Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation (28 page)

“You okay, big guy?
”
Mane asked.

“Yeah,
”
Steele said stoically. “I’m good.”

He hadn’t lied. Steele never felt better or more alive than when he used his sledgehammer to kill the infected. Every time he killed a creature with the heavy weapon, it felt like he was absolving himself from the day he’d failed his family.

Wallack, Steele, Megan, and Mane jumped away from the door behind them. The heavy wooden doors held strong, but the infected on the other side were using something as they tried to break it down.

“They’re gonna get through that door,
”
said Wallack with an edge of panic in his voice.

“Yeah,
”
agreed Mane, “they are. We need to get ready for that.”

“Maybe we should check out the corridor those four fuckers came from,
”
Megan suggested as she pointed to the broken vase on the ground.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,
”
said Mane as he scanned the large room. “There’s no other way out of here.”

The four ran toward the broken vase and stopped as they heard the wooden doors behind them crack. The doors buckled in as they saw arms reaching through the cracks in the door.

“They’re coming in!
”
shouted Steele.

The four of them were in the middle of the room as they watched the zombies tear down the door.

“Come on!
”
shouted Mane, but was cut short.

Four more zombies ran from the same corridor that’d birthed the previous zombies.

It sounded like an explosion as the heavy wooden doors crashed in and slammed to the ground.

They were trapped between two hordes of zombies.

Wallack fired his weapon blindly into the large group of zombies as they flooded the entrance of the room.

Megan fired her weapon in small, controlled bursts at the zombies that raced toward them from the corridor.

Steele had his carbine back in his hands, the sledgehammer pressed against his leg in the makeshift holster he’d rigged up.

“Control your fire!
”
Mane shouted. “Make every shot count!”

Wallack had already gone through two clips and didn’t have many dead zombies to show for it.

“I’m out!
”
Wallack yelled as he reached for his side arm.

“Stay calm, buddy!
”
Mane said to Wallack. “Don’t lose your head!”

Megan took down two of the zombies that attacked from the corridor by shooting them in the knees.

Steele guessed at least fifteen zombies had flooded into the large room. He knew that even combined, he and the rest of the group didn’t have enough ammo to kill them all.

Then Steele remembered the ceiling.

“The chandeliers!
”
Steele shouted.

Mane looked at Steele as though he were crazy, but instead of trying to explain himself, Steele started to shoot at the chandeliers.

The first chandelier crashed down and pinned four attacking zombies on the ground. The chandelier Mane helped to bring down crushed the heads of three more zombies and pinned two more.

“Let’s move toward the corridor!
”
Mane barked.

The four of them backed slowly toward the hallway as they fired at the zombies.

Megan had successfully taken down all four of the zombies.

“Nice work, Megan,
”
Mane said as he saw three of the zombies immobilized on the ground and another completely dead.

Steele shot down the last chandelier and took down five more zombies. The creatures were still alive, but they were trapped.

Mane shot the remaining zombies in the room and put them down.

As the third iron chandelier crashed to the ground, Steele saw that no more zombies had flooded into the room.

“Come on, everyone!
”
Wallack shouted as he began to run in the opposite direction toward the door. “The doorway is open now!”

“Stop!
”
Mane yelled.

‘I’ll get help from the others!
”
Wallack shouted over his shoulder. “I’ll bring help.”

Wallack tripped over the fallen door, stumbled into the hallway, and slammed against the wall.

Before he could look down the hallway, a zombie tackled Wallack, and sunk its teeth into his shoulder.

Mane, Steele, and Megan stopped moving as they heard Wallack’s screams. Mane stopped moving for a second and Steele knew he was contemplating helping Wallack.

“He’s gone,
”
said Steele as he placed his hand on Mane’s shoulder.

“Fuck!
”
Mane growled.

Two more zombies came out from the hallway and ran toward them. Steele and Megan gunned them down and made sure they wouldn’t be getting back up.

The three of them heard gunfire in the direction of the foyer and knew that Butsko and the others lost their positions as well.

“We need to get to the others,
”
Mane said to Megan and Steele.

Mane didn’t wait for a response and took the lead. The three of them formed a tight “V
”
as they made their way down the hallway toward the kitchen.

5

Abandoned Gas Station

Spicewood, Texas

Walt and Cheryl hid behind a cluster of bushes a hundred feet from the gas station. The sun had started to rise, and they were glad that they weren’t trekking through the woods any longer. They’d heard an increasing amount of noise in the woods the closer it got to dawn.

“I’m not seeing any movement in there,
”
Cheryl said as she looked at the gas station.

“Me neither,
”
said Walt. “This was a mistake. We should’ve all stayed together.”

“Don’t do that, Walt,
”
Cheryl said. “Don’t put this on yourself. Back at the Center, this was the best plan we had.”

Walt looked at Cheryl and noticed how blue her eyes were.

“Besides,
”
continued Cheryl, “they might all be asleep in there. I know I would be.”

“Good point,
”
Walt agreed.

Walt and Cheryl’s heads turned quickly as they heard trees rustling in the distance.

“We need to move,
”
said Walt.

Cheryl nodded as she took the lead and walked closer to the abandoned gas station. Walt followed and made sure nothing snuck up on them from behind.

Cheryl stopped, and Walt walked right into her.

Before he knew what he was doing, Walt sniffed her hair.

“Did you just smell my hair?
”
whispered Cheryl as she scrunched up her nose.

“Uh, yeah,
”
Walt answered as his cheeks reddened.

“And how did it smell?
”
she asked smiling.

“You could use a bath,
”
Walt joked, hoping to diffuse the awkward moment.

Cheryl jabbed her elbow into Walt’s ribs but turned quickly as they heard more rustling in the woods.

“Where the hell is that noise coming from?
”
Cheryl asked.

“I can’t fix a location,
”
Walt said. “It could be coming from anywhere.”

Walt and Cheryl were fifty feet from the gas station and still hadn’t seen any movement inside. Walt tried not to think the worst as they looked for any signs of life at the rendezvous point.

The sun was coming up and glared off the windows of the gas station. Walt squinted as he tried to keep his eyes focused on the building.

Walt was about to say something when he felt someone
…
something
…
standing behind him. Walt gripped Stevie tight and swung around.

Before Walt could hit the thing behind him, he felt its hands wrap around his wrists as it deflected the nail-studded baseball bat.

“Whoa whoa whoa!
”
the familiar voice cried out. “It’s me!”

Walt looked up and saw Darren as he stood there with his hands around Stevie.

“You’ve got good reflexes for an old man,
”
Darren said as he smiled.

Cheryl lowered her weapons and ran over to hug Darren.

“Thank God,
”
was all Cheryl managed to say. “We’re so happy to see you.”

“We heard some rustling out here, so I came to check it out,
”
explained Darren.

“So everyone is all right?
”
asked Cheryl as she looked at Walt.

“Yeah,
”
continued Darren, “David, Samantha, and Joe are hiding in the gas station.
”
Cheryl was about to comment on the short list of names when Darren continued. “We lost Jonas and Dennis.”

“We ran into Jonas in the pharmacy,
”
said Walt. “But we didn’t know about Dennis.”

Cheryl suddenly wrapped her arm around Walt’s neck and pulled him to the ground.

Darren turned around and in one fluid motion, he pulled his Beretta from the holster and shot the zombie that snuck up on them twice in the chest.

The creature stumbled back, and Darren was about to shoot it through the head

“No! Don’t!
”
Walt shouted as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe.

“What the hell is he doing?
”
Darren asked as Walt ran to the stunned zombie.

“Just watch,
”
Cheryl said.

Walt plunged the needle into the zombie’s chest and pressed down on the plunger.

Walt stumbled away from the creature as he looked at his watch.

The zombie began to shake, and Walt could see the monster struggle to remain on its legs.

“Damn. That was fast,
”
Walt said as he looked up from the watch.

The zombie fell to the ground and shook violently before Walt smashed Stevie onto its defenseless skull.

“What the fuck just happened?
”
Darren asked.

“I can’t believe it worked that fast,
”
Walt said as he laughed. “That was like thirty-seconds.”

Walt and Cheryl high-fived and turned to see Darren with a confused look in his face.

“I’ll explain everything, Darren,
”
Walt said, “but let’s get to the others first.”

6

Lago Vista Golf Club

Lago Vista, Texas

Butsko and Wilder were losing the fight. With Jones dead and Melvin AWOL, the zombies were slowly and steadily gaining ground against the two veteran warriors.

And now Wilder and Butsko were both out of ammo.

Both soldiers swung their empty carbines and used them to keep the zombies back. Wilder had his bayonet fixed on the carbine, but unless you could separate the head from the body, blades weren’t effective on the living dead.

Wilder found himself going almost immediately into warrior mode as he faced the creatures. The soldiers in his old units knew when Wilder went into warrior mode that you better stay out of his way.

Zombies fell all around Wilder as he thrust his bayonet into temples, kicked out knees, and snapped ankles. He was pissed off, and between the anger of losing Jones and his survival instinct on full alert, Wilder was a human weapon.

Wilder had complete situational awareness, and even though he couldn’t see him, Wilder knew Butsko was fighting for his life right next to him.

Butsko used anything he could find as a weapon. The butt of his carbine was effective, but one of the zombies grabbed it out of his hands from behind.

Butsko was thankful they were in the foyer of the clubhouse. There were plenty of nicknacks to use. Butsko smashed a few heads with heavy glass ashtrays, blinded a few creatures by smashing dirt-filled vases over their heads, and broke ribcages by ramming end tables into the bastards.

The experienced fighters were dropping zombies left and right. The problem was that they were getting back up.

“We can’t keep this up much longer!
”
Butsko yelled to Wilder as he shattered a zombie’s kneecap with his boot.

Wilder heard Butsko, but couldn’t answer. Wilder gutted a zombie with the bayonet and then thrust his knife through the bottom of the creature’s chin and into its brain.