Dead Texas: Books 1-4 Box Set, page 18
When there was none, she used the stock of her gun to bust out one of the glass panels and reached into the unlock the door. She flicked the deadbolt and shoved a little wall unit against the broken glass, raising her blades to clear the house.
It was empty. After double checking the front door lock, she collapsed on the couch and smacked at her earpiece with an arm that suddenly felt like jelly.
“Sparks, are you okay?” Dan asked.
“Yeah, just,” she huffed, “had some issues getting out of the drug store.”
“Oh my god, are you okay?” he gushed. “You aren’t bitten are you?”
She shook her head lazily. “No, I’m good, just an old fashioned chase around town.”
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Some random house in the neighborhood,” she said, kicking off her soaked boots. “Going to lay low and catch my breath while looking over these patient files.” She peeled off a sock and wrung it out. “Besides, I need to let my clothes dry out a bit before moving on.”
“Dry out?” the Principal inquired. “Did you go swimming?”
“Nah, just played the worst game of Marco Polo ever.” She chuckled as she drew her tank top over her head. “Turns out if you have a machete, it doesn’t matter if you’re a fish out of water, you still win.”
“That…” He couldn’t help but bark a laugh. “That is good to know.”
“I’ll be in touch when I have something,” she said. “Sparks out.”
CHAPTER NINE
Rufus scrambled eggs on the stove as Jeff poured four cups of coffee, Mary and Ricky keeping an eye out for trouble.
“Come on y’all, breakfast,” Rufus called, and the couple joined them in the kitchen of the house they’d hunkered down in.
“How’s it looking out there?” Jeff asked.
Ricky shrugged. “Pretty quiet. Nothing on the streets,” he said.
“And the smoke coming from Colonial Court seems to be petering out, so it doesn’t look like the fires spread,” Mary continued.
“Well that’s a bit of good news, at least,” Rufus replied as he divvied the eggs between four plates. “Now we just gotta figure out how to clear the neighborhood so we can get the food.”
“Maybe we can lure them to one side like you did last night, Rufus?” Jeff suggested. “Stand on the wall, make a shitload of noise, and keep them there while the rest of us get the supplies?”
“Sounds risky,” the older man warned. “All it’s gonna take is one of them bastards to get wind of Dan’s boys and they’re gonna be overrun.”
“You could Pied Piper them sumbitches,” Ricky spoke up. “I mean my truck is right by the entrance. We’ll get her started up, get their attention and lead em right out into the country.”
They all stared at him in awe.
“Ricky, that is a solid fucking idea,” Jeff commended, and then shoved the rest of his eggs into his mouth before standing up. “I’m gonna get Dan on the line and let him know.”
“Pied Piper them sumbitches?” Mary raised an eyebrow at her husband. “I swear it’s a good thing I was a math teacher and not an English teacher.”
“Hell girl, you should just be happy the boy made a literary reference.” Rufus chuckled.
Ricky grinned. “You tell her, Rufus.”
She rolled her eyes and focused on her breakfast, knowing full well this was a battle she wasn’t going to win. Jeff sipped his coffee while looking out the window, waiting for the Principal to answer his tap.
“Hey Jeff,” Dan finally came through, “sorry about the delay there, I was helping get things ready. How we looking over there?”
“Well, from our vantage point it looks like the fires have burned out,” Jeff reported. “But we don’t know what the zombie population looks like. Although we do have a plan.”
“Great, let’s hear it,” Dan offered.
“To quote Ricky, the thespian among us, we’re gonna Pied Piper the sumbitches,” the skinhead replied with a grin. “Ricky’s truck is parked by the entrance, so the plan is to lure them out of the neighborhood, and really right out of the city.”
“Sounds like as good a plan as any,” the Principal replied. “I’ll make sure the teams going in know to be ready for any stragglers.”
Jeff nodded. “Probably a good idea, since we’re going to be moving as soon as the first wave gets to us. We won’t have a way to know how successful we are.”
“How long do you think you’ll need?” Dan asked.
Jeff pursed his lips in thought. “Plan on two hours,” he said finally. He pulled out the GPS and zoomed out to take a look at the area. “Based on our position, we’re going to go out 1631, and when we get way out into the country we’ll leave them behind and circle around to highway 16 and come back into town. We’re not going to be able to go that fast initially, since we don’t want to lose any zombies.”
“Sounds good, Jeff,” Dan commended. “I’ll have the boys ready to go in two hours. Let me know if anything changes.”
Jeff nodded. “Ten four.” He tapped his earpiece and went back into the kitchen. ‘Alright, the plan is a go.” He puts hands up as the trio started to get up. “Whoa now, finish breakfast. I told him it’d take us a couple hours, so we have plenty of time. Besides, how many more of these good old fashioned hot breakfasts are we gonna have?”
Rufus shrugged. “Man’s got a point, eat up everybody.”
CHAPTER TEN
Sparks shot awake, sitting up violently on the couch, gun in hand. She steadied her breathing as she remembered where she was, and lowered her gun, rubbing her eyes. She looked around at the file folders and clothes strewn about, yawning as she headed to the kitchen.
She rummaged through the cabinets, finding very little. The previous tenants must have packed everything they had been able to fit in their vehicle when they left.
“Ugh, that’s just wrong,” she muttered upon finding a single canister of decaf coffee. “Guess this is as good as it’s going to get.” She fired up the coffee maker as she tapped her earpiece.
“Good morning Sparks, sleep well?” Dan asked.
“Not really,” she replied with a yawn. “Up most of the night trying to find the heart meds.”
He frowned. “Any luck?”
“Only three patients had a prescription for it,” she said. “One of them has an address south of downtown, which after yesterday I don’t want to go anywhere near. The second one hasn’t had their order filled in two months, which leads me to believe they stopped needing them.”
“And the third?” he prompted.
“Picked up a week before the outbreak,” she said. “IP address looks like it’s fourteen miles northwest of my current position. So after I wake up a bit, I’m going to start hiking.”
“Well, at least it’s taking you in the right direction towards Junction,” he said.
She nodded as she dumped the blasphemous coffee into a filter. “Hopefully they have some transportation there, because this walking is getting old.”
“Why don’t you just take a car from where you are?” he suggested.
She shook her head. “Still too many of those things around,” she said. “I’d much rather sneak out of town on foot than risk setting off another alarm.”
“I don’t blame you at all,” he said.
“How are the others doing?” she asked.
“They’re safe,” he reported. “They found a good bit of food and now they’re going to lead a zombie convoy out into the country so we can go pick it up.”
“When you talk to them again, tell them I said howdy and that I’m still kicking,” she said.
“Will do,” Dan confirmed. “Be safe.”
She tapped the earpiece and poured her cup of decaf, grimacing as she did so. “I don’t normally wish ill on people, but seriously, whoever lived here can fuck right off.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The foursome hugged the wall as they moved up the street, guns drawn and at the ready. Rufus led the way with Jeff bringing up the rear, and they met no resistance as they reached the front of the walled neighborhood.
Rufus held up a fist to silently signal for them to stop, and peered around the corner of the wall. There were no zombies outside of the gate, near Ricky’s truck from what he could see, but there were lots of blind spots and that worried him.
“Ricky, you got the keys ready?” the old man whispered. When he saw his companion hold them up in confirmation, he nodded. “Wait til everyone is in to start it up.”
Ricky nodded, and Rufus gave everyone a thumbs up. He turned, bringing his rifle up into combat ready position, and led them into battle.
When he reached the guard station, Rufus whipped around it, ready to take out any potential threat. The closest zombie was about ten yards away, milling just on the other side of the gate. It seemed more interested in the smoldering house than anything on the groups side of the gate, so Rufus refrained from shooting it and instead motioned for the trio to run to the truck.
Ricky led the charge, the three of them moving at a speed walk to avoid making too much noise, and made it to the truck. They carefully opened the driver’s side door and Mary crawled in first, Ricky following. Jeff climbed up into the bed, taking position over the roof to provide cover.
Rufus moved silently across the gap, sideways, with his gun still trained on the distracted zombie. Just as he was about halfway, Ricky gently closed the truck door and the tiny click was just enough to make the zombie turn its head. Without hesitation Rufus put a bullet in its head, but the loud crack signaled the rest of the horde that dinner had arrived.
“Start the truck!” he yelled, and sprinted towards the vehicle. Ricky fired it up just as zombies began pouring out of the front gate, and he punched the accelerator.
Rufus halfway jumped into the bed, and Jeff grabbed him by the belt, pulling him the rest of the way as the truck bounced violently from running over wayward zombies.
The truck cleared the front entrance with the throng of zombies in hot pursuit. Ricky turned down the road beside the fortified neighborhood, keeping a good twenty yard clearance between them and the enemy.
Mary opened the back window. “You boys alright?”
“Pretty sure I cracked a rib, but other than that I’m good to go,” Rufus said, giving her a thumbs up.
“You’re lucky you made it in at all with that eight inch vertical.” Jeff patted him on the shoulder.
Rufus grinned. “Heh, you ain’t kiddin’.”
“Yo Jeff, you got that GPS thingy?” Ricky called back. “Need to know where I’m headed.”
The skinhead pulled out the GPS and checked their location. “Another mile, then hang a left. After that we’ll be out for a leisurely drive in the country,” he instructed.
He and Rufus sat back against the cab of the truck and watched as the mass of rotting flesh sprinted after them.
“What do ya think?” the old man asked. “We got about forty of them?”
Jeff shrugged. “Could be fifty.”
“Well, whatever it is,” Rufus said, “let’s just hope it was enough.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Sparks peered through her binoculars at the house, a one story rancher that would run seven figures in the city. There were no signs of movement despite the beat up truck in the driveway. She lowered her binoculars and stepped out of the tree line into the low hanging evening sunlight.
Just as she reached the front door, there was a high pitched mechanical screech in the distance. She whipped around and saw a small black dot in the sky above the trees.
“That can’t be good,” she muttered, and dove into the house, revolver in hand. A zombie moan echoed from the kitchen, and a rotting corpse in the shape of a teenager ran towards the officer. “Yeah, come and get me girl,” Sparks urged, and darted off towards the bathroom.
She barreled down the hallway, opening the bathroom door just in time for the zombie to smack wetly into the other side. Sparks kicked the corpse into the bathroom and slammed the door, trapping it inside. The undead occupant thrashed against the door like a caged animal, but it didn’t budge.
“You hang tight, girl,” the redhead said, and then did a sweep of the rest of the house. After securing her surroundings, she searched for the medication.
The master bedroom and ensuite came up empty. She worked her way through the kitchen cabinets and the first few contained expensive looking dishes and glassware. The last cabinet revealed a stash that made her eyes widen.
“Holy hell,” she breathed, “either someone in the house was feeling really bad, or really, really good.” She picked up two bottles from the bottom of the cupboard of drugs, and put them in the bag as she checked the labels. Around halfway through she found what she was looking for. “There you are,” she said with triumph as she tapped her earpiece. “Dan, I got them.”
“That’s great news!” the Principal replied excitedly. “And I have some of my own. The boys just got back from Fredericksburg with the food the other group rounded up. There’s enough for two solid weeks, so we have enough to get us wherever we need to go.”
“That’s excellent news,” Sparks agreed as she shoved the rest of the bottles into her bag. “Have they gotten back yet?”
Dan made a noise in the negative. “They had to take the long way around to clear out a horde for us, so we’re expecting them back in a couple of hours.”
“Well, I’m going to-” Sparks ducked at the sight of movement outside of the kitchen window. “Fuck.”
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She pulled out one of the cell phones and slipped it into her pocket for easy access. “I have company, I gotta go,” she said and tapped the earpiece before Dan could respond. She drew her revolver, aimed it at the figure as they leaned towards the window, and then jumped up to fire.
The figure immediately ducked, prompting Sparks to duck again as well, saving her ammo and returning to cover. “Shit, shit, shit.”
She couldn’t tell if it had been a militia or not, but as the front door crashed open she figured she’d be finding out soon enough. She slid low across the floor into the hallway, and peered around the corner. There were two militia men with handguns spreading out in the living room.
She didn’t hesitate, putting a bullet in one’s chest. He collapsed to the floor, gasping for air as blood gargled in his airways. His partner opened fire, shredding the drywall just above Sparks’ head. She made a split decision and jumped up, running towards the shooter with her gun drawn.
Her opponent immediately hit the ground to prevent being shot, but she leapt and landed a knee on the top of his head instead, stunning him. He staggered to his feet and took a swing at her, but she deftly dodged it, smacking the back of his arm in the process.
As his back exposed itself to her, she wrapped her arms around his lower waist and lifted him, rotating to smack him headfirst into the floor. There was a sickening crack as his neck snapped in two, ending his evening early.
A bullet whizzed by Sparks’ ear, hitting the wall behind her, and she dove further into the house as another militia man burst through the front door.
“I’m gonna get you!” he screamed, chasing her down the hall. As she passed the bathroom she dragged open the bathroom door with her, a teenage zombie staggering out to sink its teeth into his throat. His screams turned from a bass to soprano as his vocal chords tore, but Sparks didn’t stick around to listen to the concerto as she bolted for the back door.
As soon as her boots hit the grass she hit the ground hard, dazed and dizzy. She tried to refocus her eyes, flipping over onto her back, and her blood ran cold at the sight of Elijah’s face. He was flanked by four armed militia members, and he motioned to them as she tried to prop herself up on her elbows.
“You two,” he demanded, “go clean up the mess she made. Then we’re gonna go have some fun with this one.”
His sneer made bile rise in her throat as the remaining two zip tied her wrists in front of her. They dragged her to her feet, Elijah keeping his rifle trained on her.
“So much death and destruction, simply because you wouldn’t walk away,” he said, clucking his tongue and cocking his head at her.
“So much death and destruction because you and your boys don’t know how to share,” she replied with steel in her gaze as the other two henchmen exited the house, loaded up with the dead mens’ weapons and ammo.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” Elijah chided as he motioned for her to walk towards the tree line. “Sharing under these conditions means death. There are no more resources being produced, and once they’re gone, that’s it.”
Sparks swallowed, keeping her voice steady, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. “How many people have to die just so you can live a few extra months?”
“Everyone I come across if need be,” he replied easily.
“You hear that boys?” She glanced behind her. “You’re expendable.” The guard directly behind her shoved her hard, and she stumbled down a small embankment into the bushes next to the woods.
Elijah sighed. “Go get her.”
“Yes boss,” the militia member muttered. Sparks quickly reached into her back pocket, grabbing the phone she’d stashed there. She quickly set the alarm for five minutes, and tossed it aside just as the guard made it through the bush to her. “On your feet, bitch,” he demanded, and grabbed her ponytail to drag her up.
He shoved her back to the trail and Elijah and his quartet continued to march her through the trees. Soon they reached a clearing with an SUV parked on the edge of a dirt road. One of the militias ran over to the vehicle and tossed her bag and weapons on the hood before hitting the headlights, illuminating the dusky scene.
