The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen (35 page)

How could they still
mostly feel like a person but be so demented and wrong?
She wondered as she succeeded in wrapping one arm around its neck
and the other around its forehead. She jerked back on its head with
far more strength than she'd known she could possess. Her teeth
grated together as she continued to pull back, nearly bending the
creature over backward before finally succeeding in tearing it away
from her daughter.

It fell on top of her when she sprawled onto
her back but she refused to let it go. Its arms and legs flailed as
it thrashed about in an attempt to break free of her hold. Mary
Ellen struggled to breathe against the weight crushing her into the
earth and the elbows jamming into her ribs, but there was no way
she was ever going to let it go with Rochelle still so close.

Donald appeared above her, she tried to
focus on him but her vision was going blurry from lack of oxygen
and the crushing pressure on her chest. He tried to grab hold of
the thing on her but it knocked his hands away and tore into his
forearms.

"Turn your head!" Donald shouted at her when
blood began to spill down his arms.

Mary Ellen turned her head but she could
still see it when Donald placed his gun against the thing's temple
and pulled the trigger. Even with her head turned, blood splattered
on her face and clogged her lashes. Her ears rang from the shot,
her eardrum had to have been blown out but it didn't matter right
now. Donald placed his foot against the thing's shoulder and
grunted as he shoved it off of her.

She blinked back the blood coating her
lashes and wiped her arm across her face to try and clear her
vision. It was still a little difficult to see but she pushed
herself into a seated position. Air wheezed into her lungs as she
searched frantically for Rochelle. Her daughter staggered to her
feet near the cabin. Her arms and legs were scratched, she was the
color of paste, but she didn't have any other injuries.

Mary Ellen launched to her feet and ran
toward her. Wrapping her arms securely around her, she pulled
Rochelle against her chest and hugged her. She would have given
anything to just sit and hold her daughter right now but there were
still more of those things within the woods.

"Get in the cabin," she ordered briskly.

"I can help," Rochelle protested.

"No, you have to get inside." Mary Ellen
brushed the hair back from her face and kissed her forehead. "Go!"
she commanded and pushed Rochelle toward the cabin as more gunshots
erupted.

Rochelle took a couple of stumbling steps
away before turning and bolting toward the cabin. Mary Ellen
spotted Victor standing on the porch; he looked terrified and small
as he watched the violence unfolding before him. Mary Ellen spun
away and took aim at one of the things standing within the trees.
They were like a horde of locusts, everywhere at once and looking
to destroy everything they came across.

One of the sick people in the trees started
to come at her, she waited until it was in a more open position
before pulling the trigger. She managed to hit it in the arm but it
didn't change course as it continued to bear down on her. From
beside her, Al planted his feet and pulled the trigger, hitting it
in the chest and knocking it back.

"Don't forget to aim for their chests," he
told her in a clipped tone.

Mary Ellen nodded but when she went to pull
the trigger again nothing happened. She cursed loudly and tossed
the empty gun aside. Grabbing hold of a thick stick near her foot,
she swung it up and caught another one of the sick humans under the
chin as it came at her. Its head shot back, teeth exploded out of
its mouth but the fact that it would now have to gum her flesh in
order to eat her did nothing to deter it from its course.

A bullet caught it in the head; its head
snapped back with so much force that it was knocked onto its ass.
Its arms and legs flailed on the ground, strange sounds escaped it
before it finally went still. Mary Ellen pulled her knife from its
holder at her side when two more emerged from the woods. Even with
the weapon in hand, she was becoming increasingly certain they were
going to be overrun as Claire tossed aside her rifle and pulled out
a handgun. Nancy released a startled cry when one of them knocked
her off her feet and pounced.

"I got her!" Donald shouted and raced across
the clearing toward her.

Mary Ellen gripped the knife tightly in her
hand. Another one began to approach her at a leisurely pace that
unnerved her far more than if it had just launched at her. Fried
fever brain or not, this one was a hunter and it had targeted her
for its prey. Her sweaty palms caused her to adjust her hold on her
knife as she backed cautiously away from it.

Al's shoulder pressed against hers, he
lifted his gun and shot at another one coming at them from the
left, but there was another one directly behind it. Were they
multiplying? The insane notion hit her, she knew it wasn't possible
but she couldn't shake it. Sweat coated her; her clothes clung to
her skin as adrenaline pounded through her. She watched her hunter
and waited for it to try to eat her.

Another shot sounded from behind her,
causing her to jump as a bullet caught her hunter in the shoulder.
She glanced behind her to see Rochelle standing only ten feet away
with a gun in her hand and a determined look on her face. Mary
Ellen wanted to be mad at her for putting herself in danger, but it
was impossible when she was also so unbelievably proud. She may
have been a coward when she'd been with Larry, but she certainly
hadn't raised one.

Rochelle ran over to her and handed her
another gun. "Go back to the cabin," Mary Ellen told her and fired
at one that was running toward Freddie. The creature spun around
and began to howl when her bullet tore into its side.

"No," Rochelle replied stubbornly.

Mary Ellen gave her a stern look but she
didn't argue with her, there was no point in it and now wasn't the
time. The sick were dropping around them but there were still four
of them left and three of them had retreated to the woods. They
moved so swiftly through the shadows of the forest that she had a
difficult time tracking them through the trees. Claire stepped
forward and blessedly silenced the one still screeching on the
ground.

Now there are
three
, she thought.

Everyone moved closer together as they tried
to track their hunters through the woods. Mary Ellen's eyes slid up
to the tops of the trees as movement drew her attention to the
branches but she didn't see anything through the leaves. "We have
to get them," Donald said.

"I think they're going to come for us," Mary
Ellen whispered.

She'd barely gotten the words out when the
three of them burst out of the woods from numerous directions. Mary
Ellen raised the gun and aimed for the chest of the one closest to
her. She pulled the trigger but the shot was off and took it in the
shoulder. The next one hit it in the thigh. Its movements were
hindered but the bullet in its flesh didn't register as it
continued forward at a rapid pace. The next shot hit it in the gut;
its arms wrapped around its stomach, it doubled over and took a few
more steps before its knees hit the ground.

The other two darted into the woods and
vanished within the foliage. Mary Ellen's hands shook as the one
she'd shot in the stomach continued to writhe on the ground and
emit sounds of pure agony. She despised the sounds of suffering
coming from it but she found herself riveted upon the barely
recognizable human before her.

Donald stepped forward and put a bullet
through its forehead, finally putting it out of its misery. Mary
Ellen stared at it for a minute more before lifting her head to
search the woods for the others. Quiet descended over the clearing,
a quite that seemed strangely loud after all of the noise. She
became acutely aware of the ringing in her ears and the loud
breathing of those around her. Her nose filled with the heightened
odor of those around her as their terror came off of them in
waves.

Her head fell back, her gaze ran over the
treetops again. Her fingers twitched on the trigger as she waited
for them to come back at them. The urge to scream built in her
chest and a growing pressure caused her bladder to clench. Those
things were out there somewhere but they were outnumbered now and
she had a feeling they weren't as reckless as their friends had
been, that they were plotting something.

She didn't think she could take much more of
the tension. Turning, she searched behind her, but she didn't see
anything there. A flash of something drew her attention to the
trees. She'd just spotted the two edging toward the cabin roof when
a gunshot rang out from behind her, followed quickly by three more.
She almost pissed herself as she jumped, a startled shriek escaped
Nancy, and the bodies tumbled from the trees to land on the roof.
The two bodies rolled down the pitch and fell off in front of the
porch.

Mary Ellen kept her gun raised as she spun
toward the cabin and the direction the gunshots had come from.
She'd been expecting to see that the others had returned, that
they'd parked the truck somewhere else and walked in when they'd
heard the gunshots. Instead, four people she didn't recognize
emerged from around the corner of the cabin. Their guns were raised
as they approached the dead lying before the porch.

"We come in peace," one of the women said
and the younger man in between the two women snickered.

The older man lifted his head away from the
scope of his rifle and frowned. The man lowered his rifle as he
stepped forward. "Al?"

All of their heads turned toward Al.
Confusion marred Al's brow before it cleared and he began to smile.
"Rusty?" he asked in astonishment.

Mary Ellen stared at the man that Al had
called Rusty. He appeared to be in his mid to late sixties. His
eyebrows and short beard had a reddish hue to them but the hair on
his head was completely white. His round face and blue eyes lit up
when he grinned at Al. "Yeah." He walked across the clearing and
stretched out his hand to take hold of Al's. "It's good to see
you."

"You also. Where did you come from?" Al
inquired.

He gestured toward the drive. "I still have
my cabin down the road. We had to leave our house in the city once
everything fell apart. We were trying to escape from the damage of
the quakes and tsunami when people started to fall ill. They
overran the city so fast." The twinkle left his blue eyes as he
gestured at the two dead near his feet and gave a sad shake of his
head. "We were hunting in the area when we heard your gunshots. I
hadn't realized anyone was here but we don't move out much from my
cabin. It's safer that way."

"Understandable," Al said. "Glad you were in
the area."

Rusty glanced at all of them before focusing
on Al again. "Do you remember my children?" He stepped back and
waved the other three forward. "This is Rusty Jr. and my daughters
Phoebe and Leah."

"R.J.," Rusty Jr. said and extended his hand
to Al. R.J. looked to be in his mid-thirties he had shaggy reddish
hair that framed his rugged face. Phoebe had light blond hair and
appeared to be in her late twenties while Leah was also a redhead
and about twenty-five.

"I remember," Al said and shook R.J.'s
hand.

They all introduced themselves but Mary
Ellen could feel the hesitance in the people around her. She nudged
Rochelle away from the strangers. Al knew who these people were but
they didn't, and she wasn't in a very trusting mood lately. She
wondered how many bullets were left in her gun as she studied the
family across from her.

What was she becoming? She wondered but then
her gaze drifted briefly to Rochelle and she knew what she'd
become. A woman that would do anything to ensure the safety of her
child and the people gathered around her.

"Rusty and I used to hunt together," Al
explained. Mary Ellen stared at him before focusing on the
strangers across from her again. "We've known each other for twenty
five…"

"Thirty," Rusty chimed in.

"Thirty years," Al finished.

Mary Ellen nodded, Donald shifted closer to
Nancy. Claire kept her rifle pressed against her shoulder and
Freddie pushed behind her. Rusty didn't acknowledge their defensive
postures as he looked them all over. "You've made a stand
here?"

"We're trying to," Al said. "That's the
first time the sick have come through here."

"Nutters, that's what we call them," R.J.
said.

"Charming," Mary Ellen murmured as Victor
stepped out of the cabin and onto the porch. Mary Ellen waved him
over; she preferred him by her side just in case. He climbed down
the steps and hurried over to her other side but she pushed him
behind her.

R.J. shrugged and shoved his hands into his
pockets. Claire hesitated but she finally lowered her rifle. "Helps
to distance us from them, it's easier that way," Rusty
explained.

She supposed that was true but it still
seemed like such a cruel term for them. Her gaze drifted to the
bodies scattered around them and she shuddered. Yes, they were
definitely a little nutty, she decided and Nutter really wasn't any
worse than creature, it, or thing like they called them.

"I understand," Nancy chimed in.

"They come through every once in awhile,"
Rusty said. "We've been here for almost two months and this is the
third time we've seen them in the area. This is the largest group
of them so far."

"If the food is running low in town, they'll
start spreading out," Phoebe said with a shudder.

"That is a good possibility." Rusty rubbed
at his beard.

"I think they're starting to die," Mary
Ellen said. "There was another one, in the woods with them, it was
sicker than the rest. They killed it when it became clear it wasn't
going to make it."