Forsaken World (Book 1): Innocence Lost (6 page)

  Letting the AR hang on the sling as he grabbed the pack, the gun banged into his knees, making him wince. Unclipping one end from the harness, Lance clipped it to the front of the AR, changing the one-point sling into a two-point sling so it hung across his body. Liking that much better, he grabbed the backpack and eased downstairs. Halfway down, he heard a house alarm down the street and froze.

The group standing in the front yard turned as one and moved toward the sound. When they were all moving away from the house, he continued downstairs and eased up to the window. Lights at the corners of the house two houses down from Doug’s were on, and Lance knew that’s where the alarm was coming from.

He looked away from the house and was shocked at the numerous forms moving toward the alarm. “This is so fucking not good,” he said, backing away from the window.

Coming into the den, Lance saw Ian standing over two backpacks. “Good idea to bring my scout pack,” Ian said, moving over and taking it.

“The crowd just left the front yard. A house down from Doug’s alarm went off, and you wouldn’t believe how many are out there,” Lance said. “Let’s get bullets.”

Nodding, Ian passed by him, heading for his dad’s office. Lance saw Jennifer still on the couch with Carrie and Allie and followed. When he got to the office, Ian already had the safe open and was pulling out magazines for the AR and boxes of shells for the shotgun.

They quickly loaded the ten magazines, and Lance passed the AR back to Ian. “Keep some of those on you,” Lance said, shoving ammo in his backpack.

Ian nodded and reached in the safe and pulled out a big key. “Think we should take the key to the cabin?” he asked, and Lance looked up at it. It reminded him of the keys in movies that cops used to lock jail cells. The key was almost as long as a fork, wider than a tablespoon, and looked like brass, but they knew it was much tougher.

“Yes, we might need to go there,” Lance said, zipping his backpack up. “We are going to have to leave here soon and get to my house.”

“Are you fucking insane?”

Lance held up his hands, looked Ian in the eyes, and said, “Will you listen? Your house has a porch across the front. That’s six regular windows and one big ass picture window they can break into not counting the door. The porch on the back, they can reach two windows and the door. Your house is made of wood. The windows here may be double, but the ones at my house are storm windows and can’t be reached from the ground. My house is brick with no porch. All three doors have storm doors then a metal door.” He lowered his hands, seeing Ian understanding what he was talking about.

The alarm stopped down the street, filling the night with an eerie quiet. “When?” Ian asked, shoving two magazines in his back pockets.

“Soon,” Lance said, pulling on his backpack.

“I’m going to the garage. You head back to the den,” Ian said, pushing the AR so it hung on the side of his body and grabbed the bat.

Not liking it but knowing Ian had his reasons, Lance nodded, and Ian took off. Reaching for the door of the safe, Lance glanced inside, making sure they had the best weapons available. The safe held thirty guns and was full, but all of them were fancy hunting rifles, bolt or double barrel on one side. The other side held the hunting shotguns with long barrels. Glancing at the top shelf, Lance saw a key ring and a bag of flash drives.

Knowing his dad had information for the family stored on flash drives in their safe, Lance grabbed the bag and key ring. Closing the door, he locked it and put the bag and keys in his back pocket. Leaving the office, he stopped in the kitchen and looked down the hall to the front and didn’t see anything out the windows. From where he was, that only meant nothing was on the porch.

Afraid something outside could hear his heart beating and his breathing, Lance tried to swallow, but his throat was dry. With his throat sticking to itself, he coughed and moved over to the sink, turned on the water, and shoved his mouth under the faucet.

When his stomach was full, Lance turned off the water and stood up, looking out the windows over the sink. His mouth fell open, spilling water over his chest, when he saw three people walking around the backyard. They were well past the swimming pool and almost in the yard of the house behind them, but they were still there.

“Shit,” he mumbled and turned for the den. Jennifer jumped as he walked in. “Just me.”

“Where’s Ian?”

“He’s getting something and will be here in a second,” Lance said, taking off his backpack. “We need to leave here soon.” He saw his and Ian’s cellphones on the table and grabbed them and threw them in his pack.

“Why?” Jennifer asked with her eyes getting big. Lance quickly explained, and when he finished, Jennifer nodded as Ian came in.

In his right hand was his old recurve bow, and on his waist was a quiver of arrows. “You are a genius,” Lance grinned.

“Hey, our hunting bows are at the cabin, but we practiced with these. If I can put an arrow through plywood, I think it should work,” Ian grinned. A loud thump against a window from the front of the house made everyone jump. “We were quiet,” Ian hissed in a panic.

“Shh,” Lance said, moving the shotgun to his back and picking up the staff. With Lance leading, they moved out of the den and saw a figure at the front door lazily slapping the window. “That’s Mr. Oliver,” Lance whispered, moving over to the wall.

“I really hate that motherfucker,” Ian hissed, moving beside Lance. “He’s missing an arm,” Ian said, pulling out an arrow.

They heard other footsteps coming up the stairs on the porch. Lance peeked around the corner then yanked his head back, saying, “Oh shit, they’re here.”

“How many?” Ian asked, looking down at his quiver.

“They’re still adding, and we can’t subtract that fast,” Lance said, moving to the den as other thumps sounded behind him. Ian glanced and saw more pilling on the porch, moving to the windows.

“Motherfuckers are multiplying,” Ian moaned and turned for the den. “I’m finding a machine gun and going to start dividing on their asses.”

Walking in the den, Ian saw Jennifer standing with Carrie on one side and Allie on the other, hugging her tight. Looking over at Lance, Ian saw him put his school backpack loaded with ammo on his chest then pick up Ian’s scout pack and put it on his back. “Allie, get your pack on,” Lance said, grabbing the staff.

Allie darted over, grabbed her pack, and put it on as Ian grabbed his. “You okay carrying all that?” Ian asked, putting his on.

“We are only running to my house, so I’m good. I’ll lead, and Jennifer will stay in the middle with the girls. You’ll bring up the rear,” Lance said, testing what movement he had with the staff. The thumps from the front of the house were increasing in intensity and tempo.

“We need to jet like right fucking now,” Ian said, hearing the glass cracking.

Lance darted out of the den with Jennifer behind him holding each girl’s hand. Ian nocked an arrow and followed. Stopping at the back door, Lance glanced quickly and only saw the three in the very back of the yard, and they were moving away from them. Hitting the exit button on the alarm, Lance eased the door open and went outside.

The rotten egg smell was now much worse as he moved to the corner of the house. Peeking around the corner, he saw figures moving to the front of the house. From there, Lance heard growls and low groans, reminding him of a pack of feeding lions. Looking at Mr. Oliver’s backyard, Lance wanted to scream at the white picket fence.

He turned around, putting his face nose to nose with Jennifer. “I’m going to run and jump the fence. When I’m over, you run carrying Carrie and hand her to me as you jump over. Tell Ian to carry Allie and do the same. We need to move fast and hope they don’t see us,” he barely breathed out. Visibly trembling, Jennifer nodded and turned around to Ian.

Taking a deep breath as he turned around, Lance darted from the side of the house. All the houses in the neighborhood were on five acres, and the houses sat near the front of the land. The picket fence Mr. Oliver had put in was four feet tall and ran around his entire property.

Lance pushed himself hard, and the pack on his chest was beating the air out as Lance tried to suck it back in. With the staff in his right hand and the shotgun over his left shoulder, Lance reached out with his left hand as he jumped, catching the top of the fence. Swinging his body over, he hit the ground feet first and ducked down, looking toward the front of the house.

People of different sizes were still moving to the front of the house, and none seemed to have noticed him. Looking back at the corner of Ian’s house, he saw Jennifer running at him full speed, carrying Carrie. When she got close, Ian stood up, and Jennifer threw Carrie at him.

Lance caught her and pulled her over the fence as he ducked down and saw Jennifer dive over the fence and landed in a roll then sprung to her feet. She duck-walked over to Carrie and grabbed her hand as Lance let her go.

Looking up, Lance saw Ian almost to the fence. He jumped up and was hit in the chest with a flying Allie. He knew Allie only weighed fifty pounds, but the pack she had on was a third of that, and Lance folded with the blow. Dropping his staff, Lance wrapped his arms around Allie, pulling her into the pack he had on his chest.

Hitting the ground hard, the air exploded out of his lungs as Allie’s weight drove him into the ground. Ian dove over the fence and landed beside Lance. He rolled and pulled Allie off Lance and moved his face over until his nose touched Lance’s cheek. “They came around the other side of the house. One busted a window at Jennifer’s house and fell out the back,” he breathed.

Panic gave Lance the ability to pull in air as he felt his balls pull inside his body at the growls on the other side of the fence. Rolling over and looking between the boards, Lance saw several figures beating on the back of Ian’s house, but three were coming straight at them.

EEERrrr, EEERrrr,
blasted in the night as lights came on at each corner of Ian’s house and the alarm activated. The three people trotting toward them stopped and spun around, heading back to the house.

“Low crawl,” Lance said, rolling over and crawling across Mr. Oliver’s backyard. When he was halfway, he eased up and crouch-walked to the fence. He moved along it until he was across from the gate of the privacy fence that surrounded the yard.

Lance’s dad had put that gate on this side just to piss off Mr. Oliver. That way, Lance and Ian could still cut across Mr. Oliver’s backyard and not have to take the street.

“Let’s go,” Lance said, getting up and using his staff to jump over as the alarm blared behind them. Landing, Lance looked toward the front of the house and noticed figures trotting down the road, heading for Ian’s house.

Running over to the gate, Lance opened it and ran in, looking around the yard. When he didn’t see anything, he turned to see Ian closing the gate and the girls hugging Jennifer. Ian pushed the latch down so the gate couldn’t be opened from the outside.

Spinning on his right foot, Lance headed for the back door, rubbing his sore ribs with his left hand and holding the staff in his right. Reaching the back door, Lance took off the key he wore around his neck. There was one hidden at the side of the house, but it could stay there.

Lance turned the lock and opened the door then ran inside, hearing the alarm beeping. He knew he had five minutes before the blaring started, but he didn’t even want the beeping. Flipping the pad open, he punched in the numbers, and the beeping stopped.

Feeling totally drained, Lance dropped the staff. It landed with a dull thump on the carpet as he slid his packs off. They were in the game room, and Ian was putting his pack on the pool table and taking Allie’s off. “Dude, I’m sorry I threw Allie at you, but I freaked when those people popped out behind me growling,” Ian said, bending over and picking up Lance’s packs and put them on the pool table.

Lance grinned. “I would’ve shit twice and died.”

“Well, I did shit a pink Twinkie,” Ian laughed. “What now?”

“Pull the curtains over the windows downstairs, and let’s try calling someone,” Lance said, rubbing his ribs.

Ring
sounded from Lance’s backpack. He and Ian dove for the pack and pulled out the phones. Lance looked at his phone. “It’s Ricky Sims,” he said, looking at the picture. “Hello.”

“Oh, thank God I got someone.”

“Ricky?”

“Yes, Lance, it’s Ricky. Can you come and get me? I’m at home in my backyard up in a tree,” Ricky said, and in the background, Lance heard growling and moans.

“Ricky, you live on the other side of town. I’m not riding my bike over there with the shit that’s outside right now,” Lance said then lowered his phone, pushing speaker.

Everyone heard the growls over the phone as Lance laid it on the pool table. “God damn it, Lance, I’m stuck in a tree, and my backyard is full of bitches trying to rip me apart. Come help me!”

“I don’t have a car, and we just had to run when we had a group bust in Ian’s house!”

Sounds of Ricky’s phone fumbling came over the speaker. The screen lit up, and they saw a mass of faces looking up at them from the screen. Ricky moved the phone around, showing his backyard, and it was indeed packed. Lance sucked in a breath, looking at the mass of bodies reaching toward the phone. “You see this shit? They broke in the house and killed everyone. I barely got out, and this was the only place I could go,” Ricky said, spinning the phone around to his face. “Come and get me!”