Day Beyond the Dead (Book 1) (12 page)

     “I got this.” Gerard was moving his arms vigorously behind his back when Darren noticed a few drops of blood fall to the floor.

     “Gerard I said be careful. You really don’t need any more open wounds. That will just up your risk for infection. It’s not like we have a first aid kit at the moment.”

     “It’ll be fine Darren. Chill out.” Gerard pulls his free hands from behind his back. “See.” His hands were covered in blood from a few skin tears in his right hand. Gerard looks over at Damion, “How’s that for counterproductive asshole?” Damion glares at Gerard.

     “Just untie me.” Gerard walks over to Damion and unties him and then Darren. “Unless you got an idea about how to go out the front door that doesn’t sound utterly ridiculous then I suggest we go with the vent. Anybody?” Damion looks at Gerard and Darren.

      Darren shrugged, “I got nothing. I had the jagged metal idea and that was about it.”

     “Well then vent it is. Let’s get some sturdy boxes and make it easier on us to reach that vent,” Damion said as he started pushing a heavy box directly underneath the vent. Gerard goes over and helps him push. Damion just gives a quick glance towards him and then continues to push till the box is underneath the vent. “That should do it.” Damion stands up on the box and carefully opens the vent, takes off the covering and hands it down to Gerard. Damion stuck his head through the vent to look around. “I think we should go this way. This one is going towards the house. Let’s just hope we don’t get lose our direction.”

     “Oh I’m sure it’d be fun to crawl out of the wrong vent. It’s not like I didn’t get enough of mister wonderful earlier. What I wouldn’t give to drop kick him in the teeth,” Darren was exerting a side of himself that Damion and Gerard had yet to see until now.

     “Wow,” Gerard said, “I’ve not seen this side of you Darren. I can honestly say I rather see it more often.”

     “Well I have a feeling you will. Something tells me there’s no shortages around here for reasons to show it.”

     “Yeah no shit.”

     “Hey you two chatty kathys, you wanna get up here in this ventilation shaft with me or chit chat?”

     “Damn, my bad.” Gerard looked up at Damion as he climbed on top of the box and in through the vent. Darren followed and they crawled off slowly in the direction that Damion went.

     They crawled about twenty feet where the shaft split in two directions. Damion paused but for a moment before going left which is further away from the room they were just in. They made it to the end of the shaft where an opening was. Damion gestured for Gerard and Darren to stop. He pressed his face to the vent to get a better look at what was under him. He couldn’t see anything except for a shower, sink and a toilet. He quietly pops the vent door open, but it slips from his fingers and falls to the bathroom floor. Damion freezes in place awaiting on something, someone to walk through the door. A few seconds pass by but no one does. Damion drops down to the bathroom floor, goes over to the door and waits for the rest to drop down. He carefully twists the knob and opens the door just enough to peek out of.

     He doesn’t see anyone so he moves out into the hallway. The hallway is lined with beautiful paintings that look to be from the Victorian era. All of them were just as confused as the next with how drastic the scenery changed.

     “What the hell? Did we just step through a time warp? We went from the drab storage room to a very high society Victorian house,” Darren remarked.

     Gerard seemed just as taken back by it, “This is the strangest set up I’ve ever seen. Let’s get Christa and get out of here please.”

     They got to the end of the hallway and noticed a guard pacing back and forth about ten feet from them. “I got this.” Damion crept up towards him, trying to assess his surroundings incase there were other individuals near. He quickly came up behind the guard and put his arms around his neck, squeezing until he lost consciousness. Then whispered, “It’s clear.”

     The hallway opened up into a room that held many options as to which way to go. There were these beautiful stairs that went upwards, a room branching off to the left, the front door, and a door off to the right.

     “I dunno which way to go from here,” Damion confessed.

     “I remember her saying ‘to her room’ so the best bet would be upstairs I’m assuming.”

     “Good call Darren.” They carefully scanned each opening before heading up the stairs. When they reached the top they all stopped. There were six doors and if they chose the wrong one it might be their last. “Now what?” Darren questioned.

     “Well if I know Becca it’ll be the biggest room and it’s easy to see where that would be. The room that is set right in the middle. Well at least that’s where I would have it.”

     “Thanks Gerard for that assessment,” Darren’s sarcasm even made Damion slightly laugh.

     They approached the bedroom and slowly turned the door knob. Damion took a deep breath in and quickly flung open the door. It was a bedroom and a big one at that, but the first thing that caught his attention was a bed out of the corner of his left eye. Not just because it was a bed but because of what it held. There was a sheet covering something that looked like a body and blood had saturated a good portion of it.

     His heart fell immediately and a humming noise rang throughout his eardrums. Was he too late?

Chapter 11

          Damion goes to pull back the cover from the body and is immediately cut off. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. It’s pretty gruesome.” Christa had walked out of the closet limping with clothes on she hadn’t been wearing before.

     Damion ran over to her and put his arms around her. “Christa, thank God! I thought, I mean I’d hoped-“

     “- that is wasn’t me? Well it’s not. It’s Becca.”

     Damion looked over her face and exposed body. There were fresh bruises and cuts on her body. “Oh my God Christa what happened to you?? Are you alright??”

     “I really rather not talk about it.”

     “Did she hur-“

     “I said I really rather not talk about it Damion. Please.” The look in Christa’s eyes was enough to let him know that he needed to leave it alone because whatever it was affected her deeply. “Let’s just say she got what she deserved.”

     “That’s good enough for me,” Gerard interrupted. “Now can we please get out of here? We have enough to deal with besides these dumb fucks.”

     “Well we aren’t just going to waltz out the front door and ask for the keys to our trucks so we need to think up some sort of ‘on the fly’ plan.”

     “What? You mean you didn’t think of a plan before we did all of this Damion?”

     “Gerard, how in the hell would I make a plan when I don’t know the layout of this godforsaken place? I was just determined to get to Christa and I would have done anything to accomplish that so no I don’t have a plan. We’ll just have to use our gut feelings and instincts.’

     “At this point I’m just happy I’m not still stuck in that storage room waiting for God knows what to happen to us. I really didn’t expect to be alive long so I’m happy that I am at the moment. So let’s stop bickering amongst ourselves and work together to get our asses out of here.” More often than not Darren was the voice of reason between Damion and Gerard.

     Before they left the bedroom Christa walked over to her jeans and grabbed the two pictures out of the back pocket. She glimpses at them before putting them in her current back pocket. “I’m ready to go now.”

     Damion took her hand and headed for the door. “We need to be careful. They have weapons, we don’t and I’m not even sure how many of them there are.”

     Christa looks around, “There has to be something up here we can use as a weapon. Most people keep scissors in the bathroom, check there. The rest of us do a quick sweep of the room. There has to be something!”

     Gerard went to the bathroom to look while the rest of them searched the room for any object to use as a weapon. So far the search didn’t prove to be fruitful, but just as they were about to give up Gerard comes out of the bathroom.

     “Well I found something.”

     “You found some scissors,” Christa asked.

     “Well not quite,” Gerard pulls out a nail file from his pocket, “but if I’m really close to someone or I have a hangnail then I’m covered. There were no scissors in there.”

     “Well a nail file it is then. I didn’t find anything. I thought for sure there’d at least be a pair of scissors in the bathroom. Well I guess we can check on the way. That is if we don’t run into any problems along the way.”
Problems? It’s as if all we seem to do is run into problems.

     “Let me go first,” Damion went over and turned the knob.

     Gerard quickly put his hand on the knob to stop him, “Stop hogging everything. I got this.” Gerard motioned Damion and Christa out of the way and proceeded to open the door.

     “Be careful,” Christa whispered. Gerard nodded.

     Gerard popped his head outside of the door and slowly walked out. Damion and Christa were next, followed by Darren. They crept down the stairs and headed for the front door.

     “Wait. What about the kitchen? There has to be something in there we can use.”

      “Well Christa, that’d be great if any of us knew where it was or if we could get there,” remarked Darren.

      “Just wait a second. Let me see what I can see how this peep hole first. We might have a decent chance without acquiring anything else.” Gerard walked over to the peep hole and looked out.

     “Anything?” Christa asked.

     “No, nothing. I can see some trees and bushes and a porch that looks to wrap around but not much else. Oh wait, I can see where the trucks are, at least I think I can. It’s hard to tell looking out this little hole.”

     Footsteps were heard all of a sudden, but were faint. They were so faint they couldn’t tell which direction they were coming from. As they all looked around Damion pointed at the door as if to say they were outside on the porch. Christa quickly walked over to the closet and opened it, which was big enough for all four of them to fit into.

     “Hurry up! Get in!” They all ran over to Christa and got inside the closet. She shut the door simultaneously as the front door opened.
Just in time,
she thought.

     The footsteps stopped momentarily and voices could be heard.

     “Let me grab another jacket man. It’s cold out there.” Footsteps were heading in their direction and they all braced for a fight. Gerard held the nail file above his head ready to go on the attack if need be.

     “Seriously? Come on. You got enough on already. If you get another jacket you’ll complain about how hot you are. Leave it alone. We don’t have time for this shit Jason.”

Jason? Now where have I heard that name before? Oh yeah, the asshole that about choked me out.
Christa lightly huffed at the realization of who he was. Damion squeezed her hand. The doorknob started to turn but stopped.

     “Yeah I guess you’re right. Let’s go see if Becca needs any help.” The footsteps slowly got lighter and more faint as they went upwards.

     Damion sighs, “That was close. Let’s go.

     Christa’s face went flush, “Let’s hurry fast.”

     “Why?”

     “When they find Becca they are going to know something is up and it will make getting out of here a hell of a lot harder. Understand now??”

     Damion’s eyes widened, “Oh shit! Let’s go!”

     They quickly opened the door and headed for the front door. Damion didn’t have time to take the cautious route so he opened the door and took a quick glance around and made his way down to the big bush on the left. Once they were all down there Darren looked around and noticed Gerard wasn’t with them. “Where is Gerard?”

     “Damnit Gerard. He’s going to get us all caught if he’s not careful,” Damion exclaimed in his loudest whisper.

     Just then Gerard came out the front door with a machine gun. He quickly closed distance with the rest of the group behind the bush. “Sorry, but that guy put down this gun near the closet and I wasn’t about to not get the totally badass machine gun.”

     “Oh my God Gerard. For once you did something right.”

     “I’ll take that as a compliment Damion.”

     “You should because it’s about the only one you’re getting for me.”

     “As touching as this male bonding is, we need to go because two more will shortly come out of that house and they won’t be wanting to bond after they’ve seen what I did. So shall we?”

     Damion took lead, running from one bush to another. Slowly but surely getting closer to the two trucks. Damion runs over to a tree and hides behind it. When Christa starts to run he motions her back. She heads back to the cover of the bush. It is at that moment she notices a guy heading in the direction Damion is. She glances back and forth at Damion and the man, gauging the speculated interception. With her heart racing she does something spontaneous. She does the only thing she can think of doing at the moment.

     She pulls her shirt up and ties it, exposing her stomach and comes out from the bush, exposing herself. “Hello, I’ve been waiting for you.”

     The main raises his weapon, “How the hell did you get out?”

     Christa takes a few more steps towards him, “It’s amazing what you can do when you are determined and I was determined to get you alone. From the moment I saw you I wanted you in the worst way.”

     “Yeah, sure you did. Get over here.”

     “I can’t or they’ll make me go back in and I don’t want to go back, especially not before I’ve had you.”

     “You serious?” Christa could tell by the tone of his voice and the look on his face that he was slowly giving in to her suggestions.

     Christa licks her lips, “Mhmm. You want it?” She pulls her shirt up showing her bra as she slides her hands over her breasts and squeezed them gently. “Then come and get it.”

     The man lowers his gun. “Oh girl I’m gonna make you squeal. You just wait till daddy is through with you. I’m going to make you want i-“ A fist from Gerard connected with the man’s face which knocked him out on impact as he rounded the corner of the bush.

     “Oh yeah daddy, I want it alright,” Gerard leaned over and took his gun and the knife that was tied to his belt.

     “Check his pockets,” Christa thought outloud, “Because he might have the keys.”

     Gerard checked his pockets, “Good idea but no such luck. All he had was a lighter, which I took, and a condom, which I didn’t take.”

     “Really? A condom? What an odd thing to have in your pocket nowadays. I don’t even wanna know.”

     “Well Darren, I don’t think any of us wanna know,” joked Gerard.

     They all made it over to where Damion. “This will be the tricky part because there’s this open space and-“

     “Heeeyy!! She’s gone!!! Everyone!! Find them!!”

     “Damnit. This is going to seriously fuck our feung shui right now. Luckily we have two guns but I dunno how many guys are left at this point either. PLUS we don’t even have the keys to the trucks! Damnit damnit damnit.” Damion was visibly frustrated and everyone knew it.

     Two guards came out of the garage which made the total four. They all convened in the front yard near the porch. After a brief interchanging of words they separated and started to examine the residence and outer areas.

     “Would it help if you had some extra time?”

     “What are you talking about Darren?” Christa did not like where that question was going.

     “If someone could buy you guys some time would that help?”

     “Theoretically yes but we still don’t even know where the keys to the trucks are. So who knows how long that could take,” Christa replied.

     “Well it is worth a shot.” Just then Darren abruptly took off and started shouting at the same time as he rounded the corner of the house. All four guys headed out after him.

     Christa went to grab him as he took off but fell short and Damion had to pull her back. “Let him go Christa. We can’t help him now. Let’s take this opportunity he has given us and run for the garage. We have to find those keys.” Damion grabbed Christa’s hand and pulled her along with him towards the garage. She just watched Darren until she couldn’t see him anymore. She was instantly reminded of her thoughts which seemed like forever ago.
Every time we go somewhere new we end up losing one person. I hope this isn’t a trend.
She was desperately hoping that it wasn’t at this point. She had grown attached to Darren’s presence, as they all had.

     They reached the garage and quickly noticed an office looking area. They ran inside and started searching around looking for any sign of keys. They couldn’t seem to find any keys whatsoever.

     A barrage of gunfire could be heard and Christa’s heart sank.
Please dear God don’t let that be Darren getting killed.

     “Quickly! We need to hurry,” Damion urged.

     The search yielded no keys. As a matter of fact the search didn’t really yield anything of use. “Oh my God we’re idiots,” Gerard said from outside the office. Damion and Christa went outside into the garage to find Gerard. He looks at them from inside the truck, “The keys are
in
the truck.”

     “Of course they are because that makes perfect sense.” Damion runs over to the other truck and gives everyone a thumbs up. “I wish we had time to check these for supplies but we really don’t so let’s just go.”

     “What about Darren,” Christa asked as she got inside the truck.

     “You guys go I’ll see if I can find him. No use in all of us being in harm’s way. I can handle this,” said Gerard.

     Christa looks over at Gerard, “No, you can’t and we either leave all together or not at all. I’m sick of always losing someone everywhere we go and that stops here.”

     They backed out of the garage and proceeded to pull up close to the house. Gerard noticed the walkie talkie was still in the truck so he picked it up and waved it at Christa and Damion. Christa picked up the walkie talkie in her truck and turned it on. She heard Gerard’s voice almost immediately, “You guys stay here and wait. I am going to drive around back to see if I can get a visual on Darren.”

     Christa pressed the button, “Ok, don’t be a hero.”

     “So not my style.” And on that note Gerard pulled around the back of the house out of view of Christa and Damion.