Age of Decay (Book 1): Contagion (15 page)

“You shouldn’t have risked it, but I’m glad you got the weapons, we’re going to need them.”

“Jason!” His mother came running up and wrapped her arms around him as the rest of the group arrived. There were tears in her eyes. “My baby, I was worried sick.”

Jason pulled away from his mother. “I’m not a baby anymore, Mom. I did what had to be done to protect us all.”

“We’re proud of you, lad,” said Ian.

Samantha began to look around them and peered off into the distance. “Where’s Donald?”

Jason stood there and allowed the tears to come to his eyes.
Gonna lie to them, aren’t you. He had to die, he had to. I love you, Sam, no one will ever hurt you again
. “I tried to help him.” He looked to his father. “We barely got the gun bag and a bunch of them came into the backyard. We fought them off. You should have seen him, he was so brave. He fought until the end. There was nothing I could do. They surrounded him, th—”

“You did fine, “said Trevor. “He was a good man, we’ll miss him.”

“Dammit,” said Eric as she fought back her tears.

Samantha broke down in sobs. “No, he was so nice. Why?” Samantha choked back the tears.

“It’s okay, Sam. I’m here.” Jason put his arms around her and allowed her to cry into his shoulder. “I tried to save him, they would have gotten me, too. I barely got over the fence.” He held her close to him. “I’ll make sure you’re safe.” He brushed his hand over the back of her hair, feeling the softness under his fingers. She was so warm and so comforting. As he stroked her hair, he peered off in the distance at the house that burned in the glow of the rising sun.

Jason smiled.

The group rested by the trees, thankful to be alive. Gail sat back against a stump, her face emotionless and vacant. The trauma of losing her husband was too much for her brain to process. Although she could still walk and say a few words, she wasn’t all there at the moment. The stress too much for her to handle. Erica tended to her and kept watch as she looked for any positive changes in her condition.

“How is she?” asked Trevor.

“She went through a lot, and she has severe stress right now. She should be able to walk with us, but she might wander off. We have to keep a close eye on her.”

Jason paced by the tree, looking out to the forest beyond. “Just leave her here. We can’t take her with us. She’s only going to jeopardize the rest of us.”

Trevor walked over to his son. “As I told you before, we don’t abandon people, no matter what their condition. We can find medical supplies and tend to her. You’re supposed to be on lookout, so do your job. Is that clear?”

“Yeah, Dad, it’s clear.”

“So where are we going to go from here?” said Erica. “We can’t go back there. Sorry I’m just not familiar with this area. I never got out here.”

“Well, we can’t get through this brush as we would get lost, but we can follow the train tracks down by the water, and that will take us through to Chilliwack. We can get some supplies there, a couple of vehicles, and head on up to Hope.”

“Assuming we don’t run into any more difficulties?”

“We’ll that’s the thing, we don’t know what’s out there, but this is our best shot, to get away from them as much as possible. If the highway is fairly clear, we should be able to make it up there.”

“We will, lad,” said Ian. “You got us this far.”

Yeah, this far and we keep losing people
. “I can’t promise anything.”

“It’s going to be fine,” said Lauren.

Samantha clutched the bat she held. “I’m ready to fight if I have to.”

“Well, Sam, that’s not a bad idea,” said Trevor. “Everyone listen. We are running low on ammo, as we wasted a great deal of it back there. We have to conserve as much as possible. We are low on rifle ammo especially, so use pistols. Switch to other weapons, only use our guns if it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Loud sounds attracts them. I saw it in the hospital. They move towards the source of any sound.”

“They can still hear?” said Trevor.

“Yes, I guess in a limited way. Sound seems to draw them to the source. I don’t know all the answers here, just observations. They also appear to travel in large groups from time to time. I guess it’s like a herd of cattle, if you want to call it that.”

“And we don’t want to attract the buggers’ attention,” said Ian.

Trevor rubbed his shoulder, which still ached from his fall. “Right. We need to avoid them as much as we can. There’s no need to fight off a few if they aren’t a threat to us, as they are too slow to catch us moving.”

“It’s the large groups that terrify me,” said Lauren.

“By following the railroad by the water, we should be safe until we get to the other side. It’s going to take a day or so to get there, so we better get moving. When we rest, we’ll sleep in shifts. There are going to be no more chances, no letting our guard down. We can’t let that happen. Does everyone agree?”

“Yeah,” they said together.

“Good. Let’s get moving, we have a long walk ahead of us.”

***

It took a full two days before they made it into the outskirts of Chilliwack. Gail had slowed them down some, and they needed to rest for her. Ian carried her on his back a good portion of the way, without saying a word. They had left the camping supplies behind, abandoned in the truck, and they were down to just a bit of water from the two canteens they had with them. The group was hungry, tired, and on edge about what they would find moving through Chilliwack.

Erica stretched out her back and took a swing form the canteen that was just about empty. She handed it to Trevor. “No, it’s okay, give some to Lauren.”

“You would make a lousy patient. Go on, take a drink.”

Trevor let out a weak laugh. “Alright, Nurse. We can follow this road down a bit, we should hit some houses. Hopefully get what we need there, then back to the highway with vehicles.”

“Up ahead,” said Ian.

“They are in our way, so we have to clear them out. We can’t attract large groups of them.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll handle ‘em.”

Samantha came over to Ian. “I’ll help.”

“Right, lass, you stick close now.”

“Hey, I’m tougher than I look.”

“Aye. I saw that in the store, when we first met. Take the right one, I got the lady on the left.”

“Half her arm is missing, she’s no lady.”

“Take the chap in the tie. Shame though, black is my favorite.”

Sam approached the first ghoul and swung her bat hard at the thing’s head. She connected hard, and it staggered backwards. She swung again, and it crashed to the ground. She went over to it, and before it could raise its head she smashed the skull in which splattered gore over the front of her bat. Ian swung his axe and took the head off of the other one in a clean stroke. He went over to Sam and used the man’s suit jacket to clean off his blade.

“Aww, you ruined a good suit.” Sam smiled at Ian and gave him a big hug.

Ian wiped away a tear from his eye. “Thanks for your help.”

“Anytime you need help, you just holler.”

“I will, lass. That I will.”

“Hey, Ian,” said Lauren. “You two make a good team.”

“Aye.”

Jason chewed on a piece of grass. “Well, Dad, looks like the way is clear. Lead on, boss.”

“I don—”

Lauren grabbed his arm. “Don’t, let him be. He has to work thing out in his head.”

“No, what he has to stop doing is being a dumbass or he’ll get us all killed.” He hollered over at his son. “Hey, by all means go up ahead and scout around. After all, you don’t need me. Why don’t you be a man, for once? Go on now, we don’t have all day. I want to be on the road shortly.”

“Sure, I’ll do that.”

“Yes, you will.”

Erica came over, holding onto Gail, who stumbled around in a daze. “We need to get her some rest soon, she needs it.”

“No time for rest, but I’m not about to knock her out again.”

“Sleeping pills would do it. Allow her to work this out of her system. Maybe in Hope we can find other medication so I can treat her better.”

“Alright, we’ll check the house up the road, then get the hell out of here. I don’t want company to arrive.”

As they approached the house, Trevor motioned for the group to stop. “There’s no sense in all of us going in there. Erica, take Samantha with you.”

“Right.”

“Sam, follow Erica and listen to her closely. I want you to learn how to enter a room, then clear it if necessary.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t take any risks, just look for the medication she needs, then get out. Never use your weapon unless you absolutely have to.”

“I understand.”

Lauren put her hand on Erica’s shoulder. “I’ll watch over Gail to you get back. Is she going to be all right?”

Erica checked her pistol. “Not sure she has stress disorder. She may recover from it or she may get worse. Medication may help her some.”

“Lass will be alright,” said Ian.

“Well, Sam, let’s go check out that house. Stay tight with me.”

“I’m ready.”

***

“Why aren’t you going yourself?” asked Ian.

Trevor rubbed the side of his elbow. “Need to give responsibilities to other people. The more we can do together as a group, the better off we’ll be.” He leaned up against the lamppost.

“Makes sense.”

“So tell me, Ian, what was a big Irishman like yourself running a sporting goods store?”

“Ah, yes. Well, you see, my grandparents came over here as immigrants and opened up a clothing store. It was a tailor’s shop, basically. Back then it was suits and dresses, people always needed work on their clothing. Then my parents did the same thing after that, so tailoring ran in the family.”

“I take it you didn’t get into that field?”

“Ah, ya I did. So in a way a followed in my parent’s footsteps. I ran a shop for several years.”

“So why the sports store?”

“Well, you see. In high school, I fell in love with hockey. Don’t ask me why, as I never cared for football which is so popular in Europe. I just had a passion for it. I wanted to play, but my parents didn’t allow it.”

“I take it there’s more to the story?”

“Aye. After high school, I went to work in my father’s shop. I did my best, but I was miserable. I had no passion for clothing. Heck, I couldn’t wait ‘til closing, just so I could watch an NHL game. One day, my father suffered a major heart attack, and he was critical in the hospital.”

“Sorry.”

“Ya. I spent a lot of time with him during his last days. Before he died, one thing he told me was to follow my dreams, cause it’s the only way to be truly happy in life.”

“What did you do?”

“After his funeral, I confessed to my mother what he had said and that I wanted to open a sporting goods store in his memory. I knew he would be proud of me, so I did. I followed my dreams.”

Trevor looked to the debris on the street, the body face down in the grass. The once pristine suburban neighborhood, now empty and lifeless. “Not much for dreams now, it’s all gone.”

“Yeah, lad. That it is. We’ll create new ones, help rebuild, if we survive.”

“I guess they’ll never win the cup after all,” said Trevor.

“Eh, lad?”

“The Canucks.”

The big man burst out laughing. “Oh, bloody hell. Now, that’s a good one. The Canucks. Were they ever gonna win lad? Were they ever?”

For the first time in a long time, Trevor laughed, too. “Yeah, I guess not.” He glanced over at the house. “Maybe we should go check on them.”

“Yeah, lad.”

The two men went over to the house. Lauren wiped away the hair in front of Gail’s eyes, trying to get a response out of the woman, who was lost in her own reality. The wind picked up a few scattered leaves and moved them through the silence of the empty subdivision. A car with its door open was sideways in the road, its dead driver half out of the seat, tangled in his seatbelt. In the distance, a dog picked at a corpse lying at the side of the road. Although light spring rain began to fall, you could still smell the stench of death. It was a reminder that the world they once knew was gone.

Erica and Samantha came out of the house just as Trevor and Ian arrived. Erica had a smile on her face.

“I take it you were successful?” said Trevor.

“Not what I was hoping for, but I got some sleeping pills. These will help her rest once we get a vehicle. Maybe in Hope we can acquire other medications and I can treat her better. It’s hard to say what is going to happen with her. I think her mind is going into a depressive state and sometimes people have a hard time recovering from that.”

“Damn,” said Ian.

Erica looked over at Trevor. “It often takes a lot of therapy and even shock treatments to get them to come back.”

“I won’t leave her. Not after what happened to George. She deserves that much. Hon, how is she?” said Trevor.

“Not any response. She’s getting worse, I think. I wish we could do more.” Lauren held onto Gail’s hand and rubbed it.

Erica pulled some bottled water and a few granola bars from her pack. “Found these in the house, not much else there.”

“It will be enough for now,” said Trevor. “Go see what you can do for Gail. We need to get a vehicle and get out of here.”

Erica went over to Gail and took out one of the bottles of water and a couple of the pills. “Honey, I hav—”

They all jumped a bit as they heard the roar of an engine and spinning wheels. It came from down the road. Trevor checked his rifle and went into a crouch. “Everyone by the house, take cover.”

A SUV came spinning down the road at full speed. Behind it, they could see the reason why. A small herd of dead was following the vehicle. It screeched to a halt near the home Erica and Sam had just been to. Jason yelled from the window. “Everyone get in, they’re all over the place down there and headed this way, let’s go!”

Ian slung Gail over his shoulder and hopped in the side with the rest of them as Trevor got into the side passenger door. He slammed the door shut. “Go get the hell out of here, make your way to the highway, I’ll tell you where to go.”

Jason spun the vehicle away from the subdivision and hit the road towards the highway. It was fairly open where they were, although several cars littered the road in some sections and they had to slow down to avoid them.

Jason glanced behind him to Gail. She sat in the seat with her head flopped back, she didn’t make a sound. “Should have left her,” he said. “Look at her.”

Trevor began to lose his temper.
Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?
“What? Leave her to them so she can become their next meal? She can’t fight back. No, there’s no way in hell I’m doing that.”

“We got lucky, because I found this vehicle. Had we been walking, we would have had no choice. You know that.”

Trevor glared at his son. “There’s no friggen—”

Erica spoke up. “For once, I agree with your son. I don’t know if I can save her. We might not find the right medical equipment. Hell, Hope may even be overrun with them.”

The sped down the highway, away from the chaos. They needed to keep moving away from the groups of dead that seemed to be everywhere they went.

“Do you think I don’t know that?” said Trevor. “What if there’s a chance. What if you can save her? We all owe it to her husband to do that. She has to have a chance to survive.”

“Whoa, slow down,” said Sam. “Look at all the cars ahead. It’s a big jam.”

Jason took his foot off the gas and let the SUV down. Ahead of them, the highway became clogged with vehicles. A truck was overturned in the middle of the road, still smouldering. Several dead bodies covered the road, leaving it streaked in blood and various pieces of debris. One body laid against a blood-covered car door, bullet casings littering the ground near it. Another body lay in a pool of grisly remains near the side of the road. A crow pecked at it before flying off when the car got closer.

“Dammit,” said Trevor. “Too hard to see up ahead. Ian, you see anything back there?”

Ian craned his neck out the window. “No, lad, too many cars. Don’t know if we can get through.”

Trevor turned to Erica as Jason stopped the vehicle “Have a look out there, will ya? Maybe we can sneak through.”

“Damn, just leave Gail here, Dad. We can make it on foot, find another veh—”

“Shut up. We will do what I say, is that clear? She comes with us.”

Jason looked ahead. “You’re going to risk us all.”

Trevor stuck his head out the window. “Anything?”

“Yeah,” said Erica. “We can make it around these cars, the side road doesn’t look too bad. Just have to take it slo—”

Erica was making her way back to the vehicle when the shot rang out. She dove to the grass and readied her rifle, although the gunshot was nowhere near her. Everyone in the vehicle ducked down.

Trevor and Jason opened their doors, using them for cover. “Everyone stay low, going to check this out.”

Ian put his arm around Samantha and pushed her down further in the seat. “Bloody hell.”

Erica took cover behind the smouldering truck. She looked to her right as another gunshot rang out, but even that one was way wide of the vehicle.

“Can you see anything?” asked Trevor in a whisper. Erica shook her head.

Samantha winced and covered her ears as another shot impacted a car to the right of them, but the shot was still nowhere close. “Who the hell is shooting at us?”

Another round plinked into the truck where Erica was, then silence for about thirty seconds.

A voice called out from a distance. “We know where you are. Those were just warning shots!”

Trevor crouched by the door looking for the source of the voice.
Warning shots? You couldn’t hit a barn door.

“We don’t want anyone to get hurt. All we want are your supplies. Hand them over, and you’ll go free.”

Trevor yelled out. “What if we don’t?”

A shot rang out a mile wide of where he was. “That answer your question? I won’t say it again. Hand over your stuff, and no one gets hurt.”

I don’t want to kill them, but we have no choice. Don’t know who they are and what they really want. It’s just too risky.
Trevor motioned to Jason and moved his finger over his throat. His son nodded in agreement. Trevor estimated the sound of the voice was coming from his right. He made a hand signal to Jason to begin to go left. He would distract their assailants by talking to them until Jason got a clear view of them and had a shot. Their attackers were amateurs, as their shots were not threatening to them, but they couldn’t take any chances. They needed to see who and what they were up against. Trevor indicated to Jason to move out then pointed to Erica to follow him. She began to move out from the cover of the truck. His son was an excellent shot, and now he needed him. Trevor indicated through his hand signals to stay low. Jason knew to use the cars for cover as he moved closer to the source of the voice. His hunting training was to his advantage. He crawled through the grass to another vehicle.

“Hey, maybe we can barter. Maybe you have something we can use. Come on, there’s no need for violence here.” Trevor leaned back against the door.

“Just give us your stuff! Mister, you’re running out of time. We’ll kill all of ya.”

Jason moved between the vehicles and kept his cover. He peered around the end of a sedan and saw one of them, his head exposed behind a vehicle in a crouch. The other one that had been talking was near him, but covered by the car. Jason didn’t have a clear shot of him. He turned around and made a signal back to Erica who had moved along with him, but was staying back a bit. He flashed two fingers to her indicating the two assailants. She made her way back to the group and got line of sight with Trevor and flashed the signal back.

Trevor nodded back to her. “Come on, can’t we just work this out?” he yelled back.

“I sai—”

The crack form Jason’s rifle cut him off in mid-sentence as the round from the rifle stuck the other man with him. The exposed top of his head sprayed his brains and blood in a mist as the top of his head disintegrated under the power of the hunting rifle. The man speaking took off from the car, but Jason couldn’t get a bead on him because of all the obstacles. Jason yelled out. “He’s running. Bastard’s running, going right towards the trees!”

“Ian watch the others.”
Might be more of them, Trevor, take him out now!
Trevor popped up from his position and weaved around the cars. He made his way to the side of the road and got his weapon trained on the man running.
He’s far away, but I’ll get him
. Trevor aimed his rifle, and the shot rang out. It slammed into the man’s back and he pitched forward.
Damn, not where I wanted to hit him
. Trevor and Erica ran up to the man as Jason made his way through the car obstacles. Jason raised his rifle.

Trevor motioned to him to lower his weapon. “No, don’t. We need to ask him some questions.”

Erica kneeled by the man. She examined the wound as blood poured from his lower back injury. “Okay, lie still, I’m going to turn you over.” He cried out as Erica began to turn him over with the help of Trevor. It wasn’t a man, it was just a kid about eighteen or nineteen.

The boy coughed and moaned in pain. “Water…”

“Kid,” said Trevor. “Why the hell did you shoot at us? You weren’t going to hit anything.”

“Just tryin to scare you… Get your supplies... Getting hungry out here, those things... killed my brother, my dad...”

“You were just alone?”

“Yeah, met the other guy in a store…”

“Should have thought twice shooting at us,” said Jason.

Trevor out his hand on Erica’s shoulder. “How is he? Will he make it?”

“If we had a hospital, maybe. Out here now, I doubt it. He’s losing a lot of blood, and it looks like some type of internal abdominal bleeding, but I can’t be sure of that.”

The boy coughed and blood came out of his mouth. “Please... Don’t leave me...”

“We don’t have time for a more thorough diagnosis.” Trevor backed up and drew his sidearm. “Sorry, kid. You threatened us first.” He fired point blank into his head so he wouldn’t turn when he died.

Erica put her hand on Trevor’s shoulder. “You did the right thing.”

“Yeah, I guess. Thing is, we should be killing the dead and not each other.”

He laughed a bit. “Soon we will be just like them.”