The Zombie Virus (Book 1) (22 page)

“What if they didn’t have time to leave any
message?” She was no longer trying to hold her torn blouse
together, and the material still covered her breasts, but just
barely. I thought about giving her my tee shirt, except it wasn’t
in much better shape.

“Then he wouldn’t have gone far, he would be
waiting for us somewhere.”

“We need some ammo,” Kera said. “Would that
place have any?” She was pointing up the hill past the highway
where a dark sign advertised a large chain sporting goods
store.

Good catch, girl, I thought. “Yeah. They
would have what we need.”

I sat down with my back against the car,
sliding my rifle to my side, and taking Holly’s rifle off
altogether to relieve the weight from my aching shoulder.

“Let’s hang out here for a little while until
there’s no more of those things walking around. Once they’re all
asleep, we’ll try and cross the road.”

She shrugged her shoulders, “Okay.” She sat
down beside me, laying the Saiga across her lap.

Her red tennis shoes were stained brown with
mud from our trek through the forest, as were her legs from the
calves down. I looked at my own pant legs. They were muddy and torn
and one of my bootlaces had come undone at some point.

The grief welled up in my stomach again. I
missed my wife terribly. I reached down and tied the bootlace
tightly, my eyes blurred with tears. I choked back a sob and wiped
the tears from my eyes. Now was not the time.

Kera gently gripped my forearm, trying to
offer comfort. I forced a smile. “I’m okay,” I whispered
hoarsely.

A northwesterly breeze was blowing, bringing
with it cooler, drier air. I saw wisps of clouds moving in, forming
a hazy shroud around the moon. Soon, darker clouds were crowding in
and the breeze died down. A flash of lightning sparked the sky far
off to the west, too far away for us to hear the grumbling thunder.
Rain would be welcome. Maybe it could wash me clean in so many
ways.

Clouds obscured the moon, and soon raindrops
began to patter down around us. I stood and looked over the car.
There was no movement among the sleeping groups of Loonies. I slung
the spare rifle back over my shoulder.

“We better go now,” I said to Kera. “When the
rain starts coming down harder it may wake them up.” Lightning
flashed closer now, followed seconds later by the rumbling roll of
thunder.

“Are you ready?” Kera nodded her head, the
fear back in her eyes.

“Stick close,” I cautioned. I edged around
the car and out into the dark intersection, trying to keep
abandoned cars in between us and the sleeping creatures.

Lightning lit us up brightly and a peal of
thunder echoed down the road, followed by a deluge of cold rain.
Several of the Loonies stirred, some scooting closer to others in
their group. I picked up my pace, scrambling past the vehicles to
get to the other side of the road.

Rain was falling in sheets, soaking me in its
chilly embrace. I chanced a quick glance back at Kera. Her dark
hair was matted around her face and neck, and she constantly had to
pull it back and tuck it behind her ears to keep it out of her
eyes. The remains of her blouse were soaked and the swell of her
breasts were pushing through the thin material, leaving nothing to
the imagination.

Lightning exploded around us, followed
instantly by drumrolls of thunder. Streamlets of runoff were racing
off the streets into the overflowing gutters. I could see movement
all around me as the Loonies woke to the storm. I grabbed Kera’s
arm and raced the rest of the way across the street and up the
sidewalk to where the truck had left its metallic scratches and
paint streaks on the brick wall. Bodies of the infected lay around
the perimeter, some bloated with decomposition, others looking
freshly killed.

I frantically looked around for any note or
sign from my boy, hoping that the storm hadn’t washed away any
message.

“See anything?” I called to Kera over the
raging clamor of the storm. Lightning flashed and thunder detonated
over our heads and her reply was drowned out. Lightning flashed
again and I saw the enraged face of an infected man briefly
illuminated over her shoulder through the thick rain. I violently
shoved her to the sidewalk as I slid the Sig from its holster.

I was blind in the sudden darkness following
the flash. I waited with the gun raised to where the Loony had
been. Lightning ripped across the sky again, flooding us in its
blinding light. We saw each other at the same time. It reached for
my weapon, drawing it in to bite my hand. I pulled the trigger and
the gun fired right when thunder rumbled around us, masking the
gunshot. In the ensuing darkness I felt the Loony drop away.

Kera tugged urgently on my pant leg. “Here!”
she cried, pointing down to the sidewalk. When lightning again
illuminated the concrete I saw scrawled in my son’s hand with a
small jagged chunk of concrete that lay next to it, the barely
visible words I was searching for:

‘Gone west. Wait at 4 miles for 2 days. Then
meet at farm. ILYB’

A weight lifted off of my shoulders. Good
boy! My son was alive. He had been right here were I am standing
only a short while ago. I pulled Kera up off the sidewalk and
kissed her on her forehead through her wet, matted hair.

“Thank you,” I told her. “Come on, before
more of them find us.”

The rain slackened a bit, settling into a
steady downpour, and the thunder lagged further behind the pulses
of lightning. We walked at a brisk pace up into the parking area of
the large strip mall that stretched away at least a half mile in
front of us.

Flashes of lightning enabled us to see where
we had to go. There were maybe fifty vehicles in the entire expanse
of the lot. I was hoping that we would be able to find keys to at
least one of them later. The sporting goods store was near the
opposite end of the complex. In between, there was what looked like
several hundred Loonies, most of them now awake and on their feet
due to the storm. The nearest building, a large department store,
had its glass doors shattered. I imagined the building was teeming
with infected.

We stood at the edge of the lot hiding behind
a small tree watching groups of Loonies making their way to the
entrance of the store and into the dark, cavernous interior.

Kera sidled up closer to me and I put my arm
around her and drew her in, combining our body heat to keep her
warm. The entire breadth of the parking lot was clearing of the
Loonies as they sought shelter from the rain. We were watching them
disappear with each flash of lightning as if with some sort of time
stop photography.

“Let’s move,” I said, keeping my arm around
Kera. I stepped out onto the wet asphalt and headed in the
direction of the sporting goods store, looking around me for any
straggling Loonies and feeling the water squishing in my boots with
each step.

The rain moderated even more until only a
light drizzle was falling. Lightning flashed to the east and west
of us, signaling the approach of another heavy storm cell on the
heels of the first. The temperature had fallen further with the
rain and a slight wind was blowing, chilling our wet bodies even
more.

Only a few of the small shops and mid-sized
stores that we passed had their doorways breached. We kept a good
distance out from them, feeling safer in the wide open area of the
parking lot that was still smothered in near total darkness. Only
the frequent flashes of lightning illuminated our way.

CHAPTER 14

We cautiously approached the sporting goods store.
Its glass front windows were intact, but the entryway door was
shattered and open. Blackness as thick as molasses hung like a
curtain beyond the doorways, even the lightning offered little
illumination into the interior. I took my arm from around Kera and
pulled out my handgun, releasing the magazine into my other hand.
Three rounds left and one in the chamber.

Not good odds if there were a shitload of
them in there. I kept the pistol in my hand and pulled out my
flashlight. I looked down at Kera and put my finger to my lips,
telling her to keep quiet. We approached the shattered doors. The
glass crunching under our feet was loud in the relative quiet
between storms. I crossed the threshold and briefly turned on the
flashlight. In the fleeting moment that my light sent its beam into
the interior, I glimpsed the masses of bodies lying about the
floor. Many were using clothes pulled down from the display racks
as makeshift bedding. Several stirred restlessly before I flipped
the light back off.

I hesitated a moment. Would it be better to
forgo the ammo and not enter this death trap? No, we had to have
ammo and Kera needed clothing, we wouldn’t survive long with only
four rounds left.

I stepped gingerly into the interior of the
store, Kera holding the back of my t-shirt as we entered the dark,
foreboding space packed with the homicidally insane. The smell was
overpowering, like some den of demented souls. The odor was of a
sweet, stale sweat mixed with the shit and piss that stained the
inside of their clothes or ran down their legs.

We tried to be quiet, even though the soles
of our footwear squeaked with every step on the linoleum floor,
adding to the squishing noise of my feet in the soaked boots. The
snoring of the sleeping Loonies easily drowned out the noise we
were making while our steps still sounded loud and out of place to
my ears.

I kept flashing my light on to glimpse which
route to take through the maze of merchandise. Loonies were
sleeping everywhere, in clumps and individually.

Chills coursed through me when we slid by and
between them. I breathed a silent sigh of relief when we reached
the carpeted aisles, silencing the loud squeaks of our shoes. Kera
was breathing heavily behind me, clinging desperately to my shirt
in the pitch darkness of the store.

I knew the guns and ammo departments usually
occupied the farthest corners of these types of stores and just
split the difference and headed for the center of the rear.

The infected thinned out as we stealthily
shuffled further back into the darkness until the way seemed clear
of them completely. Outside, a new storm cell beat the roof with
torrents of rain and thunder rumbled deeply overhead. There was
some low growling and rustling behind us as the noise disturbed
some of the sleeping Loonies.

I stopped abruptly, causing Kera to nearly
push me over with her outstretched hand and arm. I reached out to
catch my balance, gun still in my hand, and grabbed for the metal
arm of a clothing rack in the darkness. The handgun hit it with a
twang and it twisted effortlessly away from me. I fell forward,
knocking it noisily to the ground, followed by the thump of my body
and Kera’s when we both fell into a pile of clothing. We
collectively held our breath, listening for any movement. Some of
the snoring paused momentarily, then continued again, joining in
with the din of noise filling the large store from the storm
outside.

Kera silently rolled off my legs and stood
up. I flicked the flashlight on briefly. I was tangled in a jumble
of BDU-style camo shirts. I slid one off of its hanger and stood
up, shoving the shirt into Kera’s arms and pulling her up beside
me. I pocketed my flashlight and took her hand in mine. My eyes
were gradually adjusting to the blackness and I was able to make
out more and more detail, enough to move without falling over
anything, although not enough to determine what exactly we were
seeing. I led Kera to the back of the store where gun safes loomed
out of the thick darkness. I knew we were in the right
department.

We worked our way cautiously over to the
right side of the store. I removed my flashlight and turned it on
briefly. There against the side wall was a long display case filled
with handguns and behind it lining the wall were racks of long
guns. I could see boxes of ammunition stacked beneath them.

Steel double doors stood at the terminus of
the aisle. Pointing the light to the floor to illuminate us both
for a moment I looked back at Kera. She had removed her torn blouse
and had donned the hunting shirt. It was several sizes too big for
her, reaching down below her shorts like a nightshirt. I nodded to
her to make sure she was ready after she finished rolling up her
sleeves and she nodded back. I turned off the light and headed
toward the gun counter.

I slid behind the counter and with the help
of the flashlight, quickly located a stack of twenty round boxes of
ammo for the ARs.

“What do I need?” Kera whispered from over my
left shoulder.

I shined the light around until I illuminated
the section that held the shotgun shells. I told her to grab
several boxes of double-ought buckshot in twelve gauge to load her
three Saiga magazines and stuff as many as she could carry in her
shirt pockets.

I had only four thirty-round magazines left
for the two Colts and sat down to load them with the fifty-five
grain rounds that the store had available. I dumped as many extra
boxes of rounds as I could fit in my BDU pockets. I inserted a full
mag into each of the short barreled rifles and then took a box of
forty-fives for the Sig. When I was finished loading its single
magazine I eyed the long glass case holding an array of handguns in
different calibers, sizes and finishes.

My light illuminated a pair of Smith and
Wesson semi-auto handguns. One was an S&W M&P45 and the
other an M&P9. They were reliable handguns that would fit our
needs perfectly.

I thought I heard a noise from the front of
the store and switched off the light. The storm was still raging
outside, adding to the cacophony of the nasally droning sounds of
those Loonies that were snoring.

I paused there in the dark, watching as
flashing lightning highlighted shapes up front. Thankfully, none
seemed to be moving. After a few moments I switched the light back
on. I tried to slide the glass door to the handgun case open, but
it was locked.