The Dark Trilogy (37 page)

Each housed several businesses. Jeff glanced at some of the names on the doors and the cracked and shattered picture windows. There was an insurance company, a small hobby shop, a sub restaurant, and what he guessed to be a rather small and cramped tavern.

There was a hazy blur of businesses and houses well beyond the immediate commercial area. Jeff could see some two- and three-story office buildings off in the distance. He squinted, looking for movement, but saw none. There were only a few birds on the telephone wires that marched into town and no noise at all.

“
Well, it looks pretty good, doesn’t it? No one’s around,” Ray said as his eyes darted everywhere. His hand kept traveling to the pistol stuffed into his khaki pants to reassure himself that it was still there. Jeff idly wondered if the boy pawed his dick as much as that damned gun.

“
Shut up back there.” Marcus turned, swinging his shotgun toward the teen. Ray clammed up and stutter-stepped to a stop. He stood nervously, shifting his feet side to side. His face turned red with embarrassment as he stared at the ground to avoid the further wrath of Michael’s henchman. After a few seconds, Marcus looked satisfied and started moving again.

Jeff picked up his pace and moved up next to Marcus so they could speak.

“
So what’s the plan?” Jeff kept his voice low, not interested in pissing off the redneck even further.

Marcus stopped and stared at Jeff. There was no anger in his look, but it was clear that he had nothing but contempt for the suburbanite. After a few seconds, he snorted and bent his neck forward. A large brown glob of tobacco juice and mucus plopped onto the pavement a couple of inches from Jeff’s shoe, splattering his leg. Jeff saw the trajectory of the confection, but kept his eyes on Marcus’s face even as the warm gruel seeped into his jeans. A line of spittle ran down Marcus’s beard, but he didn’t bother wiping it off.

“
The plan is that you stay the fuck out of my way, hotshot.” With that, Marcus began walking again, leaving Jeff standing alone.

The others moved up to Jeff as he looked on in stunned disbelief at Marcus’s back. He was drifting to the right, toward one of the brown buildings opposite the Dollar General. After a few moments, it became clear which entrance Frank’s buddy was heading for.

“
So what do you want us to do?”

Marcus did not stop at Jeff’s inquiry. “Check the general store out or jerk each other off. Either way, I don’t give a shit.”

Jeff stared in amazement at the back of the dirty t-shirt Marcus was wearing as he continued walking. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The headache that had persisted since Fred from the abandoned farmhouse had walloped Jeff was creeping back to the surface. The pain had diminished to a dull throb after he had swallowed nearly an entire bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol over the course of the past couple of days. Now the headache was back at full throttle, ready for an encore.

No one spoke as they watched Marcus move across the street. As one, the teens and George turned to Jeff. Biting down on a scream, he rubbed his eyes wearily. This was going to be up to him.

“
Okay, guys, here’s the plan. George and I are going in the store.” Jeff gestured over his shoulder toward the Dollar General. “You two stay outside and stand watch.” He could see the relief on both teens’ faces at the directive. George nodded as he studied the store.

It was a standard rectangular one-story brick building with a swinging glass door but no display windows. Hopefully enough light would pour in from the doorway to get a clear view inside. Jeff was reminded of the drug store he had raided back in Milfield and hoped there wasn’t a storeroom full of dead bodies in this one.

He looked around once more to see if there was any movement. There was none except for Marcus, who had reached the tavern, endearingly named “Hole in the Wall.” He was peering through the broken glass of the front door, about to push his way inside.

Jeff looked back toward Michael and Frank. They were distant specks now, several hundred yards away. The duo still leaned against the van, waiting for the group to return with the supplies the camp needed. Jeff wondered if booze was on their shopping list as he spied Marcus ducking inside the tavern out of the corner of his eye.

Motioning for the others to fall in, Jeff moved into the parking lot of the general store. There was a dumpster on the side of the building, next to a metal door that likely led to a stock room. The building looked fairly new, and Jeff recalled that the Dollar General in Milfield had been built only a few years before. The two structures looked identical, both with a light brown brick exterior. Jeff squinted at the metal door and dismissed the idea of checking it out. They would go through the glass doors at the front instead.

“
Holy crap!”

George’s expletive startled Jeff out of his mental inventory of what they needed to grab from the store. Looking over at his friend, he followed George’s eyes to the top of the building.

A woman was on the roof, moving toward them. The foursome gaped at her, watching as she limped slowly but surely toward the edge of the roof.

As she drew closer, Ray was the first to comment. “She’s going to jump.”

Jeff saw the two boys' eyes bugging out with excitement, in sharp contrast to their nonchalant words.

He studied the woman. It was clear she was infected, even from a distance, and from the looks of things, she had been for quite a while. Looking her over clinically, Jeff realized she must have been up on the roof for several weeks, as the sun had bleached most of the color out of her hair. Most of the damage to her face had probably come from heavy direct exposure to the elements. It was a puzzle how she had gotten up there, but his best guess was that she had been bitten and managed to escape to the roof before succumbing to the virus. The muggy and humid summer environment on a super-heated tar roof had caused her body to swell, and Jeff was positive that if they caught a whiff of her, she would smell like a trash bag filled with boiled beef. The bloat around her midsection was tremendous and had pushed her uniform smock beyond its bursting point. Several buttons had popped off the garment. Her skin was burnt to a crispy red and was peeling off in great sheets from her arms and legs. The bottoms of her pants were shredded, and her legs had burst through, the swelling there even greater than on the rest of her body. Part of her scalp was missing, or the hair had simply fallen out; the skin underneath was bleached bone white.

Teddy lifted his rifle slowly to line up a shot at her. Jeff put his hand on the barrel and pushed it back down. He shook his head, and the teen looked at him, puzzled.

“
It’s a waste of a bullet. Look.”

She was on the edge of the roof now, staring down at them. Not hesitating even for a second, she stepped off the surface with her right foot. Her other foot got stuck on the ledge, and as she fell forward, the ghoul swung back toward the building and smashed into it. Her foot then popped free of its impediment, and she plummeted earthward. They watched as the woman sped toward the ground and did nothing to shield herself from the impact. She struck the pavement headfirst.

Her skull shattered with an audible crack, which was followed by a sudden eruption of the soft, yielding contents of her head. A foul puddle spread outward as her body landed on top of the messy remains. The ripened corpse burst with a rush of liquid as the thin skin surrounding her legs broke open. Black gruel splashed the cement and left a sodden mist in the air.

George gagged and looked away. The two teens continued to peer at the woman’s remains, fascinated. After a moment, Ray nudged Teddy. “Told ya she would jump.” Teddy pushed him back, and they laughed at one another.

George tried reprimanding the boys, but as he glanced back at the body for another split second, he looked green around the gills. He turned away to bend over as he breathed heavily.

“
Did you see her as she fell? She was looking straight at us. She didn’t even care that her head was going to get smooshed. All she wanted to do was eat us. That was awesome, man!” Ray said in awed disbelief.

The two boys chatted animatedly with each other, excited by this new discovery. Jeff looked on while George worked to regain control of his stomach. After a few seconds, Jeff moved between the teenagers.

“
Okay, guys, enough.” He grabbed them both by the shoulders. They looked at him, and the grins disappeared. Jeff could see the fear in their eyes hiding behind the false bravado the strange little event had brought out in them.

“
Fun’s over.” He continued to hold their shoulders and moved them gently so they were facing the body. “Take a good look at her and try to understand something, okay?”

Ray and Teddy glanced curiously at each other and then back at the body congealing on the hot pavement.

“
Those things aren’t human anymore, boys. They only care about one thing, and that’s ripping you to pieces. It’s just that simple.”

Ray looked like he was going to offer up a smart-ass rebuttal when Jeff moved his hand from the teen’s shoulder to the back of his neck. The adult gave it a squeeze as he pulled Ray around until their faces were inches apart. Ray let out a little yelp and stared at Jeff with fear in his eyes.

“
Listen,” the reluctant leader said, glaring at the pimple-faced kid. “I don’t have any idea how you got lucky enough to survive this long, but the fact is that you won’t last much longer if you keep thinking those things are a joke.” Jeff squeezed both Ray’s and Teddy’s shoulders harder until they both winced. He moved his eyes back and forth between the two boys.

“
You think because most of them are slow and stupid that you can outwit them? There are millions of those freaks out there. Millions with nothing better to do than hunt you down and rip your heads off. And that’s if you’re lucky. Because the alternative is a nightmare you don’t want to face.”

Jeff pushed the boys away and glared at them. He was trembling with rage as images of his dead family filtered through his mind. Ray and Teddy looked at him, their faces pale as the desire to retort fled in an instant.

“
Do I make myself clear?” Jeff almost snarled.

They nodded solemnly. As Jeff stared at them, the headache flaring up worse than ever, he rubbed his eyes gently.

“
Good.”

“
Can we get going? Where there’s one of those things, there’s probably more.”

Jeff opened his eyes and looked at George. The pale, blond man’s skin had a light green tint to it, and he had his hand clamped over his stomach.

Jeff nodded and took a deep breath to clear his head. He gave Teddy and Ray a small smile. They still looked a little frightened of him, but both tried returning it.

“
Well, we all know what to do. Let’s get to it.” Jeff turned to the store again. They moved past where the woman had fallen. Just as Jeff had suspected, she was pretty ripe. The smell was overpowering.

“
Jesus Christ, that’s foul.”

They moved to the front door. Jeff glanced inside and saw that much of the contents of the shelves was gone, at least toward the front of the store. There were still plenty of darkened aisles and the storeroom to check out. The fact that he saw nothing moving inside was an added bonus.

“
Okay, give me your backpacks, boys. We’re going to try to fill them all.”

Teddy looked past Jeff, staring inside the store as he handed over his bag. “You sure no one is in there?” He looked almost embarrassed for asking. “I mean, there was one up on the roof, so you never know where they’re hiding, right?”

Jeff shrugged. “I have no idea.” He lifted his bat. “That’s why I plan on bringing my good friend here.” He glanced up and down the street. “Keep your eyes open and stay close by, and you should be okay. Just let us know if you see anything, and we’ll come running.”

Jeff turned back toward the door.

“
Do you want my rifle?”

Jeff stopped. Teddy was holding the weapon in front of him, ready to hand it over. He was looking at both of the men, waiting to see who would take it.

“
I don’t want it. I’m crap with guns anyway, but thanks for the offer, Teddy,” George said. He looked over at Jeff expectantly.

Jeff groaned inwardly. It was a tempting offer, but he knew how Michael would react if he returned to the van with the rifle in hand. They were already at each other’s throats.

He shook his head and sighed, regretting the words as he spoke them. “Nah, but thanks anyway, Teddy. We’ll be fine.”

Jeff set his hand on the door, testing it. It wasn’t locked.

“
Okay. The two of you hang out in the parking lot. If you see anything, bang on the door or … whatever.” Jeff threw his hands up, not sure what signal they should arrange. He was beginning to feel like this whole thing was one giant snafu waiting to happen.

The boys nodded, despite whatever reservations they might have. Jeff looked over at George. “You ready?”

George was busy squinting through the door, trying to see inside. He was leaning forward, moving his head as if tracing a path through the aisles with his eyes. He looked skeptical but resigned to his task. When Jeff nudged the big man, he straightened up. Taking a deep breath, George nodded.