Hell Bound (Book 2): A World Apart (7 page)

“Finally! Colorado! Why does it seem like it took us forever to get through two states.” I say relieved.

“Because you and Jake wanted to go sightseeing with Zombies,” Mathew answer back.

“Bite me,” I say as I punch him orcefully in the arm. Meaning to hurt him a little.

“That can be arranged,” He says, winking at me.

Mathew rubs his arm softly where I hit him pouting. Rolling my eyes, I go back to staring outside, I’ve never been to Colorado and on a normal day I would want to get out and explore. It’s the kind of state that screams perfection. The Rocky Mountains are beyond beautiful. The sky is so clean and fresh it’s hard to believe that there is a zombie war raging on outside. I would love to go hiking or snowboarding at their ski resorts. Why we stayed in California for so long I would never know.

“It’s beautiful,” I whisper, taking in the smell of the fresh air, the green grass and beautiful mountains in the distance. It smells so pretty here, so fresh.

“You’re beautiful,” Mathew whispers in my ear.

“Get a room you two,” Devlin says, turning onto a no name street.

“Do you know where we're going?” Jake asks.

“Yeah, I do. I just hope the road is still clear of rubble. It’s a small town called Patience. It’s a cute old antique town. Not very many people know about it. I figured it would be a safe place for us to stop for the night and hopefully find more supplies.”

“Sounds good,” Mathew says as he pulls me closer to him in the back seat. He hasn't let go of me since we lost each other back at the gas station.

Jake whispers something to Kat making her giggle. John is passed out in the back seat, hugging a toy truck. Kat giggles even louder startling John awake. He jumps up and looks around. Jake rubs his back to calm him down. John starts petting Athena’s furry head. Any other time this would feel like a pleasure drive. Unfortunately, it’s not.

“Shit, our luck sucks.”

“What?” Mathew and I say.

“Cars are blocking our way. Looks like it’s going to be a bumpy ride.” Devlin says, maneuvering the SUV around a truck.

“How far is the town?”

“About thirty minutes on a good day.

Forty five minutes or more with this shit,” Devlin says sounding irritated.

Mathew kisses me on the top of my head and jumps in the front. Grabbing the handle above my head and pull my gun closer to my side. Devlin swerves in and out of vehicles, a woman jump’s out from behind an overturned car. Slamming her bloody hands on the passenger window where Mathew sits, smearing blood across the glass. The woman scream’s a loud horrible screeching sound. I put my hands over my ears and try to block out the sound. Athena starts barking and growling at the threat outside. John cry's and starts sucking on his thumb, he falls to the floor and rolls into a ball. Kat tries to grab him and holds him tight but he refuses to move.

The screeching sound is even louder than the screams they made just days ago. Jake jumps in the front next to me. Holding his hands over his ears.

“I've never heard them scream like

that,” he screams over the loud scream the zombie makes.

I nod my head and keep my eyes on the screaming zombie outside as we pass her by. Her screaming dies down the further we drive away from her. She doesn't bother to chase us but goes back to her hiding spot behind a truck. Pulling my hands away from my ears. All I can hear is ringing.

“What the hell was that?”

“I don't know, but there screaming is even louder than it was when this whole thing first started,” Mathew says as he massages his ears.

“Maybe a calling?” I question.

“What do you mean?” Kat asks.

“Well, in scary movies monsters scream to each other letting each other know that prey is close by.”

“Oh god I hope your wrong,” Kat says nervously.

Devlin picks up speed swerving in and out of the graveyard of cars. Our bodies flying around in our seats like if we were on a roller coaster. Finally, a town comes into view as Devlin turns the SUV onto a dirt road that leads to the little town.

“Is that it?” Mathew questions.

“Yup, sure is. Use to be my favorite town because of how small it is. Everyone was everyone’s friend.”

“Why use to be?” Jake questions.

“Well, it’s a zombie apocalypse after all. Only god knows what kind of evil is hidden in this town or others.”

A deafening scream interrupts our conversation. The blaring overpowering noise from a zombie comes from somewhere behind us, they are hiding, warning other zombies that we are near.

Scared, I lean closer to Mathew and put my arms around his seat and hug him from behind. The piercing scream finally stops. Leaving nothing but the humming sound of the SUVs engine and the sound of our breathing.

Devlin drives further into town. The little town doesn’t look like it was affected by the apocalypse. All the cars are in one piece. The buildings are not on fire or demolished. Devlin pulls the SUV to a stop in front of a grocery store.

“Let’s hurry, grab some food and then check out the hunting store, it’s down the street it might have some chains for the SUV.”

“Do we even need food?” Jake asks as he gets out of the SUV.

“It’s a zombie apocalypse, what do you think? What we have won’t last that long and I don’t feel like starving to death.” Devlin says as he gets out of the SUV.

Kat and John walk next to Mathew and I. John sucks on his thumb, tears stain his dirty face. Devlin and Jake pull open the door.  Luckily the sun is shining directly into the store lighting up the shelves. As the door opens the smell of death comes crashing into our faces. Making all of us step back and cover our noses.

“Shit, this place stinks,” Jake says gagging.

“Yeah, smells like someone died days ago,” I say looking around inside.

We walk inside of the grocery store trying not to breathe in the horrible smell of someone or something decaying. The shelves are bare. A couple odds and ends scatter the shelves. Empty bottles of soda are scattered across the tile floor. Devlin and Mathew come to a stop, wondering what made them stop I squeeze in between them. On the floor lies four dead bodies. Each of them wrapped in sleeping blankets, crumpled up candy wrappers scattered around them. Devlin leans down and picks up an empty pill bottle.

“Looks like they killed themselves,” Devlin says, turning the bottle of pills over and shaking the little orange plastic bottle.

“How sad, Maybe a family?” I question.

“Yeah, probably lived here for a while and then gave up. Maybe they got sick or bit and didn’t want to turn into one of those things.”

“John needs to use the bathroom,” Kat interrupts.

“Jake you go with them. We will see if we can find anything of value,” Mathew says.

They start walking towards the side of the store that says BATHROOMS. I walk to the front of the store and grab a hand basket. Following Mathew and Devlin down each aisle grabbing anything I can find. Unfortunately, there isn't much. Athena sits by the front door, staring outside. Standing guard like the good dog that he is. Walking towards the animal section hoping to find some treats for her. The shelves are full of different kind of animal food, rabbit, cats, hamster, and dog food. I grab a couple bags of bacon bites dog treats. I also grab dog bones and a dog rope. Figuring maybe John would like to play with her.

“Sam there’s nothing here, let’s go,” Mathew yells impatiently from across the store.

Not wanting to argue with him after yesterday I ignore the other half of the aisle, I didn't check and jog back to him. Devlin and Mathew hold an almost empty basket.

“Didn't find much either, huh?” I say looking at their baskets.

“Nope, let’s grab the others and go,” Mathew says, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the bathrooms.

Jake stands outside of the woman's bathroom leaning against the wall chewing on a beef jerky. His legs are crossed and his arms folded over in front of him. His gun neatly tucked into his jeans.

“What are they doing?” I question.

“John needed to use the bathroom and Kat is cleaning him up too,” Jake answers.

Kat walks out of the bathroom with Jake by her side looking a lot cleaner than he did earlier.

“Let’s go,” Devlin said leading the way outside to the SUV. Athena waits exactly where I last saw her. Sitting patiently by the glass doors. Wagging

her tail as if she is telling us that she is ready to leave this place.

“Let’s just walk it to the hunting store. No use wasting gas.” Mathew mentions.

We all agree as we start walking down the sidewalk. The town is quiet and fairly clean. It’s odd seeing this town look so normal compared to the previous towns we drove through. The hunting store is completely intact. Mathew jiggles the handle, but it’s locked.

Looks like the owners had time to lock up before they left. Mathew brakes the glass and sticks his hand inside of the door and unlocks it. Walking slowly inside of the store, but not finding anything or anybody inside. We each go our separate ways down whatever aisle of items they may need. I go towards the boot section. Knowing I’m going to need a good pair of boots for the winter.

Finding a size 7 ½ in women I pull it off the shelf and sit down on the bench next to me. After each of us find what we are looking for we take our items back out to the SUV and jump in. Further down from the main street towards the cute little houses. I haven't seen or heard any zombies since the one that ran into the SUV outside of town. Devlin pulls into a small house next to an old motel.

“Let’s go,” Devlin says, pushing his door open and getting out.

Exiting the SUV happy to stretch my legs and wanting to change my clothes to get rid of the stench of the dead. Jake brakes the window next to the front door and unlocks it.

“After you sexy,” He motions for Kat, She smiles and walks in.

John tags along behind her. Mathew and Devlin hurry inside the house looking inside every room.

“Clear!” Devlin screams from somewhere in the bedrooms.

“They still have running water. Who wants to take a shower first?” Mathew mentions surprised as he turns

the faucet on in the kitchen.

“I’ll wash John up first, then I’ll put him

to sleep while all of you are taking your showers. Okay?” Kat questions.

“That’s fine with me,” I say looking around at the group waiting for their approval.

Kat nods and picks up John and walks to

the bathroom. Rubbing his little head. Mathew and I sit down in the living room, I take a deep breath, letting the stress of the last couple days disappear. Several minutes go by before Kat comes out of the bathroom cradling John. He's passed on out on her shoulder, sucking his thumb. He looks and smells so much cleaner. She lays him on the couch and covers him with a blanket. Devlin stands quietly by the window. I Lean closer to Mathew whispering into his ear.

“I’ll be back, I want to talk to Devlin.” Mathew nods and leans his head against the couch and closes his eyes.

Walking over to Devlin trying not to scare him “Hey, you okay?”  Turning his body to face me.

“Yeah tired.”

“We all are. Maybe we can sleep peacefully tonight.”

Goodnight sleep tight. Don’t let the dead bite.

Startled awake from a nightmare. I try to calm my breathing. Dreaming of the little feet I saw back at the gas station. But this time it was Alexander. He was a zombie and he was trying to eat me.

I wipe the tears away from my eyes and try to push the horrible, image of my son out of my head. Looking around for Mathew but finding nothing but a cold empty pillow. I scan the living room, finding Kat, John, Jake cuddled up on the floor.

Hearing whispering coming from the kitchen I start walking that way.

“What’s wrong?” I whisper.

“They’re out there side,” Devlin says quietly.

“Right now?” I say frantically looking from both men.

“Yes, there down the block we think,” Mathew adds.

“What makes you think that?” I ask not really wanting to know the answer. For just one night, I would like to sleep peacefully without worrying about zombies or my family safety.

“We've seen several of them down the block. Not sure what they are doing. Waiting maybe,” Devlin answers.

“Waiting for what?”

“More of them,” Devlin says pointing to a zombie walking by the house down the street to the next block.

“Should we go?”

“Maybe...Maybe not.”

“Why maybe?”

“I don't think they know we're here, we are thinking of walking over there and seeing what they are doing,” Mathew says checking his gun.

“What no! You can’t go out there,” I practically scream, grabbing Mathew by the hand, pleading for him not to go.

“We need to see what these fuckers are up too,” Devlin says putting his knife in his shoe and his gun in his pants buckle.

“Well, if you guys go outside, then I go with you.”

“No babe you stay here in the house.”

“Hell no, I'm not leaving your side again. Either I go with you or you don't go at all.”

Mathew stares at me for a minute “Fine, But don't go running off with younger men.” Mathew says jokingly.

Ignoring his comment I walk back to the living room and grab my gun from Kat’s bag. I check to see if it’s loaded and I shove extra bullets in my pocket. Mathew wakes up Jake and fills him in on what we are doing. Jake slowly gets up and waits by the front door for us to leave.

“Ready?” Mathew says to Devlin and myself.

Nodding our heads Mathew opens up the back door and we follow him outside. The back yard is completely empty other than an old beat up playground. The simple kind that just has a slide and two swings.

Following close behind Mathew and with Devlin close behind me. Mathew jumps over the brown fence, helping me over. Devlin jumps over the fence last, landing on his knees and rolling forward. He gets up and follows behind us. We try to stay quiet as we run in the dark from house to house, yard to yard. Trying not to bump into anything. The moonlight gives us our only source of light which isn’t much.

Mathew runs behind a ripped up overturned coach near the street where we saw the zombies. Looks like the couch was left here for the trash man to pick up on his weekly trash runs. The zombies keep walking past us, dragging their broken body parts behind them. Scared that they can smell us or hear us I try to smash my body against the couch. The couch smells like someone or something has been urinating on it.

“They don't seem to know we’re here,” Mathew whispers as he peeks around the couch and watches the zombies walk by.

One by one the zombies makes their way to an abandoned building at the end of the street.

“What are they doing? “I manage to stumble out. My voice cracking and breaking. My hands start to sweat and my heart starts hammering against my chest.

“Don’t know. Making a home or a nest in that building?” Devlin answers.

“Nest? Nest for what?”

“Don‘t know, but I'm not liking it. Let’s get a little closer,” Mathew whispers.

Nervously I follow close behind them, hunching over so the zombies can’t see me run by. Not wanting to go any further, but wanting to know what they have planned. Mathew and Devlin run behind a parked truck that's parked in front of the house that the zombies went into. The building that the zombies are gathering inside of is a movie theater. Several of the zombies that we see walking over here saunter inside of the theatre. Loud scraping noises scratch against the theater walls. Mumbling sounds echo from inside.

“What the hell are they doing?”

“My guess is that they are setting a trap or making a nest. Either way these things are learning how to survive,” Devlin answers.

“Look!” I say, pointing towards a zombie that just walked out of the front door of the theatre. It’s the leader of the horde.

“It’s the same one from home,” Mathew whispers.

“We should…..” An ear piercing scream interrupts me.

Covering my ears, I turn around to see that the screaming is coming from a zombie that has spotted us. Mathew grabs me by my sleeve yanking me to my feet. Devlin shoots the zombie behind us, but it’s too late the leader of the pack spotted us and lets out that god awful scream.

“GO!” The leader yells and points to us.

Mathew yells at me to run faster. But with all of the screaming zombies around us I can barely hear him. I run towards the direction of the house that we are staying in. Silently praying that Jake heard the screaming and packed everyone in the SUV. My lungs are burning from lack of oxygen. My feet are starting to hurt with each step I take. Mathew lets out a couple shots behind us, I turn my head to see a dozen of zombies following close behind us, running at such fast speeds.

Each of them screaming, causing more zombies to run out of back yards and behind trees. Shuffling sounds echo through the night followed by their horrifying screams. We run down the main road that leads in front of the house The SUV has its lights on, Jake honks the horn. Telling us to jump in.

“Faster! Faster!” Mathew screams behind me.

His breaths sounding scared and hoarse. I trip over a bucket that was laying in the middle of the street causing me to lose my balance, my hands flaring out in front of me. My hands saving me from falling face first into the very hard gravel.

The gravel causing the cuts on my hand to reopen spilling blood from the open cut. A zombie jumps on my back, its weight pushing me flat on my stomach. Slamming my face into the gravel. I can feel a cut on my cheek from a rock digging into it. I try to kick the zombie off of my back, but it's too heavy.

Mathew grabs the zombie pulling the weight off of me. Slamming his gun into the zombie’s head, causing it’s skull to smash inward, brains and brown blood splatter all over Mathews face. Mathew pulls me to my feet, urging me to run again. My throat burns from the lack of oxygen, struggling to catch my breath. I force my legs and body to run faster.

The SUV is so close in front of us, Devlin holds the car door open for us, aiming his gun towards the horde behind us. Sounds of bullets flying through the air, followed by the sound of a thump. I leap into the open door of the SUV my body crashing against the other door, Mathew leaps in beside me. Devlin backs into the open door to the SUV, he's just about to get in when a zombie jumps off the roof of the SUV and lands on top of Devlin. Surprising him, causing Devlin to fall on his back with the zombie on top of him. Devlin yells as he tries to fight off a fat zombie. The zombie guts hanging out from a slash in his stomach.

Athena leaps out of the SUV jumping on the zombie, biting its head and shaking furiously. Mathew jumps out of the SUV and shoots, putting a bullet in the fat zombie’s head. The zombie goes limp on top of Devlin. Devlin kick's and shoves but the zombie is too heavy.

“Hurry!” I scream shooting towards the horde of zombies running towards us.

The street feels with the sound of hundreds of feet hitting the gravel sounding like a stampede. Mathew pulls the dead zombie off of Devlin. Several zombies threaten to reach them. Shooting at the closest zombie that threatens to bite them. I continue shooting another and another, one by one they fall to the ground.

The ones I miss, they continue to try to get up. They never give up as they keep going for live meat. Dozen's more jump off of the rooftops of the houses, others jump out from behind trees and yards.  Seconds feels like minutes as Devlin tries to get to his feet. I shoot again, hearing an empty chamber.

“I'm out of bullets, hurry!” I scream as I

try to pull out the extra bullets from my pants

pocket.

My hands are shaking so bad I lose the grip of the bullets making me drop a hand full of bullets on the carpet. Reaching my hand down, searching for my bullets. But the car is so dark I can’t see what I'm touching. Frantically looking for the bullets. Gunshots echo out from somewhere behind us. Dropping several zombies to the ground in front of the SUV. Kat screams as several more zombies fall to the ground.

Headlights shine down the main street as a truck slams on their brakes in front of the SUV. A man with a gun, shoots down several more zombies.

The driver screams “Follow us!”

Our saviors gun down several more zombies giving Mathew and Devlin enough time to jump inside the SUV.

Devlin slams the door shut “Go, Go, Goo!” screaming at Jake to move.

The SUV sputters, burnt rubber from the tires fills the air, gravel fly from underneath the SUV. We follow the truck down the main street, Kat fires Jake’s gun out the window, Devlin fires his gun out his window towards a zombie that jumped off a light pole.

The zombie falls to the ground with a thump. Blood splatters underneath him. Finally finding a couple bullets on the floor I struggle to put them inside the chamber. Closing the barrel, I stick my body outside of the window and shoot at anything moving. Putting the last three bullets inside of my gun I stick my head out the window again firing some more. There's just too many of them and we don't have the guns or ammo for a zombie war.

“I’m out!” I shout.

“Me too!” Devlin shouts.

Jake slams his foot on the accelerator, making the SUV drive even faster. The zombie horde keeps following us, the truck in front us continues to fire at any moving object. Zombies pop out of the dark, surrounding both vehicles on the side of the vehicles.

“What do I do?” Jake says driving frantically, trying to avoid the debris and zombies in the road.

“Keep driving! Don't you dare stop!” Devlin screams. The truck in front of us still fires what seems like an unlimited amount of ammo.