiotics, Ed assumed an abandoned warehouse could serve the same purpose. They might even survive long enough to rethink their approach.

Finally he spied an old warehouse to his right; it was in bad shape, but it was close and it was enclosed. They would just have to take his chances that were were no carriers inside. They didn't have much choice; they weren't any safer where they were.

They ran to the entrance, then Ed stopped. “Take out as many as you can, any of them that might see us go in,” he said. It had worked before and he hoped it would work again. “We can hole up here for now until we come up with a new plan.” On Ed's direction they shot all the carriers they could see, then ran into the building in a single line.

The interior of the building was covered in debris; rubble from the decaying structure was mixed with brown mud, orange rust, and crisp, dead leaves from outside. They ran further into the building, dodging the larger pieces of trash and rubble, trying to find some place inside to hide while things died down.

Ed spotted an open door frame that he hoped led to a room they could hide in. They ran through it, then toward the back of the building, hopping over wilted cardboard boxes, crumbling, fallen ceiling tiles and random trash littering the floor.

Suddenly Ed stopped, holding his arms out to stop the rest of the group behind him. A dozen carriers were gathered around a black and white dog carcass, eating the rotten remains. A few of them looked up from their rotten meal, examining the intruders with great interest. As Ed and the group backed away, one of the carriers finally recognized they weren't infected. It began screaming, joined shortly thereafter by the others. Then they all began screaming, their arms raised and their teeth gnashing together.

Mitchell fired three times into the crowd surrounding the dog, killing two of the deadwalkers as they attempted to rise to their feet and pursue their victims. The remaining carriers scrambled to their feet, joined quickly by more from the back of the building. Mitchell aimed, but held his fire; there were too many to get them all. They were better off evading them.

“Back!” Ed yelled. “We have to go back!” Dave shot two more carriers as they approached, their mouths stained brown from the rotten entrails of the dog.

“What's the plan?” Dave yelled.

“We have to go back, there are too many of them here,” Ed returned.

“But the carriers out front...” Trish began.

“Let's hope they didn't see us go in,” Mitchell replied. He turned and shot two more carriers. “Move!” he yelled.

They all turned, led by Dave now, running toward the entrance of the building. They ran through the litter and muck covering the warehouse floor, listening to the screams of carriers behind them as they crossed back through the doorframe and onto the other side. There they were met by more carriers from the street. They were blocked on both sides now. They stopped where they were, frantically searching for a way out. Carriers accumulated, approaching from both the front and the rear.

Dave then spied a stairwell to their left, twenty feet away. “Over there!” he cried. He ran toward the stairs and the group followed. They raced to the stairwell and opened the door. It resisted at first, but eventually gave way. They piled in, then climbed the stairs as quickly as possible until they reached the second floor.

The second floor was as decrepit as the first floor was, but this level of the warehouse was completely open, save for the support columns spaced evenly throughout. Windows, most broken, lined the sides of the room, allowing in ample light from outside. A breeze flowed through the broken panes, causing bits of plastic lying about to flag back and forth in the wind. Trash, animal droppings, dead leaves and a few rotten carrier bodies littered the floor.

They ran from the steps toward the windows. When they reached the middle of the room they stopped to regroup. They could hear the carriers screaming on the floor below; temporarily confounded by the door at the bottom of the steps.

“What now?” Trish asked.

Ed looked at the stairs for movement, then focused his attention back toward the group. “We have to get down from here somehow. We gotta get out of this building; we're sitting ducks up here.”

“Fire escape?” Mitchell suggested.

“Over there, Dad!” Zach cried, pointing to an open door across the room.

“Good eye!” Ed exclaimed, ushering Zach and Jeremy along with him as they ran. They all raced across the room toward the doorway leading to the fire escape. A broken exit sign affixed to the wall above it hung precariously by one screw barely embedded in the rotten concrete.

Ed peered out the door, elated at first, but ultimately found disappointment; the bottom section of the fire escape's ladder had been removed, leaving a dangerous twenty foot drop down to the concrete below. Jumping from that height might not kill them directly, but a broken ankle would amount to the same ending.

Dave stared at the ground below. “Shit. We're going to have to jump.”

“We won't make it, not without breaking an ankle or a leg,” Ed stated bleakly.

“Well, if we don't, those carriers are going to tear us to pieces. I'd rather take my chances with the fall,” Dave countered.

“Maybe we could find some rope,” Zach suggested.

Ed looked around for anything he could use as a rope to lower themselves down. He saw nothing “I don't see any, buddy.”

“Wait,” Trish said, walking to the door. She stepped out onto the platform of the fire escape, then looked out across the side of the building. “Over there,” she said as she pointed to dozens upon dozens of stacked pallets sitting beside a dumpster. Above it, just off center, was a second floor window. “We could use those instead.”

Ed stepped onto the platform and looked for himself. The pallets rose over halfway to the window; it would cut the distance they had to fall in half. That was a jump they could make. He turned to her and kissed her quickly on the lips. “Brilliant,” he said, smiling. She smiled back.

They ran across the open room until they reached the window above the pallets. The glass was partially broken, so Ed used his baseball bat to break out the remaining glass. Trish ran to the window first, swinging one leg out, then the other. They could hear carriers screaming from below, banging on the door blocking their way. Eventually they would figure it out; how long that would take was unknown.

She turned to the group. “I'll test it, then the kids are next. I'll help catch them below.” She then looked at Ed. “I love you,” she told him, and jumped. She landed on the pallets below, stumbled, then almost fell off onto the concrete below. She caught herself at the last minute, steadying herself atop the pallets. She took another leap off the pallets and onto the concrete below, rolling as she landed.

She stood up immediately, then gave them the thumbs up. “Send the boys down!” she yelled.

Ed looked at Zach. “It's time buddy. Be brave.” Zach nodded. He lifted his son and placed his legs through the window. “Aim for those pallets,” he told him. The boy hesitated for a moment, then jumped. He landed squarely on the pallets, bending his knees as he landed. He then jumped off the pallets and onto the concrete parking lot below. Trish helped him up, then motioned for Jeremy to jump.

Ed lifted Jeremy up and placed him on the window ledge. Jeremy grabbed his arm. “I'm scared, Daddy,” he said.

“I know, buddy, but you have to be brave like your brother,” Ed told him. “We don't have much time.” Below them the sound of more carriers screaming traveled frightfully through the air.

“Okay,” Jeremy said. He hesitated for a moment, then jumped. He overshot the pallets, landing with too much forward momentum. He fell, landing on his shoulder, then rolled off the pallets. Trish and Zach lunged forward, catching him clumsily before he struck the ground. Ed felt his muscles tense and his heart race as he watched. Trish gave him the thumbs up.

“Your turn,” Mitchell said. “Those boys need their daddy.”

Ed nodded, then placed both legs through the window, looking down at the pallets below. It looked much more frightening than he'd expected, but he pushed off from the ledge and fell through the air. He landed, his left food striking the pallet hard. He heard the sound of cracking wood as his foot went through the top board, then felt a sharp pain as the jagged wood gouged his leg. He fell atop the pallets, his leg burning with pain. He stood up quickly, then jumped to the ground. The pain was excruciating, but he made the landing.

Ed looked up from the ground as Mitchell made the leap, followed almost immediately by Dave. Mitchell leapt to the ground as Dave fell from the window. Ed could see the ragged arm of a carrier reach out in an effort to capture its prey, screaming in frustration as it swiped at nothing but air. Dave landed on the pallet just as Mitchell jumped, then hopped onto the ground.

“Back to the highway!” Dave yelled. They all ran. Ed's leg burned with pain as he took each step, the blood from the cut soaking his pants at an alarming rate.

Suddenly they were flanked by dozens of carriers, some paralyzed and limping, others running with frightening strength and aggression. Before Ed could pull his gun, Mitchell had fired off three shots. Ed watched as the three closest carriers fell to the ground, blood oozing from the bodies into pools around them.

Ed managed to pull his pistol from his belt, then fired off two shots of his own while limping on his injured leg. One shot missed entirely, the other caught its target in the shoulder. As the carrier went down screaming, Ed fired off another shot, bringing a carrier down hard to the ground.