Out of the Dark: An apocalyptic thriller (45 page)

     He screamed as he bled. He kept screaming as Wounds continued to do his dark and inevitably deadly work.

     Ken had had his tonsils removed. Blood gushed into his mouth as he felt the phantom pieces of flesh being dug out of his throat. As though he’d never gone under for any of the medical procedures he’d ever received, Ken was able to feel what it would be like to have an appendix removed while awake.

     The scent and taste of blood gagged him. His body shook from the strain of a million injuries inflicted at once, as one wound.

     He wanted to beg for the creature to just kill him. Couldn’t. His voice was drowned in blood. Though he knew what he heard was his own screaming, it seemed to him to be the calls of the dead summoning him to a shadowy beyond. He felt he would exist forever in the pain Wounds inflicted on him. At the same time, he knew for a fact he would die at any moment.

     “Trevor, no!”

     The unfamiliar voice intruded on the process of Ken’s death and he hated the man who’d spoken. The hate burned almost as much as the million cuts, the tiny hurts under and atop his skin.

     As the boy closed his hand, disregarding his dying toy, Ken fell forward. He’d jumped off a couch in the basement and smashed his head on the cement floor. His brain had been exposed and he’d been in a coma for twelve days before he’d pulled through. There would be no such recovery this time.

     The body of the doctor, bloody and hideously mangled, slumped forward onto the ground. Wherever the forest floor had been white with snow now looked black. The circle of darkness seeped outward, looking for more of the whiteness to corrupt as the life fluid of the dead man soaked down toward the tree roots.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

     Sam grabbed Trevor’s hand and yanked the boy toward him. Fear trembled through him, skipping merrily about in his brain. What if his touch didn’t work? What if the power of the Bringer had grown to such a level that Sam’s touch did nothing to push back the being inside of his son?

     He waited for the span of what seemed like a thousand frantic heartbeats before he looked into his son’s eyes. He sagged down toward the boy, relieved to see his gaze clear of the Bringer’s poisonous presence.

     Trevor looked down at the body on the ground, the spreading ring of blood. He gasped and stumbled back. Sam kept a hand on him and turned the boy away from the sight.

     “Daddy, what’s happening?” Trevor whispered. “Where are we?”

    
Tell him the truth
, Sam silently ordered himself. “Something’s wrong with us, Trev, and with you especially. Can you feel that thing inside of you? Does it say anything to you?”

     Trevor shook his head. His wide brown eyes continued to jump from his father to the dead man on the ground. “What do you mean?” the boy asked in a tear-filled voice. “What’s inside of me?”

     Sam pulled his son in for a tight hug. It was better, maybe, that Wounds couldn’t whisper malignant words into the boy’s mind, letting them grow like tumors to compromise the health of his internal fortitude. If Wounds could only deal his damage from the outside, it meant Sam had to keep the entity contained at all costs.

     “Where’s Mommy?” Trevor whispered as Sam let the boy climb on his back. His body ached with weariness and he didn’t know how far he’d be able to walk. Since Wounds had brought them close to where Laura and Austin had taken Amy and Mel, Sam had to push even harder to get his son as far away in the other direction as he could manage.

     “Mommy and Mel and Cousin Amy had to go somewhere safe, buddy. We can’t be around them because we’re dangerous to them right now.”

     Sam felt Trevor’s tears splash onto the back of his neck between his coat collar and thick hat. He hated that Trevor was crying. He especially hated that his family had to be separated. He knew, though, the further they got into this night that what had happened was coming to its climactic close. A hopeful, determined voice in Sam’s head told him to just keep Trevor away from people until the dawn. When the sun rose again, the thing inside of his son would be banished back to Hell or Hades or wherever it was it belonged. All Sam wanted was for it to be gone from his son.

     “I don’t want them to be somewhere else,” Trevor said before sobbing. “I want to see them.”

     “So do I, buddy,” Sam said as they finally broke free of the woods. He hoped to find a car to drive away in but he didn’t want to meet up with any other corrupted. Dawn was only a few hours away. He knew he could last until then.

--------------------------------

     “Take the other path.” Austin tapped on Laura’s shoulder and she jumped. “Sam said to tell you to take the other path,” he repeated.

     “Oh…okay.” Laura turned the wheel to the left instead of parking near the almost invisible wooden gate on the right. “We have property over there. Sam wanted to build a cabin someone no one would be able to find it unless they were told where it is. The path leads to a couple of deer blinds and it’s just thick wilderness beyond. Sam made sure to memorize the way to a clearing about half a mile from where the trail ends. You have to walk to get to the cabin. I thought for sure that was where we’d be going.”

     Austin pressed his face up against the window, trying to see anything down the dark, tree-lined trail. He couldn’t even see the path, let alone the cabin that was far out in the forest.

     “What’s down this side of the trail?” he asked.

     Laura hesitated. “I think I know where he wants us to go but it barely makes any sense. The army base up here closed down over a decade ago. We won’t be able to get in, as far as I know.”

     Amy spoke up from the back seat. “Well, I doubt Sam would send us somewhere we won’t be safe.”

     “Of course he wouldn’t,” Laura agreed. “I just don’t know how safe an old cement building that used to be used for weapon testing could be the option he’d prefer to the cabin. There’s guaranteed food there, weapons, warmth, a way to survive without electricity. As far as I know, there’s nothing at the base.”

     Austin shrugged and leaned forward. Though he followed the high beams of the Aveo as far as they could go, he didn’t see any army base. “Well, maybe Sam knew something beyond what you know.”

     Laura kept her hands tight on the wheels and kept eyes focused grimly ahead. “Let’s hope so,” she said.

     They drove for another fifteen minutes, seeing no evidence of life or corruption. There were no animals on the trail. There was, however, indication that another vehicle had recently driven that way. Laura’s heart picked up the pace as she realized the tire tracks were wide and deep. The Aveo fit between them so Laura thought it was possible the tracks came from a much larger vehicle. Maybe it was an army truck, one of the large ones with a tarp covered back end. Could Sam have known that the base would be a fallback point for soldiers if the situation since the Onset became desperate? If so, would they be abandoning the half-corrupted they knew wouldn’t hurt them for likewise tainted men and women who had no reason to protect them?

     Sweat slid down Laura’s forehead and disappeared into her hairline. Sam was the only person she knew she could trust. She told herself over and over again that he wouldn’t send them somewhere that would put them in more danger.

     “There it is,” Laura said as she nodded to a large gray building rising up from between the tree canopy of the forest.

     “Wow, that’s pretty massive,” Austin commented as he looked at the smooth, windowless walls of the base. A tall iron gate surrounded the building and a large expanse of land.

     Laura pointed off to the left, where the world was lost to darkness. Though she couldn’t see it, they’d been there enough times to know where the weapon testing area was.

     “There’s a field in the back that’s huge. They use it to test their toys. Well, used. We’ve gotten in trouble a few times for trying to hunt back there but as of about five years ago, there stopped being people here at all. It doesn’t look like that’s changed…”

     She looked around for lit lights, patrolling soldiers, or anything which would indicate the presence of living people. She saw nothing. The imposing gate was shut and securely locked. Even if it was the more attractive alternative to the cabin, how did Sam expect them to get through the gate without comprising the building’s integrity?

     Laura slowed to a stop and smacked her hands into the steering wheel. “Why would he tell us to come here if there wasn’t a way we could get in?”

     She looked at Amy in the rearview mirror. Her cousin held Melissa in her arms, stroking the girl’s soft hair. Though Amy was a predominantly positive girl, her eyes admitted the uncertainty and fear she felt.

     “We’ll go back to the cabin,” Laura said as she shifted the Aveo into reverse. “We can’t even get in the gate. There’s no reason to be here if we can’t go inside.”

     Austin put a hand on Laura’s arm and said, “Wait. Look.” He gestured with his other hand to the bouncing light of a flashlight beam.

     “There is someone here.” The hitch of cautious excitement in Amy’s tone made Laura shift uncomfortably. She didn’t want to learn to trust new people. What if they were corrupted? Sam would have sent them toward the very thing he’d been trying to protect them from.

     Laura slid her gun from its holster and passed it to Austin. The teen kept it low, next to the glove compartment, as Laura pulled another weapon from the center console. Indiscernibly, they’d both become ready to shoot first and ask questions later if necessary.

     “Everyone stays in the car until I say otherwise,” Laura ordered. She caught Amy’s gaze again in the mirror and said, “We all got that?”

     Amy nodded and pressed Melissa more tightly against her chest. Laura tried to convey through their locked eyes that responsibility for Melissa had been passed to Amy. Amy was uncorrupted. She alone was no danger to the child. The Bringer wanted them and Laura knew in her heart that to give them over would end the world as they knew it. She needed to keep them safe, even from herself and the knowledge she had of their location.

     The soldier had his weapon raised as he approached the Aveo. Laura put the vehicle into park as he tapped one knuckle on her window. She rolled it down.

     “Who are you and what’s your business here?” the soldier asked.

     “My name is Laura Walker. My husband is Sam Walker. This is Austin, my cousin, Amy, and my daughter, Melissa.”

     “Sam’s brood, eh?” the soldier asked. He lowered his weapon and Laura saw his teeth flash once in a quick grin. “That bastard said I’d see him if some shit ever went down. Where is he? He isn’t…” He looked back along the trail, searching for the headlights indicating another vehicle in the Aveo’s wake. “He’s not with you?”

     “Sam’s got corruption inside of him. So does our son. You…you’re clear of corruption. Just like us.”

     “Sam took a mighty risk, sending you alone,” the soldier guessed. “I remember him specifically saying when we talked about this that if I would compromise the security of his family in any way, I was to pass off the torch and stay away. Lucky us, I’m not one of the ones to worry about, right?”

     Laura smiled. “Seems that way.”

     The soldier holstered his weapon and held out a hand for Laura to shake. After sliding her gun under her seat, she gripped his offered hand. “Nick Kaede, at your service, ma’am. I’ve one other here with me. Don Montague, and he’s not touched by this, either. We’ll both be glad to take your uncorrupted on.”

     “But,” Austin spoke up.

     Laura waved him off and said, “Didn’t Sam tell you we’d have to leave them to keep them safe?”

     Austin nodded. He wanted to stay at the base. It seemed safe but if Trevor got away from Sam, that’s all it would take. The creature inside the boy could reach out and touch the blight beasts inside of Laura and Austin. Mel and Amy would be vulnerable once more.

     “We’ll get some stuff out for you and then we’ll go,” Laura told Nick.

     Nick helped them unload bags from the back of the Aveo. Melissa clung to her mother the entire time, making it more difficult for Laura to offer any assistance. She whispered into Melissa’s ear all the comforting things mothers keep for such an occasion: Melissa was strong, she was smart, she’d see them again sometime. Laura promised it wasn’t a forever goodbye, it was just for now.

     By the time everything useful had been removed to be taken into the base, Melissa had fallen asleep in her mother’s arms. Tears gushed from Laura’s eyes as she handed the girl off to Amy.

     “Please don’t let anything happen to her,” she whispered with a hand against her mouth before she and Austin returned to the car. The feeling of abandoning her youngest child felt like the most unnatural thing she could ever experience. Even as she fought against turning the wheel around to snatch her daughter back, she insisted to herself that this was the way to keep Melissa safe. It was the only way she knew of.

     Nick and Amy waved as Laura reversed the Aveo and began driving away from the army base. Within minutes, the building had faded into the darkness, as though it had never been.