Wade saw him. “Leave that piece of crap. Here.” He shoved a .45 automatic into Jeremy’s hand. “We’ll stop and get you a real weapon on the way out too.”
Minutes later, Jeremy sat inside the garage with Troy, Geoff, and Wade. He held an Uzi in his trembling hands and watched as Wade worked underneath the hood of a military issue jeep that had seen better days.
Troy held an M-16 and took continuous drags off a cigarette. “I still don’t understand why you have to do this, Wade,” he commented between puffs.
“You want to keep breathing?” Wade shot back, his voice muffled by the hood. “If I don’t get the parts to fix the ventilation systems from where you idiots shot it up, we’re all going to be headed out of here, and I sure ain’t trustin’ you to bring back the right gear.”
Troy chuffed. “Next time a bunch of flesh-eating crazies get loose in the base, Wade, maybe you should have a talk with ‘em, huh? Tell them not to get near anything important as we blow their freakin’ brains out.”
Wade popped his head out from under the hood. “Fuck you. You think I want to go out there into Hell?”
“Look, Wade.” Geoff moved closer to the jeep. “Troy and I could do it. Just tell us what you need. You don’t have to go.”
“Yes, I do,” Wade said. “Jeremy here’ll be all the help I need; besides, the boy has to contribute somehow. Why not this way?”
Geoff raised his hands in surrender.
Wade tossed Jeremy the keys to the jeep. “Get in and crank her up.”
Jeremy did as he was told, and the jeep’s engine roared to life on the first try. Troy tossed aside his smoke and went to push open the building’s main door.
“Catch you later, guys,” Wade said. “We got some shopping to do.” Then he motioned for Jeremy to get on with it, and they drove out of the complex and down the gravel road towards Canton.
“So just how bad is it out there, really?” Wade asked.
Jeremy glanced over at the burly little man. “Everyone I saw on my way here was dead, crazy, or both. The power’s off everywhere.”
“No shit, Sherlock. I knew that.” Wade turned his gaze to the roadside for a moment, as if collecting his thoughts, then looked back at Jeremy. “There used to be one of those large chain hardware and electronics stores just on the other side of town. Did you see it on your way up here?”
“No. But I know where you’re talking about.”
“You think we can get in and out of it without getting our asses chewed off?”
“I don’t know. Those creatures… some of them are pretty fast. If they’re inside the store…”
Wade picked up the twelve-gauge shotgun from the seat between them and pumped a round into the chamber. “Shit,” he said, “just another day in paradise, huh, Jerm?”
On their way through town, Jeremy had to floor it twice as the creatures poured out of the ruins of buildings and shops, attracted by the sound of the passing jeep, but he and Wade managed to get by without any real close calls.
When they pulled into the large parking lot of the hardware store, only two creatures were milling about. Jeremy parked the jeep directly in front of the store’s Plexiglas entrance and grabbed his Uzi. He started to open fire on the creatures, but Wade smacked his weapon down.
“Don’t do it. You saw how the ones in town reacted to the jeep. The noise will just bring more of them.” He pulled a pistol out of the jury-rigged holster on his tool belt and screwed a silencer onto its barrel. As the creatures came snarling towards them, Wade dropped each one with a single shot to the skull. “Geoff taught me a few things,” he explained, tucking away the gun.
Together they shoved open the store’s heavy doors and stepped into the dark interior. “I’ll just be a minute,” Wade said, reaching for a buggy. “You stay here. Only shoot the fuckers if they get too close and you have to, okay?” Wade cocked his head to the right. “And keep the damn jeep running,” he added as he went inside.
About seven or eight of the creatures now occupied the lot, but they hung back, almost as if they were waiting for something. It was really creeping Jeremy out.
Finally Wade returned with a buggy full of circuit boards he must have ripped out of PCs; Jeremy couldn’t even begin to guess what the other odds and ends were for.
Wade tossed everything into the back of the jeep and hopped in. “Let’s get the hell out of here before they decide they’re hungry.”
“No argument here,” Jeremy said, switching the jeep into drive. He peeled out and tried to steer clear of the creatures.
As the jeep neared the exit to the interstate, a second pack of monsters came bounding out of the woods and made straight for them. Wade cursed and snatched up Jeremy’s Uzi. He opened fire out of his window, and several attackers fell, but now the creatures from the lot were charging at them too, advancing from the other side as if trying to block them in.
“Fuck—hold on!” Jeremy thrust the gas pedal all the way down. The jeep struck the curb and bounced out of the lot onto the road.
Wade looked back at the shrinking figures still giving chase. “That was too fucking close,” he muttered. “Way too fucking close.” Then he clapped Jeremy on the shoulder and grinned. “Good driving, new kid. Glad I brought you along.”
13
Amy opened her eyes. She didn’t feel completely rested, but some sleep was better than none. Eighteen hours had passed since her flight from the docks. She sat up in the backseat of the Toyota, which she’d finally found after a nasty encounter with a creature on the interstate. She had used the car to flee the city proper and had driven for hours, out into what seemed like the middle of nowhere, nothing around but the road and the trees, the safest place she could find for a nap. So she had locked the car doors and had stretched out on her seat, hoping that if any creatures stumbled across her and tried to get in, the noise would wake her up in time to deal with them.
It had been worth the risk. She felt much better physically, but she was still haunted by the horror of her situation. She was alone. The car was nearly out of fuel and she was down to only five rounds left in her .45. She missed Katherine. Hell, she missed the world. But worse, she still had no long-term plan, no idea how she was going to survive, no clue where she was headed. She had fled south, but she didn’t know how far. Virginia maybe? She wasn’t sure. Amy figured it didn’t matter. One state was just as dead as the next.
She needed to find others like herself who’d made it through the wave without going crazy, though she wondered if she were the last sane woman on Earth. The thought terrified her. And the creatures… If the cops who’d almost killed her were any indication, some of those things out there were getting smart. Not normal, but intelligent, and that made them a hundred times more dangerous. It was one thing to outrun or hide from a pack of mindless monsters and another thing altogether when they started shooting back and driving cars. What else were the things capable of now? Amy shuddered and pushed the thought from her mind.
Tenderly, she reached up to touch the wound on her forehead. It wasn’t serious, but she was worried about infection. She had no water or food, much less medical supplies, and trying to locate some in a city or town was out of the question. Even if she had been well armed, she wouldn’t have tried it on her own. So the big question was, what did she do now?
Using the car was dangerous. It attracted the mindless creatures and made her more noticeable to the intelligent ones as well. Going at it on foot seemed like an equally bad idea; she would have no way to outrun the creatures and she certainly couldn’t stand her ground and fight. What the hell was she going to do?