Desolate The Complete Trilogy

Six



Howard felt a tickle on his nose and swatted away what he thought was a fly but turned out to be a hand. His eyes shot open and he sat up, wincing and grabbing at his stomach. Emily fell back, wide-eyed and startled.

“What? What’s wrong? What is it?” He looked around the dimly lit store.

“Sorry,” Emily whispered. She scooted closer to him. “I was jus’ makin’ sure you were still breathin’.” She held her own hand over her nose.

Howard’s shoulders sagged and he gave her a tired smile. “I’m still breathing, hon. I feel like I’m barely alive but I think I’ll pull through.” He gently tugged on one of her braids. “Sorry to worry you. How are you doing?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Fine.”

Howard made out a lump of blankets at the end of the aisle and saw the bare foot of one of the women sticking out. He couldn’t tell if it was Ann or Soo. “It’s barely light outside,” he whispered. “How come you’re up so early?”

Another shrug. She glanced toward the front of the store and spoke softly. “I keep hearing dem outside.”

“What? Hearing who?” The store was quiet except for a low snore from the other side of the aisle. He assumed that was Dave or Tre. He was about to ask her again when he heard it himself. A soft scraping sound at the front of the store. He pointed in that direction and Emily nodded. He started to get up but she grabbed his arm.

“Don’t!”

“I’m just going to take a peek. We’re safe in here. Don’t worry.”

Howard got up and stretched. He was sore and feeling a little weak but otherwise no worse for wear. A decent meal of mostly canned foods had boosted his energy and morale last night. Ditching the hospital gown was a nice change too. Dave slipped out after dark and commandeered a change of clothes from a shop down the block. He returned with a pair of cargo shorts and a yellow T-shirt proclaiming JAMAICA MON! in bold letters. He may now look like a tourist rube, but the clothes were clean and comfortable. Dave even snagged him a decent pair of sandals and guessed his size spot-on.

He went to the front of the store and approached the windows. Almost every inch of glass on the front of the building was covered in posters and signs. He smirked at the back of the handpainted poster announcing SALE TODAY. Judging by the weathered and faded paper it was printed on, the “sale” had been going on every day for years. He peered through a gap in the glass and his smile faded.

There were twenty, maybe thirty, of the creatures in the street out front. Several of them perched on the hood and roof of the Bronco, sitting perfectly still yet staring intently at the building. Others were slowly milling about, clucking and hissing at each other when they got too close. The rest were sitting in the street, watching the store like their siblings on the truck.

One crouched in front of the door, just inches away from Howard on the other side of the glass. It slowly ran the tip of its barbed appendage down the door over and over. The barb made a high-pitched squeal and each time left a deep scratch in the glass. It was an odd thing to do but the creature apparently comprehended the significance of the bars on the door and all the windows. Breaking the windows wouldn’t do any good, so it was content to just scratch the glass, perhaps sending them a message.

Howard found being so close to one of them unnerving and he took a step back. They were more hideous than he membered. His gaze shot upward as the ceiling creaked under the weight of something. They were on the roof, too.

“Hey, um…,” he cleared his throat and regretted breaking the peaceful morning with his own voice. “Hey, we have a situation here, everybody. Probably a good idea to get up.”

Dave inhaled sharply as his eyes fluttered open. He slowly sat up in his sleeping bag. “What’s the problem?” he asked in a thick voice.

The problem presented itself as the glass in the door shattered, spraying Howard with shards. He jumped back, just out of reach of the creature’s stinger. It hit the floor, sending concrete chips against Howard’s shins. The creature stuck its beak between the bars and squealed, filling the store with its awful, earsplitting cry.

Dave scrambled to his feet and grabbed the AK lying next to the sleeping bag. “Get back!”

He pointed the rifle at the door but held his fire, waiting to see if the bars would hold. More glass broke as additional creatures attacked the front of the store. Within seconds most of the glass was gone and the entire storefront was covered with the creatures, each one frantically clawing through the bars and squealing at the group.

Dave fired a few shots into the mass of attackers, killing one. It was replaced by another even before the body fell to the sidewalk. Unless his memory failed him, he now had eight rounds in the mag plus one in the chamber. One last thirty-round magazine was all he had left. The sudden death of their comrade hadn’t scared off the others and shooting them all wasn’t an option. They would need to make every bullet count once they left the store, but leaving was beginning to look like an impossibility.

“Everybody okay?” He glanced at the others huddled together in the middle of the store before again pointing the rifle at the creatures.

“We need to get out of here!” Soo shouted.

“You got that right. Every one of those things in town will soon know we’re here.” Satisfied the bars would keep them out at least temporarily, Dave lowered the gun and went for his things. “We’ll try to get out through the back. It’ll be on foot so only take essentials.”

Howard watched as the others gathered their bags and got supplies together. Other than his new change of clothes, he didn’t have anything to pack, so he scanned the shelves looking for anything small, but nutritious, to carry.

“Hey,” Dave sidled up to him and spoke softly. He held out a handgun. “Shit’s gonna hit the fan out there. Do you think you’ll be able to keep up?”

Howard stared at the gun for a moment before grabbing it. It was the first time he’d held one since the shooting that felt like a thousand years ago. A sense of dread washed over him but he didn’t have time to dwell on it.

“Do you know how to use it?” Dave said.

“Yeah. I think I can figure it out.”

“Make ’em count. We’re really low on ammo.”

The racket at the front grew as more creatures joined the fray. Emily held her hands over her ears and tears ran down her cheeks. Soo picked her up but looked just as terrified as the little girl. Tre’s face was stone. He stood with his rifle pointed at the floor, staring at the creatures. Ann stood close by.

They went to the back of the store. The racks of shelves blocked the view from the front and the creatures squealed even louder once they lost sight of their prey. A door in back led to a storage room which led to a large set of double doors.

Dave opened one door a crack and peered out into a dark hallway. He turned on his flashlight and looked in both directions. All of the stores in the building complex shared the common hallway and he hoped for a main exterior dock door somewhere. There had to be a place to accept deliveries for all the businesses. There was no sign of daylight which was good news for now.

They quietly hurried down the corridor. Howard held the gun in his right hand and Emily’s hand in the other. It was dark and hot. He couldn’t believe how much time he’d spent recently in dark oppressive environments, considering he was on a sunny tropical island.

Just as Dave expected, they reached a dock door at the end of the hall, next to a smaller man door. He carefully unlocked the deadbolt as quietly as possible and opened the door an inch or so. The alley behind the building was clear. He held up his index finger to his lips and motioned to the others to follow.

They barely got down the stairs and into the alley when they heard something overhead. One of the creatures on the roof jumped off onto the top of a truck and then to the pavement. Dave raised his rifle and fired a single shot right through its head. More of them arrived at the edge of the roof as the report from the rifle echoed though the empty streets.

Nobody had to give the command to run. Ann was the first to go and everybody else followed. Howard scooped up Emily, the surge of adrenaline making her feel light as a feather. More shots rang out behind him as Dave picked off a few more. Howard glanced behind him to make sure the marine was still with them. Four of the creatures were now in the chase and gaining ground fast. Dave stopped running, dropped to one knee, and opened fire.

He dropped two of them immediately, grazed the third before aiming at the fourth, which he missed entirely. It leapt from ten feet away and landed on Dave, slamming him to the pavement. In the meantime, the third injured creature limped in his direction.

Howard handed Emily to Tre and ran back to help. Dave was pinned under the creature and held the rifle sideways, jammed into the beast’s mouth as it thrashed about. Fortunately for Dave, the creature’s deadly appendages, one clawed and one with the deadly stinger, were too long and ineffective at close range, but the sharp claws and hooves on the creature’s other legs were doling out plenty of damage.

Howard stopped and raised the gun but couldn’t fire. At that distance he was just as likely to hit Dave as the creature. Instead he turned to the injured one that had lost interest in Dave and was now coming for him. Howard pulled the trigger but it didn’t budge. He fumbled for the safety and tried again, this time the trigger worked but the gun didn’t fire. The creature was just feet away. He pulled back the slide, finally chambering a round, and yanked on the trigger again. The gun bucked in his hand, annihilating the alien’s head and spraying Howard with blood. The body crashed into him and he pushed it aside.

He scrambled to his feet and got close enough to the alien on top of Dave to risk a shot. It took three rounds before it finally went limp. Howard helped Dave push it off of him.

The front of Dave’s shirt was shredded from the alien’s sharp claws, and soaked with blood from dozens of lacerations on his torso. Howard asked if he could walk and was answered with a weak nod. Dave took a few steps and stumbled. Soo ran up and gave Howard a hand as distant shrieks grew louder. More on the way. Dave’s rifle was mangled and looked broken so Howard decided to leave it.

“Leave me here,” Dave said. “I’ll throw them off your path.”

“Don’t give me that macho bullshit,” Soo said. “We’re not leaving anybody.”

“We won’t make it on foot, though.” Howard looked back the length of the alley. “Not at this pace. We need to find another car.”

They came to the end of the alley and onto a side street. Dave was sweating profusely, his face twisted in pain with every step they took. They sat him down on a sidewalk bench to rest. “Soo, stay here with Dave and the girls. Tre and I will try to find a car.”

Soo removed the rifle strap from her shoulder. “Make it quick. I don’t think we have much time.”

“Gotcha. Emily, you stay here. We’ll be right back, okay?”

She nodded and sat down next to Dave.

They ran down the street, going from car to car but not having any luck. There were plenty of vehicles to choose from, but all of them were parked with no keys in the ignition. Despite his criminal past, Howard had no idea how to hotwire a car and doubted it was even possible in real life.

A taxi van down the block looked promising. Unlike the parked cars, it had obviously veered off the road with somebody behind the wheel before crashing into a storefront. Howard could make out a body slumped over the wheel. The old van had been made back in the day when cars were still mostly steel, not plastic and aluminum. It barely looked scratched after smashing into the brick wall.

They could smell the bodies even before getting close. The driver was still strapped in and badly decomposed. A woman in back sprawled across the rear seat, covered in flies. Tre gagged and lifted his shirt over his nose. “Na, mon. Let’s find anoter.”

“There’s no time! Besides, any car with keys around here is gonna have a body to go with it.” Howard held his breath and reached over the man’s lap to unlatch the seat belt. He grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled the body out onto the street. The keys in the ignition glistened in the sunlight.

Tre slid open the side door and made retching sounds under his shirt. Howard grabbed the woman’s ankles and yanked, doing nothing more than pulling the skin off her legs. That was enough for Tre, who bent over and vomited. Gunshots from down the street rang out.

Howard cursed and grabbed the woman’s shoes this time, succeeding in sliding her off the seat and onto the street. “Come on, we need to hurry,” he yelled at Tre.

Tre wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and hopped in, slamming the side door behind him. “Sorry,” he said from under his T-shirt.

Howard jumped into the driver seat and closed the door. “Don’t worry about it. Trust me, it’s a miracle I’m not yacking right along with you.” He grabbed the keys and stomped the clutch to the floor. “Cross your fingers.”

He turned the key; the van sputtered but didn’t start. More gunshots from down the street. “Come on!” Howard pumped the gas twice and tried again, this time the engine roared to life. Thick black smoke belched out the back as he revved the gas. “Yes! Hold on, here we go.”

The gear lever was on the steering column– “three on a tree” as his dad used to say, referring to the three-speed transmission. Howard’s father had an old ’64 Ford van he bought from a buddy when Howard was a kid. Once when Howard was twelve years old and they were on a weekend camping trip, his dad taught him the basics of driving stick, through the fields, in that van. It was one of his best childhood memories. Who would have thought those skills would come in handy twenty years later in a postapocalyptic Montego Bay?

Despite his three-on-a-tree experience, Howard ground through the gears, trying to find reverse, before finally slipping it into gear. He gunned it and backed the van out of the wreckage, unintentionally running over the driver’s body with a sick crunch.

Howard sped down the road the couple of blocks to the others and screeched to a halt. Tre slid open the side door before the van stopped and jumped out. Soo pointed her rifle down the alley but Howard didn’t see any of the creatures. They helped Dave into the back.

“Shit, here they come.” Howard saw two of them sprinting down the alley.

Now that Soo’s gun no longer posed a threat, they were going for it. The side door finally slammed home as everybody made it inside and Howard floored it. The creatures flew out of the alley and kept pace with the van for half a block before finally losing ground and giving up.

“I didn’t hit any but they kept their distance after I fired a couple of shots,” Soo said. “I think, after they saw their friends get killed by Dave, they might finally be learning about guns.”

“Well, that’s something, I guess.” Howard weaved between a few stalled cars in the middle of the road and checked the rear view mirrors. No signs of any followers. “How’s he doing?”

“Stop talking about me like I’m already dead, dammit,” Dave mumbled. “I’ll be fine. Just try to keep it on the goddamned road.”

Howard chuckled then starting to laugh. The intense mixture of stress, adrenaline, and relief boiled over and caused him to laugh like a lunatic. He had chalked it up years ago as some kind of internal defense mechanism. Most of the time when he fought with Gina he’d end up laughing, which used to piss her off even more.

Laughter, even in the darkest times of times and in rickety old vans reeking of death, is contagious. Pretty soon everybody was joining in. Howard turned onto the main road and headed east while the Oswald Regional Hospital grew smaller in the rearview mirror.