The Demented Z (Book 2): Desolation (Book 2) (2 page)

“I’ve got movement.”  
Rachael said from outside.

Tom raced over toward her, heart pounding with hope.
  “Kelly and Sam?”

“Can’t tell.
  See in the trees back off the side of the
house.”   Rachael said while pointing.

Not wanting to waste more time, Tom said, “Keep an eye on
it.”   He turned back toward the safe and
said, “Hank, help me with this thing.”

Racing over to the safe, Hank said, “Looks like they grabbed
all of your packs and food buckets. All
I found was some spilled food.”   With a
low chuckle, “They spilled the beans.”

Tom barely held back a smile.
  “That’s terrible.”

“I’ve got lots of movement...infected.”
   Rachael shouted.

Glancing back, Tom saw her drop to one knee, sighting down
her rifle barrel.

“They’ve spotted me.”  
She said just before her rifle roared to life, firing several quick
shots. “Several more
coming.”

Reaching the safe, Tom looked at Hand and said, “Help me tip
it back up.”

It took a bit, but the two of them were able to get it
standing again. Luckily Lincoln’s men had
tipped the safe on its side, not damaging the handle and combination dial.

Rachael began firing again.  
“There are a bunch of them coming out of the woods.”
  She continued firing rapidly, sending round
after round into them. The shots stopped
a few seconds later and she said, “I’m out.”

Hank ran across the shop, looking out toward the
forest. “There are lots Tom.”
  He said before grabbing his rifle off the
workbench.   “I’ve got maybe a half mag
left.”

Tom began frantically working the dial on the safe.
  After quickly dialing in the combination, he
tested the handle and found it still locked.  
He knew the combo by heart.
Did the fall foul up the locking mechanism?
  “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast,” he
repeated to himself as he began slowly working the combination.

Hank stood next to Rachael, firing into the oncoming group
that was staggering its way across the lawn.  
He knew he didn’t have many shots left.

Suddenly Rachel screamed.

Spinning to the side, Hank saw several demented sprinting
toward them. These had come around the
opposite side of the house and had it not been for Rachael, he might not have
noticed them until they were practically on top of him.
  He was amazed how fast they were...unbelievably
fast. Hank rapidly lined up his sights and
began pulling the trigger.

Tom’s heart was pounding after hearing the scream.
  He knew there must be lots more infected and
the three of them desperately needed the weapons and ammo inside the safe.
  After finally getting the entire combo dialed
in, he took a deep breath, and gave the handle a jerk.
  Thankfully the handle slid to the side,
allowing the door to swing open.  
Reaching in, he grabbed a pair of preloaded magazines, jammed them in
his pockets, and grabbed his AR15. Knowing
the AR already had a loaded magazine, Tom pulled back
the slide to charge the rifle, and sprinted across the shop.
  Before reaching the others, he saw Hank’s AK
run dry. Rachael stood next to him, her
AK empty as well. “Safe’s open.
  Loaded AK mags are
on the bottom shelf.”   Tom shouted as he
came up next to them.

Tom surveyed the scene and found that Hank was able to take
care of several infected that now lay crumpled in the gravel driveway.
  There were five undead shambling across the
yard, nearly to the lawn’s edge, a trail of bodies left in their wake.
  From the looks of things, Hank had already
cleaned up most of the threats. Lifting
his AR to his shoulder, Tom sighted through the quick acquisition scope, and
centered on the slow moving group.  
Picking off one zombie after another, he began decimating the group.

Suddenly there was the sound of crunching gravel to Tom’s
left. Leaving one undead standing, he
spun toward the sound and found the angered face of one of the demented racing
his way. It had come from around the
side of the shop and was nearly on top of him.  
Rapidly pulling the trigger, he dropped it to the ground at his feet.

Gunfire erupted from behind him.
  Turning back toward the house, Tom saw the
final undead dropping to the gravel on the far side of the driveway.

“Let’s fan out and check around the shop and house for
stragglers.”   Tom said.
  “That seemed semi-coordinated.”

Hank and Rachael stepped up next to him, both holding their
loaded AKs. “Some of the demented are
smart little rascals.”   Hank said.

“I’ll cover the front, while you two sweep around the
buildings.”   Rachael said.

Tom nodded in agreement and headed off around the shop.
  Hank took off for the side of the house.
  Within a couple minutes they were all back in
front of the shop, no shots fired.

“I don’t want to burn any more daylight, let’s get
moving.”   Tom said.

Rachael nodded to the shop and said, “There’s a bunch more
weapons and ammo in the safe...let’s at least grab what we can carry and lock it
up.”

“Good idea.”   Tom
replied.

It only took a few seconds of the three of them standing in
front of the safe before it turned into what looked like a Black Friday free
for all. Each of them began grabbing
pistols, holsters, magazines, and ammo.  
Rachael swapped out her AK47 for a 12 gauge pump shotgun.
  Not having the precision aim that Hank and
Tom had, she felt much more comfortable with the point and shoot technique
offered by a shotgun. Hank swapped out
his AK for a .308 hunting rifle with a scope.  
Taking two rifles was both cumbersome and heavy, so they all opted to
grab pistols as their secondary weapons.

“Everybody good to go?”
  Tom asked after a bit.

Hank chuckled, “Unless you have a shopping cart, I think I’m
good.”

Rachael nodded her head.  
“Let’s roll.”

After closing and locking the safe back up, Tom said, “Help
me out real quick Hank. Let’s lay this
thing back on its side...maybe cover it with some junk.
  Might keep it out of prying
eyes.”

A few minutes later the two of them had the safe back on its
side, and covered up with some odds and ends, helping it blend with the mess.
  With everything that had happened it had
taken longer in the shop than any of them expected and they all agreed they had
less than an hour of daylight left.  
There was no way Tom was going to let any more time go to waste.
  Kelly was more than capable in the woods, but
woods filled with zombies and demented was a different story.

Tom slung his rifle over his shoulder.
  “Kelly would have wanted to get to the safety
of the forest as soon as she and Sam hit the ground, so I think we should start
over there.”   He said while pointing to
the trees just to the other side of the house.

Arriving at the edge of the tree line, Tom and Hank began
examining the ground while Rachael kept a lookout.
  Even in the fading evening light they could
make out trampled weeds and grass, but they didn’t know if this was from Kelly
and Sam or some of the demented and undead.

“Looks as good as anything.
  Let’s follow these back into the trees and
hopefully we can determine who left them.”  
Tom said.

“I like it.” Hank
replied.

With that, they stalked into the thick trees.
  It did not take long for them to realize that
their hour of daylight would be cut significantly shorter by the trees’ thick
canopy. Tom resisted the urge to yell
Kelly and Sam’s names, knowing at best it would do nothing and at worst it
would draw more infected.

As if reading his mind, Rachael said, “If your family was
close, I think they would have showed up after all the gunfire.”

“I agree...would have at least watched from the safety of the
trees until they could determine who was here.”  
Tom said. “As overran as this
place was, I think she would have tried to get as far away as possible.”
  He added.

Hank slowed and kneeled down, eyeing something close to the
ground.

“Watcha got?" Rachael asked.

“Look at this. I
think we’re on the right track.”   Hank
said.

Tom bent down next to him.  
Even in the dim light, he could see the small shoe print in the soft
ground. Making it even more promising
was the fact that it was headed in the same direction they were going, rather
than toward the house. “I think we’re on
it. Let’s hurry.”

The three of them moved as quickly as they could, while
still watching for signs of Kelly or Sam.  
Luckily the line they moved in was fairly straight and since Kelly made
no attempt to cover their tracks, they were easy to follow.
  Hank was able to track them right up until it
was nearly full dark. Tom was impressed
with Hank’s ability to quickly find traces left by their movements through the
woods. His years in the military were
paying off well.

“Like hunting black frogs at night while
blindfolded.   I can’t see a thing.
   I bet they kept going in a straight line,
but if they veered off at all, we won’t know it till morning.”
  Hank said.

“In all the excitement I never thought to grab a
flashlight. I’m sure there was one in
the house...stupid.”   Tom said.
  The thought of Kelly and Sam spending the
night out in the woods made him sick to his stomach.
  There was some consolation knowing they were
still alive, but he could never handle losing them now that they were so close.

Between being completely exhausted and unable to see in the
dark, they skipped building any kind of shelter, and instead just curled up
under a nearby group of fir trees.

“I’ll take first watch.”  
Rachael said.

Trusting fully in her capabilities, Hank and Tom didn’t
argue one bit and quickly fell asleep.

 
   It was sometime in the morning when Tom woke
to Hank tapping on his shoulder.  
Blinking a few times, he said, “Anything?”

Whispering, Hank said, “Noises...grunts, snapping
branches...nothing close, but they’re definitely out there.”

“Time?”

“It’s nearing morning.”

“Ahhh...I coulda took a longer watch.”

“No worries, you need your beauty sleep way more than me.”
Hank said.

After Hank got situated next to Rachael on a pile of pine
needles, Tom scooped up his AR and stood.  
The darkness was deep, only the vague silhouettes of trees were visible.
  Rather than straining his eyes in the dark,
Tom sat up against the base of a large pine, knowing his hearing would be a
much more reliable alarm. He had spent
many nights in these woods and knew the sounds they made.

While listening, his thoughts went back to the helicopters
they had seen over the last couple days.  
Once he got Kelly and Sam back, they had to find a way to talk to the
pilots or crew. They knew something
about what was going on and maybe a way to stop it.
 
How do
you get a helicopter to stop for a talk...probably not a hitchhiker’s thumb?
 
He thought.
   After this, his mind wandered to Lincoln and
his gang.
They would be in for a surprise when they returned to their school.
  He had killed the one outside his shop, but
Lincoln, Mikey, and his dad still remained.  
They would be pissed and looking
for revenge.
  Tom figured a return
home was probably out of the question, other than a quick trip to gather more
guns and ammo from the safe. Tom thought
back to all of the supplies Lincoln had piled in the gymnasium.
  Not worth the risk he quickly decided.
 
Sam...boy
I miss the little guy.
  Tom was
having a difficult time picturing his face.  
How could that happen so quickly?

A branch snapped from somewhere behind Tom.
  Sitting still, he continued to listen
intently. A grunt.
  It was a ways off, maybe forty or fifty
feet. Not wanting to draw anything
closer to their camp, Tom stayed in his position, taking steady breaths.
  He knew whatever it was would never hear his
breathing, but in the near silence it sounded deafening to him.
  Another grunt.
  This one sounded closer.
  Tom slowly rose to his feet.
  He took a couple slow steps around to the
side of the tree.

Peering into the darkness, he couldn’t see a thing.
  He tried using his peripheral vision and was
just able to make out the vague shapes of trees.
  He saw movement out of the corner of his
eye. Turning in that direction, he
focused hard, but saw nothing. Tom
cocked his head to the side, both listening intently and watching in his
periphery.   He heard a soft moan,
followed by a grunt, and then a branch breaking.
  It must be one of the infected, stumbling its
way through the dark.

Tom slowly sat back down near the side of the tree, rested
the rifle in his lap, and kept an eye on the dark trees.
  Over the next thirty minutes or more, he
could hear low grunts and snapping branches, but they never got any closer, and
eventually faded into the distance.

  Just as the faint
light of pre-morning began making its way through the foliage, a thick fog settled
down between the trees. Conditions must
have been just right, because the fog formed a strange low lying layer, hanging
a foot off the ground and extending just a few feet above Tom’s head.
  It was a strange phenomenon, but not the
first time Tom had seen it in these woods.

The silent stillness of morning was broken by a distant scream.
  Not an infected’s
scream, but the scream of a person...a child.
  Tom instantly knew it was Sam.
  Looking down, he saw Hank and Rachael were
already climbing to their feet.

“Sam?”   Rachael asked.

“Yeah.”

“How far you think?”  
Hank asked.