Age of Decay (Book 1): Contagion (7 page)

Jason looked down at his Canucks jersey with disgust. “Figures he would still have a Kesler jersey still in stock.”

“It’s not like we had much choice. I just grabbed what he had and handed them out.” Trevor went over to Samantha adjusting her shoulder pads.

Lauren worked on her neck protector. “Not that comfortable, but it will do.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t going for comfort,” said Trevor. “This hockey gear will keep us protected from bites. It’s not foolproof, but it will do for now. Ian’s filling up the canteens and water bottles, then we’ll be going. There’s small convenience store just inside the mall entrance, he said. We can get some food there to take with us.”

“Do you think we can make it across that bridge?” said Lauren.

“I don’t know. We have to get out of the main part of the city, then head through the valley.”

Ian arrived with the canteens and bottles. “All full, lad, should keep us going for a bit.” He also carried another bat in his hands. “I thought Samantha might be able to use this.” He adjusted the shoulder pads. “Don’t make ‘em big enough.”

“Samantha,” said Trevor. “Come over here for a minute, Ian’s got something for you.”

She hurried over to the two men. “Yes?”

“Can you use this?” asked Trevor. “Just hit them in the head as hard as you can. Might come a time when you need it.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I can use it.”

“Good. Glad to see you feeling a bit better. I’m so sorry about your parents.”

“It’s okat. I will be fine. Just hurts, that’s all.”
I miss you, Mom and Dad, more than anything
.
I’m gonna be strong for you, fight this.
I know it’s what you would have wanted
.

Trevor finished getting the packs ready. They had lost most of the gear, but had the weapons, which were the main thing they needed. Food and water would still be easy to come by as it was still in the early stages. They needed to get to the bridge and over it to find shelter before nightfall.

“We’ll go into the mall, get what we need, and go. Hopefully there won’t be too many of them in there to deal with.” Trevor tuned to Ian. “Say, can you shoot? I got a couple of spare firearms, if you would like one. We need all the help we can get.”

He laughed. “Geez, no lad. I’d probably shoot myself with one of ‘em. Best keep them to yourselves, I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, let’s get moving. Stick together in case we run into any of them in the mall. Don’t panic and don’t run.”

Samantha gave Jason a little shove. “Move along, Kesler.”

“Oh, very funny.”

As they approached the mall door, Trevor motioned them to stop. “Hon, take Samantha with you and go into convenience store its right inside the entrance.”

“Okay.”

He nodded to his son. “Stand guard and watch them.”

“But, I want to go with you.”

“Watch over the girls for me. Need to make sure the mall is clear. Don’t want to run into a bunch of them inside.”

“Fine.”
What am I, a babysitter?

“Need the two of you to grab food we can carry. Get nuts, dried fruit, power bars, anything that will give us energy.”

“Sure,” said Lauren.

“Okay, here goes.” Trevor opened the door slowly. The mall had a few lights on, but otherwise it was quite dark. In the distance, they could see a couple of dead that turned towards them. He raised his rifle.

“No, lad,” said Ian. “Save the ammunition. I can deal with these. Watch for more of ‘em.”

The woman looked to be in her thirties with long strawberry blonde hair. She shuffled slowly towards Ian, her mouth dripped saliva as she opened her mouth and gave a low guttural moan. The other one was a young man, his black tie flopped to the side of his stained white business shirt, his arm was torn and bloody from an obvious bite. Ian approached the female first and slammed the bat to the top of her head, shattering her skull in a vicious blow.
You’re not so tough, are ya?
She dropped quickly to the ground. The other one lunged towards Ian, but he stepped back and drove the front of the bat into the thing’s chest. As it staggered back, he drove it again into the side of its head. As he dropped to the ground, Ian brought the bat down and the head exploded in a spray of blood and brain matter.

“Hurry up and get those supplies, we have company in here!” said Trevor.

“Working as fast as we can, just a few more minutes.”

Ian stopped by the girl with the strawberry blonde hair as he took off his hockey helmet. He rubbed his face standing there over the corpse. “Oh hell, lad. Bloody, fucking hell.”

“Something wrong?”

“She looks like my sister. Damn the hair, it’s the same. She lives in Toronto, ya know. Got a young one, too, just turned four. Am I gonna she her again, lad?”

“I don’t know,” replied Trevor. “God, I don’t know. Everything is gone now. I don’t know if the survivors of this can find a cure.”

“Yeah, lad. Gettin’ used to this isn’t gonna be easy. So much death, it’s a struggle just to live. Do they have it better than us, those dead?”

Trevor looked down at the female, her ruined, smashed skull. “I suppose they do.”

***
“What else is in this mall?” said Trevor.

“Not much, lad. A couple of clothing stores, food, and a hardware store which may have something I can use.”

“Like what?”

“A good axe.”

“Good thinking.”

The group moved through the shopping mall slowly. Trevor and Jason were at the front with their rifles at the ready. Ian stayed at the back to protect the girls in case any of them should come from behind.

“I’ll be right back,” said Ian as they arrived at the hardware store.

It didn’t take long till they saw them, more dead moving in the mall towards them. “Make it quick, we’ll handle these ‘til you get back.”

“Pick your shots, we can’t waste ammo,” said Trevor.

“Right,” said Jason.

Trevor aimed carefully down the sights of the AR-15 and let two shots go towards the first target. One round tore into the neck of the closest one, and the other round tore through the top of its head. The next rounds slammed into the next one before it could get too close. Jason aimed his rifle at the last one.

“No.” Samantha got her bat ready. “I’ll deal with this one.”

“Stay back let them handle it,” said Lauren. “It’s too dangerous.”

“I want to help. I can handle this,” said Samantha.

“Right to the head,” said Jason.

“Yeah, I know that.”

Samantha moved towards the ghoul. The man looked about fifty, with gray receding hair. He had a large gash in his cheek. Jason moved closer in case she had trouble. Her heart beat fast as it approached with jaws wide, shuffling towards her. She held the bat tightly in her hands and took one large swing at the thing. The bat slammed into its chest, which made it stagger backwards a few steps. She screamed as it tried to lunge for her shoulder, but another hit from the bat drove the thing to its knees. She went behind, then hit it again by the shoulder blades, this time and it crashed to the ground. Before it could get up, she drove the bat hard into its skull, striking it cleanly.
You fucking things took my mom and dad, turned them into you. I hate you all, I fucking hate you all!
She slammed the bat into it four more times destroying the head in a spray of gore. She breathed heavily as she tore her helmet off and began to cough. She bent over as the contents of her stomach came up. Jason went over to comfort her, but she put her hand up.

Ian came back out of the store with a couple of axes and a hatchet. ”She alright?”

“Yes,” said Trevor. “She knows what it’s like now.”

“Knows what, lad?”

“What it’s like to kill.”

They left the mall and made their way through the city of Vancouver. Lauren now had a hatchet that Ian had taken from the hardware store. They moved passed the abandoned cars, the smashed storefronts, and the chaos that engulfed the city. In a few short hours, the entire city had fallen apart. In the distance, they could hear sirens blaring, and every once in a while a helicopter would fly overhead. Up the street ahead of them, they could see a group of dead moving around.

“Best to take the side street,” said Trevor.

“We lost the caravan the last time we took a side street,” Lauren said.

“Yeah, but I don’t like the looks of what is ahead of us,” he replied.

“Why not just keep going, we can take them,” Jason said as he checked his ammo. “We can’t keep on going around if we want to get to that bridge.”

“I’m ready for a fight, lad,” said Ian. “We need to get out of this city and the quicker the better.”

“Alright, but stay together. The bridge is about two miles from here.”

They moved at a slow pace towards the group of dead, which turned to face them and began their slow march towards Trevor’s group. At the distance, they were easy prey for the rifles. Trevor brought up his AR-15 and let go two shots which slammed into the first one, ripping away part of its skull. The man in his 40s with the business suit dropped to the pavement in a heap. Jason fired his rifle, and the next one fell as its head blew away from the impact. Ian moved closer with his axe and took off the head of another one, splattering gore across the side of a car and the pavement. Lauren screamed as one of them got close to her, but she managed to swing the hatchet and drive it into the dead’s skull. She withdrew the hatchet and kicked hard, shoving it backwards as it fell to the ground. Ian moved through the dead, swinging his axe left and right, chopping at them. He killed two more with quick rapid axe strokes. He held the axe out with both hands and pushed two back before taking two more swings, decapitating them. He brought the axe down on another, which split its skull in two with a spray of brains. One of the dead opened its jaws, the left side of its head missing, the skin hanging down in bloody strips, the white eyes staring out at Samantha as it staggered towards her. She backed up, but froze in fear unable to swing her bat.

Jason saw it as it lunged for her. “No!” he screamed, as he let go three rounds from his rifle. They slammed into the chest just before the thing clamped its bloody jaws around her shoulder. She was protected with the hockey padding, but any small bite would be fatal, they couldn’t take any chances. Jason ran up to the thing as it staggered backwards from the rifle blows he slammed the rifle but into its head and knocked it over. He brought he rifle down onto the head and caved in the skull. He tuned to Samantha. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I just lost it for a minute. It’s face, God, its face.”

Jason put his arm around her shoulder. “It’s okay, I’ll protect you. No one living or dead will ever hurt you again, I promise. Just be careful, don’t want you to get bit.”

“I’ll be more careful.” Samantha gave him a quick hug. “Thanks.”

Trevor went to look around the corner as he reloaded his rifle with another magazine. “That looks like the last of them, at least for now,” he said to Ian.

“Ya, lad, it does. Can’t say I miss ‘em yet.” He tore the shirt off of one of the dead and used it to clean his axe. “Gah, I’ll never get used to this damn smell.”

“Yeah,” said Trevor. “The smell of death, it’s everywhere now. It’s just waiting for us to make one small mistake. We’ll stop here for a bit to rest while I reload.”

“Sure, lad. I’ll go back a ways to scout. I’ll be back soon.”

“Be careful.”

“Ya, lad.”

“Over here,” said Trevor as he motioned to his son.

“Starting to run low on ammo,” said Jason.

“That’s going to be a problem if we run into larger groups of them. We’ll need to find more weapons soon, but we have to keep moving, can’t be trapped in this city when nightfall comes.”

“I’ll switch to the shotgun. We got plenty of rounds for it.”

“Good idea.”

Lauren came up to Trevor. She held her helmet in her hand. She put it onto the car and leaned back, taking a sip of water from her canteen. She passed it to Trevor. “Here.”

He unbuttoned his helmet and took a long drink. “Thanks. You did well against them, I’m proud of you.”

“I don’t feel pride killing another human being.”

“Can’t think of it like that, hon, they are dead. Probably don’t even feel it.”

“Maybe they do, Trevor. What if they are screaming to be freed out of the hell they are in? Maybe they feel everything. How can we know?”
I wish this would all end, what have we become? The living and the dead. Which is better? I don’t know any more, I just don’t know.

“It’s us or them, I—”

Just then, a woman came out of a flower shop across the street. She held onto her shoulder which seeped blood between her fingers. She was crying and coughing. She looked about twenty six, with long blonde hair, trim figure, and she wore a nice gray business skirt with a white blouse. She held onto the door for a moment before she called over to them. “Please…” she coughed again. “Please help me. I… need a doctor.”

Lauren put her hand over her mouth as the woman staggered toward them. Her face was white, and her eye makeup had run down her pretty face. The tears stained her eyes as she coughed harder. Trevor raised his rifle.

“No,” said Lauren. “It’s okay, we can help you, what’s your name?”

“Suzy,” she said. “Got scared and hid in that shop. Bunch of those things came through here. I got bit. I was hiding…” She coughed harder as sweat poured down her face. She got closer, then extended her hand, “Please…My shoulder hu—”

The crack of the rifle pierced the silence as it tore into her head spilling her brains over the ground near Lauren before Suzy toppled backwards. Her white blouse now stained red as a pool of blood flowed from her ruined skull, her eyes looked up at the sky.

“Why did you do that?” Lauren screamed. “Why Trevor? I’m so damn tired of death, I want to live again. She wanted to live!”
I want to be a wife again. I want to go home!

“She was as good as dead,” he said.

‘I’m so tired, so damn tired. I just want to go home. I want it to end. What will become of us?” Lauren wiped the sweat from her brow and the tears that stained her eyes. “She doesn’t get to live anymore, we took her life. We’re monsters just like them, maybe we are worse.”

“We stopped her from becoming one of them. You know she was dead already. You have to accept it, you have to go on living. Dammit, we all have to just go on living!”

“She would have changed, Mom, maybe she would have attacked one of us. Do you want to lose me or Dad?” said Trevor.

“We have already changed,” said Lauren. “We’re all just mindless killers now.”

“Kill or be killed. You know it just as well as I do,” Trevor yelled. “Well, I for one want to go on living, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect that!”

“Well, I’m tired of killing. I just want our life back. I want this to end,” Lauren sobbed. “Fuck all of it!” She hurled her water bottle across the street.

“Lauren—”

She put her hand out. “No, don’t you touch me. Just leave me alone!”

“Hon, we are alive, we have to go on living. It’s all we got.”

“No. You’re so wrong. Those things are more alive than we will ever be now. We are the living dead. Just a shell existing in this madness, waiting for it to all end. Who’s going to be next? Will it be me or Samantha? Maybe it will be Ian or our son, maybe it will be you.”

“We’re going to make it, hon. We’ll start over.”

“Yeah, start over. There won’t be enough of us left to do that. It’s all slipping away.”

“Don’t wallow in your self-pity. I’m gonna make sure we all get out of here. You’re son needs you… I need you.”

“It’s gonna be fine, Mom.”

Samantha came over and hugged her. “I lost my mom and dad, Mrs. Blake. We can survive, we got to. We’ll do it together.”

“Trevor… I... Oh damn it...” The tears flowed from Lauren, and he put his arms around her. He held her there in the ruins of the street. He watched in the distance as Ian fast approached.

Ian was out of breath by the time he reached them. “There a group of them back there, so we better get moving.”