Charon's Blight: Day Two (the Rotting Souls series Book 2) Read online

  She squirmed under their gaze and with a great effort, she moved the young girl forward with an arm around her shoulders. “If we have the time, she could use a shower and some fresh clothes,” she told the older lady.

  Lynn’s eyes and expression were not hindered and the purse of her lips said more than all the ranting she did that day. A forced smile appeared and she took Alicia from her, leading her inside. She thought she saw a tear on the old woman’s face and she felt her own beginning to rise again.

  Coughing, she turned on the men standing around her. “I don’t know about any of you, but I could use a cigarette.” She stormed over to the truck, ripped a carton of Marlboros open, and took a pack out. Her hand waivered slightly while she lit it, but she refused to show anymore weakness than she already had.

  A cigarette in hand, she blew out the smoke and glared at the men still standing there like they didn’t know what to do or what to say. “You got a tarp? Don’t want any of this flying out when we leave.”

  “Yeah,” the older man responded after a moment, then walked away quickly.

  Manny strolled up and looked at her. “I hope you killed the fucker,” he commented dryly.

  “You could say that,” she returned, thinking of that separation of flesh and the freeing of the man’s genitals.

  “Good,” he replied, then his eyes saw the haul in the back of the truck. “Holy shit! Did you leave anything behind when you left?”

  “There’s probably some diet shit back there if you want it,” she replied, trying to return to her old self, letting the nicotine calm her nerves.

  “Nah, I’m good,” he returned with a smile.

  Erik was standing before her now and she felt like cowering under that gaze. There was a mixture of anger and grief there. She knew exactly what he was thinking; and she deserved it.

  “Don’t ever run off on us again. We stick together,” he said and she nodded. She couldn’t argue with him. “Live alone die alone or some happy horseshit like that,” he told her, his eyes severe.

  She blew out another puff of smoke and nodded. She was on the verge of crying again and that was not something she would allow herself to do. She had done enough of it already.

  “Saint?” he asked, his eye brows rising; refusing to just let it go with a nod. He wanted verbal confirmation and that stirred the anger inside.

  “I know, okay? I fucked up. It won’t happen again,” she returned. She hated feeling beholden to anyone but she felt gladdened by their concern. She needed them close to her, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell them that.

  Erik only nodded, apparently ready to drop the subject—thankfully. “We’re good to go here. Even though it’s put us behind, I’m actually kind of glad we stopped; there are a lot of things here we might need.”

  “And a lot we don’t,” she muttered, but the anger had fallen away from her words. How mad could she be that the woman was trying to preserve her life? She was in there helping to clean a young raped and abused teenager and had done so with no questions or reservations. Could she really stand there and be pissed because the old lady wanted to bring her photo albums with them?

  He nodded, but didn’t say anything. He came to stand next to her as she leaned against the truck, the three of them staring at the house in silence. Henry was coming towards them with a tarp and she forced a smile and thanked him.

  He had a rope as well and as she worked to spread it across the bed of the truck, Erik poked the piles of hastily bagged supplies. “Snowballs? Really?”

  “What?” she asked, confused.

  “I bet you left the canned food, didn’t you?” he asked, raising a bag of dog food out of the back and raising his eyebrows.

  “Oh, fuck off. Maybe you should fucking go use the bathroom before we leave, try to get rid of some of that shit you’re full of,” she popped off, finally smiling. How the hell she could laugh at a moment like this was beyond her, but it felt better than dwelling on the horrors of the last few hours.

  The others were finishing up and Erik laughed as he actually followed her advice and disappeared inside.

  Alicia emerged from the house wearing a pair of white jeans and a dark green blouse that was a bit loose, but was way better than the torn rags she had arrived in. She had cream on her face to help with the swelling, but her cracked lips were spread in a smile as she moved forward and embraced her.

  Maybe she should take a shower as well. She felt dirty. She could still feel the man forcing his way inside her. She shivered and the girl felt it as well.

  “Go,” Alicia whispered and suddenly her limbs were pushing her forward, her stomach ready to heave up its contents.

  She pitched the cigarette off to the side, rushed through the door and dashed towards the master bedroom; barely making it to the toilet before she began to retch.

  Lynn was standing behind her and she came to her side, stroking the back of her neck. “I don’t want to know,” the woman said, “but if you have to get it out, I’ll listen.”

  A flood began then, her words tumbling over themselves as they forced their way out. She was still talking as she relieved herself of her clothing, not bothering to worry about being naked in front of the older lady. The shower was on and sobbing she stood under the warm water, letting it run over her body. She went through an entire bar of soap and still felt dirty. The woman’s presence on the other side of that curtain soothed her and her tears flowed freely.

  Every time she thought she had it under control, she wept again.

  That’s when she began to think about Robert. If they caught up to them, he would do the same to her if he had a chance. And he was coming; she had no doubt of that.

  As she toweled off, she resolved herself to putting this behind her and pushing on. Never again would she let something like that happen to her. Never. Again. She would rather kill herself than let another man violate her like that.

  New clothes were laid out and she grinned at the black t-shirt and jeans. “They were Todd’s,” the woman said with a smile and she hugged the older lady, letting the embrace wipe the last of her sorrows away. Getting dressed, she winced at the pain in her upper thighs, but relaxed as it soon passed. Lynn applied some Neosporin to her cheek and held her hand there for a moment. “You ready?”

  Sabrina nodded in response and together they strode back out to where the guys were waiting. Alicia welcomed her back with a quick embrace and looking at her two coworkers, she quickly nodded to them as well, then stepped through the front door of the house.

  Alicia had a bag of Cheetos in hand as she hopped in the back seat of the truck, making a remark about Manny and his guitar, which he placed on his lap with reverence. The door closed and Erik stood there, holding an old-fashioned walkie talkie in his hands and grinning.

  The old couple were in their blue F-150; the engine roaring to life. They were finally leaving.

  She patted Erik on the arm and went around to the driver’s side. She didn’t really want to drive but she knew that she had too. Somehow, she had become the leader of their band and it was not something so easily thrown away. A horrible thing had come out of her last command decision and now she was determined to take control of things, to make sure that nothing like that would happen to any of them ever again.

  Throwing it into drive, she had her foot on the brake and only inched forward as the truck and trailer cleared the sidewalk and began moving down the street.

  She was happy when they turned left at the first road ahead and moved east towards a road called Belvedere. It would keep the Quickmart from coming into view and for that she was thankful. She didn’t know how the old man had known that this route would be easier on her and didn’t care; she accepted the small gift and felt the last of her anger fall away.

  A few minutes later, they were coming to the intersection at Valencia and her heart sighed. The interstate was on their immediate left, only two lights separating them from finally getting on the highway east and out of this mess
. As expected, they weren’t the only ones trying to do that and the large mass of cars glared back at them; as if daring them to try and break through their ranks.

  The walkie squawked and she nearly pissed all over her fresh jeans. “What the fuck?” she nearly screamed, slamming her hand against the steering wheel.

  “Sorry,” Erik chuckled softly and Alicia actually laughed from the backseat. “Henry thought these would be easier to communicate with while driving.”

  Manny chuckled from the back and she was striving to find out what was so fucking funny. “I didn’t know they still made those things. Now that’s old school,” he said, a smile on his face.

  “They look well-used,” Erik replied, twisting a worn-out knob as if to illustrate his point.

  “I think we should just take Valencia, keep moving east,” Lynn’s voice said over the walkie.

  “Uh, roger that,” Erik replied, but there was no answer in response.

  “You copy?” came the old lady’s voice again.

  Erik was fumbling with the walkie, talking into it from every angle. She noticed what was wrong. “For fuck sakes, hit the button while you talk,” she told him angrily.

  How hard was it to figure that out?

  “Yeah, we got it,” Erik finally responded, flustered and red. A couple of cars tried to cut between them as they merged onto the sparsely populated left lane, but she refused to let that happen, riding Henry’s bumper the entire way. She got honked at but she didn’t give a shit.

  Erik did her a favor and flashed them the finger, throwing a curse word in for good measure.

  The road was less of a clusterfuck heading this way, making it apparent that most of the people leaving were content to wait the line out at the interstate. As they passed the gas station on the left she saw that traffic had come to a stop ahead as well.

  Even though they had barely gotten started, she was already becoming flustered with this crap. “Well, shit,” she cursed under her breath.

  “What now?” Manny asked from the back seat and Alicia was straining to see as well.

  “No fucking clue,” she returned.

  Then she saw the military vehicles and her stomach began to clench. That was what was slowing things down, they were inspecting the cars coming through and she was driving a stolen fire marshal’s truck. She didn’t think they’d arrest her for it, all things considered, but who the fuck knew for sure?

  “I’d say act natural, but there isn’t a way of doing that, is there?” she said to no one in particular.

  The other three didn’t seem to realize what she was talking about and she hoped those dumbstruck stares would be enough to convince anyone that asked that this was not planned. She thought of all those other cars Todd’s parents had sitting in their front yard and began to wonder at the wisdom of driving a stolen emergency vehicle. There was nowhere for her to go, so she reluctantly pulled forward, joining the line of vehicles trying to get through and push east. She realized the interstate traffic was probably going through the same inspection and now understood the long lines of traffic they had seen back there.

  After half an hour of sweating and three cigarettes later, a man in fatigues came over to the truck window and made the motion to roll down the window. “Yes,” she managed, her heart bursting through her chest.

  “Has anyone with you recently been bitten by someone infected?”

  Oh shit, she thought. She hadn’t anticipated that. The President had told them that a bite was meaningless, why were they checking for this shit?

  “No sir,” she responded quickly, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

  The man looked bored, like he had been anticipating action and was stuck being a traffic cop. He looked at the other three in the vehicle, not seemingly bothered by the battered state of the two women; like it was an expected sight. Then her heart skipped a beat as his eyes settled on Erik. “What happened to your arm?” the man asked, his hand reaching to his side where his sidearm was.

  “We got into a fight with some crazy asses last night, they tried to rob us,” she responded, hoping she was convincing enough. She had the bruises to back it up and she didn’t dare feel relieved for it; it wasn’t worth the cost she’d paid. “Erik here saved my life,” she offered in mock grief, a tear coming to her eye. It wasn’t a tear of sympathy, it was brought on by the memories of how those bruises came into being, but the man in uniform couldn’t know that.

  Another man in fatigues noticed the pause and was reaching for his firearm as well. Fuck me, she thought, stressing.

  “Are you sure you didn’t come into contact with any of the infected?” the man pursued.

  Why did he keep using the word infected? Couldn’t he use the word zombie? That’s what the fuck they were.

  “I did,” she told him. His eyes turned to her, eyes searching her body for signs of conflict beyond the physical beating she had taken. She plunged forward, meeting his gaze. “There were about fifty of them outside my work. I was able to get away with some friends by running out the back. Then we got jumped by some nuts that were looting a convenience store,” she told him, cutting a lot out of her story and not giving shit; he didn’t need to know every bit of it. Fuck this action junkie.

  Thoughts of the previous night made her think of Jeremy and she felt her heart tug. Would he have stopped those maniacs at the Quickmart or would he have stood there doing nothing while she was raped?

  She pushed it away; what was the point?

  The man must not have come in contact with any of the zombies himself, because he seemed to eat up every word she spoke. He eyed Erik once more, then her. “You do realize that if someone did come in contact with one and they got bit, they could change into one and kill you?” he said, offering her a chance to get rid of a problem if there was one. He made it sound like she could save her life right now by changing her story.

  “That’s not what the President said last night,” Manny spoke up from the back, making the man divert his accusing eyes away from her.

  “Yeah, well she’s not here right now, is she?” the man spoke.

  Yeah, this guy didn’t care about the truth, he just wanted some action. Even though the President of the United States had told the world that it didn’t make a difference, that it only happened when a person died, this asshole was going to ignore it just for the chance to shoot somebody.

  “Just like I said, he got hurt saving my life from some asshole with a knife,” she told him confidently, meeting the man’s eyes. He seemed to consider what she was saying and she caught movement out of the corner of her eye as the other man was now coming up on their passenger side, gun drawn.

  A blood-curling scream rent the air behind them. She looked in her mirror and watched as a figure jumped over the back of a car and slammed into a hood fifty feet to her rear.

  Both of the men turned in that direction and raised their weapons. A horn blew to her left and a Humvee flew forward, heading for the cars behind her. There was a guy manning the gun on the back of the military truck and he began firing his weapon; making her flinch from the sudden violence of sound ripping towards them. The man standing next to her gave her one last stare, then motioned for her to move on. He then brought his gun up higher and began to fire his weapon; the excitement on his face made her feel like getting out and beating the man senseless.

  She eased forward and saw that Henry had pulled over to wait on them.

  “You guys okay?” she heard over the walkie.

  Manny and Alicia were busy looking out the back of the truck and Erik had his face glued to the side mirror. “Yeah,” he managed, not bothering to look at what he was doing with the walkie this time.

  More army vehicles were plowing past and her foot found the gas, making the truck lurch forward. Henry had pulled back onto the road and they sped down Valencia, away from the gunfire crackling behind them. She heard one last scream and the bile came up, burning her throat as she swallowed it back down.

  “
You okay?” Manny asked.

  They must have pulled far enough away for him not to see anything else.

  She didn’t answer, just concentrated on keeping them on the road and with the truck ahead.

  “Thank you,” Erik said softly. It was all he could manage and it carried a lot in the way he said it.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she tossed back. “If you were looking as sick as you did last night, we never would have made it through there,” she said without thinking. “He didn’t care if you were sick; he just wanted to kill something. The bite was an excuse.”

  “Maybe the President was lying?” Erik responded, his eyes suddenly fearful.

  “Oh, cut that shit out. He was a sick trigger happy fucktard. You are going to be fine,” she told him and believed it.

  They might all be fine.

  They were on the road and the city was falling away behind them. Soon they’d get on Houghton and with the traffic as backed up as it was because of the roadblocks, she knew that the interstate had a good chance of being clear for them when they got back to it.

  “Want a Cheeto?” Alicia asked Erik, the bag extended.

  Chapter 13

  Univited

  Caesar

  Tucson, AZ

  Sabrina hadn’t realized it when they left, but Caesar had switched the baby monitors so that the mic was now in the living room instead of the baby’s room. They had hidden in there, waiting for them to leave, listening to their short conversation as the door closed behind them.

  He didn’t think to change it back as his wife never left their baby alone long enough to need them. The little device crackled occasionally, but you could hear the shuffling of clothes and bags, its owner was getting ready to leave it behind.

  BAM

  BAM

  BAM

  The sound of the thudding door was amplified over the monitor; the red lights increasing with the strength of the sound.

  Then silence.