Forsaken World (Book 1): Innocence Lost (15 page)

Seeing the woman on the Escalade not moving, Lance grabbed the binoculars and saw she was still breathing but very shallow like she was asleep. He looked at the bite on her shoulder and saw the stinky had taken a divot out of her deltoid.

Putting the binoculars down, he made several more entries then grabbed the binoculars and saw a stinky just standing in front of the house across the street dressed in a running outfit. Lance didn’t know the man but had seen him around the neighborhood and thought he lived on the very last road in the neighborhood.

His skin was a pasty, sickly white like all the stinkers. On his left forearm was a bite that looked like it came from a small kid. Putting the binoculars down, Lance made more entries. It was two p.m. when Ian and Jennifer came upstairs and found Lance sitting at the window with the binoculars up to his face. Setting them down, Lance made an entry and turned to another page. “How is she doing?” he asked without looking up.

“She knows the five rules and is doing well,” Ian said, moving to read over Lance’s shoulder. Lance wrote fifty-two and circled the number then wrote, “Stinkers only go after humans. They only attack animals if animals attack one of them. White German Shepard from front of neighborhood barked around them for almost an hour but when it bit one taking it to the ground, others came over killing it. None purposely fed off it.”

“They killed Ghost?” Ian asked, looking out the window.

“Yeah,” Lance said, making another entry. “He’s down past Jennifer’s house on the sidewalk.”

Seeing something red and white, Ian grabbed the binoculars, and what he saw made him wish he would’ve just taken Lance’s word. “How do you know they don’t attack other animals?”

“Seen several dogs and even a doe walk around the stinkers, but they don’t go after them when they see them. If they hear them, they go see what the noise is, but when they see it’s not human, the stinkers just leave. They can smell but not great,” Lance said as he continued writing then glanced up for a second.

Putting the binoculars down and looking back at Lance, Ian asked, “How good can stinkers smell?” as Lance turned a page and started making another entry.

“Don’t know, but they can’t smell us in here, but Mr. Donner ran out of his house to his car a while ago. None saw him, but one stopped sniffing the door of his car about ten minutes after he touched it. It walked around the yard. I think it was growling, and a few others came over, looking like they were sniffing the air. One went on the porch an hour after Mr. Donner went back inside, sniffing the door, but left,” Lance said and picked up the binoculars.

Jennifer moved to the window. “I can’t believe Mr. Donner is alive. He’s an old wimp.”

“Yeah, he was Mr. Oliver’s only friend in the neighborhood,” Ian said as Lance put the binoculars down. “So if animals leave the stinkers alone, the stinkers don’t try to eat them?” he asked, and Lance nodded as he started writing. Glancing down at the Escalade, Ian jumped back. “The woman’s gone!”

“Yeah, she got up,” Lance looked at his watch, “one hour and twelve minutes ago. She just walked off the Escalade and broke her ankle.” Dropping his arm, Lance looked around outside and pointed. “She’s in front of my house beside the mailbox.”

Ian and Jennifer looked and saw her just staring off down the road with her right ankle pointed ninety degrees from her leg. “She looks bad,” Ian said.

“She tripped over several of the bodies Uncle Doug shot, and I think she broke her nose, but she won’t look over here long enough for me to say for sure,” Lance said as he started a new entry. “The girls finish?”

“Yeah, I found some of those buckets of loose .22s, and they started making bags of fifty,” Ian said, leaning up against a shelf as he looked outside.

Jennifer looked at all the bodies lying everywhere. “Are we going to have trouble getting out of here with all those bodies on the road?”

Laughing, Lance quit writing and looked up at her. “Not for the Hummer. It has a two-inch lift with forty-inch super swampers.”

“It can high center,” Jennifer said, making both boys jump in shock. “What, I can’t know something like that?”

Ian looked down at Lance then at her. “Well yeah, but how would you?” he asked.

“Last year, the bus we were on for a football game high centered on a cement block they put in parking lots. I just knew the back wheels were off the ground, but one of the players said it was ‘high centered.’”

“I’m impressed,” Ian mumbled.

Smiling, Lance went back to writing. “Yes, we could high center, but the skid plate under the Hummer is shaped like a boat. Uncle Doug put it on after we high centered on some rocks. Now, it slides off.”

“You know a lot about that Hummer,” Jennifer giggled.

Shaking his head, Ian looked over at Jennifer. “That’s his dream car. He can tell you everything about it from memory and all the upgrades Uncle Doug put on it.”

“Is that why Doug let you drive it?” Jennifer asked, looking outside and seeing the woman hobble away from the mailbox, heading to the side of Lance’s house. Looking away from the woman, she saw several stinkers moving toward the same area. “What are they doing?”

Lance’s head snapped up as he grabbed the binoculars. “Just for your information, Uncle Doug didn’t ‘let’ me drive the Hummer. He made me.”

Watching as a dozen or so stinkers moved to the side of Lance’s house, Ian leaned closer to the window. “Uncle Doug told Lance if he didn’t drive the Hummer down the road by himself, he was going to chop off his tally whacker with dull scissors,” Ian mumbled, watching two stinkers break into a trot and disappear around the corner of Lance’s house. “Where are they going?”

“The street behind my house,” Lance said, looking through binoculars. “Looks like someone is leaving.”

Squinting, Ian saw a blue car backing away from a house. “Is that Tony’s house?”

“Yeah, looks like his dad’s car,” Lance said, lowering the binoculars.

“How many others in the neighborhood do you think are alive?” Jennifer asked, watching the car drive down the road.

“Not many,” Lance said, passing the binoculars to Ian. “Mr. Donner is the only one I’ve found on our street, but I can’t see the other houses on this side. If you look close at the houses we can see, only a few don’t have broken down doors or busted windows. The ones that don’t we know are empty.”

“Someone is still at Tony’s house. I saw them looking out the upstairs window,” Ian said and passed the binoculars to Jennifer.

“Only one person was in the car, and it looked like a man,” Lance said as he started writing then glanced outside to see a few stinkers around. “Crack the window, and let Jennifer shoot some of the stinkers.”

“Won’t they all come over here if they hear it?” Jennifer asked, looking down at her AR.

“I’m positive they will, but there can’t be but a hundred or so in the area. Whatever Uncle Doug did, most seem to have left,” Lance said as Ian moved over to the window.

When Ian raised the window, the smell of rotten eggs flooded inside. Jumping up out of his chair and covering his mouth, Lance let the notebook hit the floor as he tried not to puke. “They earned the name stinkers,” he mumbled. Seeing Ian had only raised the window a few inches, Lance shook his head. “No, open it, and set up well away from the window, and shoot several feet away from the window. The room will help trap some sound the suppressor lets out.”

Nodding, Ian moved the chair Lance was using back from the window as Jennifer picked up his notebook. “How long you want to let her shoot?” Ian asked, pulling Jennifer to the chair.

Feeling queasy, Lance tried to swallow. “Until she hits what she’s aiming at,” he said, turning for the door. “I’m going to get something to drink.”

Grabbing another chair, Ian pulled it beside Jennifer. “See that one in the middle of the road in front of us?” he asked, sitting down, and Jennifer nodded. “Shoot her in the head.”

“That’s Ms. Glen,” Jennifer mumbled.

Slowly, Ian shook his head. “Not anymore.”

Feeling sick, Jennifer lifted the AR to her shoulder, looking through the window of the red dot sight. Putting the red dot in the middle of the circle on the side of Ms. Glen’s head, Jennifer flipped the safety off with her thumb as her index finger moved to the trigger. Letting out half her breath, Jennifer caressed the trigger and felt the AR buck and cough.

She saw a puff of smoke on the road on the other side of Ms. Glen. “You were right in front of her,” Ian said. Jennifer shot two more times and saw puffs of smoke on the road. Ian reached over and used a small piece of metal to turn a screw. “Just have to dial the EoTech in,” he grinned. “Now try it.”

When Jennifer squeezed the trigger, Ms. Glen’s head detonated, and the body collapsed. Fighting not to get sick, she flipped the safety on and mumbled, “I hit her.”

“Man in the yard next door,” Ian said, pointing. Jennifer aimed at the man’s forehead, squeezed the trigger, and watched the back of the man’s head spray out in a mist. When Jennifer emptied her magazine, Ian grabbed the binoculars and said, “Swing your magnifier over, and let’s aim at some farther away.”

“Some are moving toward us,” Jennifer said as she pulled the magnifier back and swung it over behind the EoTech.

“That’s their problem,” Ian said, finding a target. “Green shirt standing in your front yard.” Resting her elbows on her knees, Jennifer aimed the AR and squeezed the trigger. “You grazed his cheek. Don’t jerk the trigger when you are aiming. Focus on a small target like the tip of his nose and not his entire face. Aim small, miss small.”

Caressing the trigger, Jennifer watched the man’s head jerk back as his body collapsed. “I hit him.” She grinned as Ian called out another target. When she finished that magazine, Ian brought up his AR and joined in.

Lance came back and joined the two in clearing out the area. Not seeing anything moving close, they collected the empty magazines. “Don’t load them; I want to teach Allie and Carrie how to do that,” Lance said as he walked over and closed the window. “If we are attacked, I want those two loading magazines while we shoot.”

They moved downstairs and saw a mountain of plastic bags with bullets on the kitchen table. “Lance, since you’re driving, go lay down,” Jennifer said, putting her empty magazines on the kitchen table. “We’ll all lay down after we load these and get these put in the Hummer,” she said, waving at the mountain of plastic ammo bags.

“Put them in the floorboard behind the driver’s seat,” Lance said, nodding as he headed for the couch. “We need it filled so Dino has a flat area he can lay down on.”

They watched Lance walk over to the couch, set his notebook on the coffee table, and take off his AR. Leaving his gear on, Lance collapsed and was soon snoring softly.

Chapter 11

“Lance, wake up. Your mom and dad are on the phone!” Ian said, shaking Lance violently. The words pierced the fog of Lance’s sleep, and he jumped off the couch, almost knocking Ian over. Lance started patting his pockets under the chest rig, looking for his phone. “Dude, they’re on the sat phone,” Ian said, holding it out.

Lance grabbed the phone. “Mom, Dad,” he said, wiping the sleep out of his eyes, and heard his parents on speakerphone.

“Oh Lance, it’s so good to hear your voice,” his mom cried out, and Lance could tell she was trying not to cry.

“Hey, buddy,” his dad said.

“Hi, Mom; hi, Dad. Are you doing okay?” Lance asked and looked down at the screen of the sat phone and saw his mom’s number.

“Baby, we are okay, and your dad thinks he’s found a boat that can get us to the mainland,” his mom said.

“No, wait till it calms down some please,” Lance begged, feeling his heart speed up.

“Son,” his dad said in a serious voice. “It’s only going to get worse. All the major networks are off the air. A lot of the internet is still up, but that won’t last when the power starts fading. The reports aren’t that encouraging for this to settle down.”

“Dad, Uncle Doug got shot. Stinkers don’t shoot. Uncle Doug said people were the main threat right now,” Lance said, looking around and noticing lights on.

“Yes, Ian tried calling his mom and dad, but their phones don’t have reception out here. He called ours and told us you were asleep. Ian and Allie talked to their mom and dad for a while,” Lance’s dad told him.

“Baby,” Lance’s mom cut in. “Don’t worry about us. You get to the cabin like you planned. There isn’t anything you and Ian can’t do together.”

“Did Ian tell you I’m driving because he’s chicken?”

Lance could hear his mom force a laugh. “Baby, you’ve driven the Hummer before.”

“Once,” Lance huffed. “Down the road and back by myself, and you got mad at Uncle Doug.”

“I was wrong,” she mumbled. “You can do it, baby. Ian said Doug had the route planned out for you.”

“Yes ma’am. The GPS on the dash has the route programmed, and Uncle Doug made us go over the route on maps.”

“Son,” his dad said. “If something happens and you have to leave the Hummer, break the GPS so no one can follow.”

“Yes sir. Uncle Doug told us that and wouldn’t let us mark the route on the map.”

“Baby, when you get to the cabin, G-mail is still up, so check your e-mail. Download it, and watch what you send out, okay? We are still getting internet for the iPads,” his mom told him, trying not to cry.

Then Lance heard his dad’s voice warbling in static. “—move up to the cabin carefully.”

“Dad, you’re breaking up. What did you say?”

“Don’t just drive up to the cabin. Park in the field below, and move up to the cabin carefully on foot.”

“Yes sir,” Lance said and heard static. He looked at the screen and saw he had excellent satellite signal.

“It’s on their end,” Ian said, moving over. “Just give it a minute.”

“Son, you there?” he heard his dad’s voice from the phone.

Putting the phone back to his ear, he said, “I’m here, Dad, but you’re breaking up.”

“Baby, you be careful, but get to the cabin,” his mom said as her voice started to warble over the phone.

“We will, Mom. I’ll try and call or e-mail you when we get to the cabin,” Lance said and waited but didn’t hear any reply. Knowing it wasn’t from his end, Lance just held the phone to his ear until he heard a beep. “Call Failed” was across the screen.

Hanging up, Lance tried his mom’s number and his dad’s but only got messages. “It’s hit and miss, bro,” Ian said, watching Lance dial.

“How long did you talk to your mom and dad?” Lance asked, hanging up the phone.

“Altogether almost an hour,” Ian said, turning to Allie on the couch. “They talked to her for most of it.”

“Do they have stinkers there?”

“Yeah but not many where they are.”

“Why can’t they just stay there and wait?” Lance said, dropping down on the couch.

Letting out a sigh, Ian sat down beside him. “They want to be with us,” Ian said, patting Lance’s leg.

“I want them to be here, but they don’t have guns. The easy part will be crossing the ocean. Then, they will have to cross the country through who knows what,” Lance mumbled. Suddenly, Lance jerked his head up and slapped his forehead. “I’m such an idiot!”

“What?” Ian asked, feeling very confused.

“The news!” Lance said, jumping up. “We could’ve watched the news and found out what was happening everywhere.”

Ian shook his head. “I already made that connection and felt like an idiot then too.”

Looking at his watch, Lance asked, “It’s eight. How dark outside is it?”

“Still pretty light out. The street lights didn’t come on till around nine.”

Lance nodded as he looked around the room. “Where are Jennifer and Carrie?”

Slowly standing up, Ian cast his eyes down. “They’re upstairs looking around. Jennifer and Carrie were trying not to cry as Allie and I talked to Mom and Dad.”

“Get them down here, and get Jennifer to change everyone’s battery on their radio. Then, have Allie and Carrie put extra batteries in bags for the night vision, flashlights, lasers on the rifles, and anything else we are carrying,” Lance said, walking toward the office. “Get Carrie to put food in bags for Dino.”

Ian took off as Lance sat down at the desk, looking at the laptop screen with all the views from around the cabin. Minimizing the screen, he started surfing the web and found several sites down, but enough were online that he started downloading information.

The images from major cities made a shiver run down Lance’s spine. Tens of thousands of stinkers were filling the streets. Finding several chat rooms, Lance saw people talking about the stinkers. Cutting and pasting, Lance started printing what others had found out. On a survivalist site, there were warnings about gangs roaming the countryside near any big city.

Ian walked in to find Lance loading the printer with paper. “What are you printing?” he asked, seeing the stack of printed pages beside the laptop.

“What others have found out and what they know.”

“What have you found out?”

“Nobody knows where the president is at, and the stinkers are on every continent. There’s even a report from one of the Antarctica research stations being wiped out by stinkers.”

Ian stepped around the desk. “They’re calling them stinkers like us?”

“No, most are calling them ‘violent infected.’ A few people are calling them zombies.”

“They don’t look like zombies,” Ian said, looking at a screenshot of Chicago. “Except for the pasty white skin and missing body parts, they look like sick people. I thought zombies were like rotting.”

“May not be long enough yet,” Lance offered, hitting the print button.

“It’s almost nine, and we need to pack the satellite link box and laptop up,” Ian said, standing and stretching.

Nodding, Lance started closing windows and shut down the laptop. “The girls get finished?”

“Your batteries are on the kitchen table, and Jennifer’s fixing sandwiches for the trip. I just looked outside, and no stinkers are close,” Ian said, snapping the satellite linkups case closed. “That was good thinking to get Jennifer, Allie, and Carrie to stop crying.”

Finding the shoulder bag for the laptop, Lance closed it and put it inside along with the cables. “We have to stay busy,” he said more to himself than to Ian.

“I know, buddy,” Ian said, lifting the case off the desk. “I’ll help you drive some if you need me to.”

Stunned, Lance looked up. “Really?”

“I don’t think I’ll be pulling into a garage, so I’ll try but only if you can’t go anymore.”

Lance laughed. “What are the odds you and your brother would crash into the back of the garage?”

“Hey, it was even the same side.” Ian grinned. “Jason did manage to get some of the bumper out the other side where I didn’t.”

“When we get to the cabin, we will both practice driving the Hummer,” Lance said, putting the laptop bag on his shoulder, and looked around. “Hope we have everything.”

“Yeah because we ain’t coming back,” Ian said as Lance walked out.

They put the stuff in the back passenger floorboard then added some blankets for Dino until the area was filled in even with the seat. They went back inside and grabbed the last few things, checked their gear they had on, then everyone moved out to the Hummer.

It took some work because Dino was used to riding in the back, but it was packed with stuff, but he finally jumped in and climbed onto the seat. Then, he put his front paws on the center divider between the back seats, and Dino’s head was between the front seats.

With Jennifer lifting them, Allie and Carrie climbed in and sat on the center divider behind Dino, and Jennifer climbed and put her AR between her feet. Climbing up on the running board, Lance put his AR on the dashboard like the note from Doug told him to and a pillow in his seat as Ian climbed in the passenger door.

“I can’t wait to get there,” Ian said, resting his AR against the door.

“Me either,” Lance said as he climbed in and reached over, turning on the GPS. After the screen warmed up, “Same Destination” appeared on it. Lance tapped yes and saw the green line run up to Kentucky.

“Pull forward, and turn right,” a female voice told him.

“What are all the metal tubes running across the front end and hood for?” Jennifer asked behind him.

“Professional brush guard with a winch. It’s the same on the brush guard on the back,” Lance said, closing his door and making sure his helmet was on tight. “Shit, forgot to turn out the garage light,” he said, reaching up to turn on his night vision.

“I’ll get it,” Ian said, jumping out. When he turned off the light, it was freaking dark. Behind him, Lance heard switches clicking as everyone turned on night vision. Only he and Ian had the monster four tubes; there were others, but nobody cared since they could at least see in the dark.

Lance lowered the goggles over his eyes, and the garage was cast in a sharp, clear, green image. He turned to see Ian walking over with his night vision down. When Ian opened his door, everyone’s night vision shut off, and they groaned. “Shit, it was dark,” Ian said as Lance flipped up his goggles, saw the switch for the interior lights, and turned it off.

“Wonder how much else I’m not doing right,” Lance mumbled, lowering his night vision and waiting for the safety switch to turn off, and the goggles turned back on.

“Pull forward, and turn right,” the female voice from the GPS unit said again.

“I heard you the first time, bitch. Shut up,” Lance shouted, putting the key in the ignition.

“Okay, listen up. If for some reason you have to drive,” he said turning the key and pointing at the dashboard, “you have to wait till that light goes off before you start the engine. If it doesn’t come on, then the engine is already warm. Understand?”

Everyone said yes, and Lance turned the key and heard the big diesel engine turn over. “Ian, open the door,” Lance said, taking a deep breath leaving all the outside lights off. Ian hit the remote for the garage door, and everyone jumped as it rolled up.

“You know we are like in a weird three little pigs story,” Jennifer said, watching the door roll up slowly. “We started in a house of straw, moved to a house of sticks, ran to a house of bricks, and now driving to a house like a vault.”

“I’m not leaving this house when we get there,” Allie said as the door rose enough for them to see outside.

Reaching up, Lance had to turn the intensity of his night vision down from the star and moonlight outside. “I hear you, Allie,” Lance said, pressing the brake and shifting into D. The Hummer rolled forward and stopped with a jerk. Confused, Lance pressed the accelerator, feeling the Hummer struggle to move forward.

“That trailer can’t be that heavy,” Ian said, feeling the vehicle creep forward. He looked in his mirror and swore the trailer was moving up in the air. Suddenly, the trailer dropped down, and the Hummer shot out of the garage.

“What the hell happened?” Lance yelled, hitting the brakes.

Ian turned around, pressing the button to close the garage door. “We forgot to unchock the wheels of the trailer. The Hummer had to pull the trailer over the chocks.”

Lance looked in his mirror as the garage door closed. “Those are some big ass chocks,” he said, looking at the yellow wedges. “Never thought to look.”

“Shit, me either,” Ian said as the GPS said, “Turn right, drive point six miles, and turn left.”

“I think I’m going to hate that woman before this trip is over,” Lance said, taking his foot off the brake, and the Hummer pulled forward without him touching the accelerator. Unlike with the truck, they could only idle less than ten miles an hour.

When they were in front of Jennifer’s house, Ian grabbed the door handle. “Don’t speed up,” he said, jumping out. He ran to her porch, taped a piece of paper to the wall, and ran back before Lance drove past her yard and jumped back in. “Left them a note saying Jennifer and Carrie were with us and safe.”