The Infected Dead (Book 3): Die For Now Read online

  It started when they tried to cut across the inside of the parking lot on the first floor. There was a large group of the infected dead that had been unable to find an exit. After bumping into concrete walls and cars for several months, they had done what they tended to do, and that was to stand around waiting for the next thing to draw their attention in a different direction. The sound of Allison landing too hard on the concrete when she climbed the low wall was all they needed.

  Allison instinctively tried for higher ground and went up one level before the Chief could stop her. He caught up with her, but the ramp behind him was already full of the infected. The Chief looked around and spotted the stairwell in a far corner of the second level. He pulled Allison toward it and whispered to her as they ran that they had to go down and out before they got trapped. They dodged the cars that had been abandoned by their owners when the logjam of cars had become so bad that no one could drive out of the garage.

  He said, “Never go high unless you have to or if you have an escape route.”

  When they reached the stairwell and pulled open the door, they saw they had made another terrible mistake. There were already infected dead on the other side of the door. The Chief put everything he had into pushing the door shut again, which was far more than most men could do, but the weight of the infected had already opened the door too far. He let go of the door, and they fell out in a pile.

  This time there was no choice but to go up another level, and there were more infected waiting on the third floor. Realizing they couldn’t keep going up until they ran out of places to go, the Chief began checking cars.

  “What are you looking for, Chief?” Allison wasn’t quite ready to cry, but she sounded like she was ready to panic.

  “I’m looking for anything with the keys and a forty-eight month battery in it.” The Chief had opened one car’s trunk and snatched up the lug wrench.

  “We can’t drive out of here, Chief. There are too many cars blocking the way.” Allison was definitely getting a frantic edge to her voice as the infected were coming down from above and up from below.

  The Chief found a white Charger with the doors shut and the keys in the ignition. It was parked along the outside wall of the garage. He called for Allison to catch up with him, and as soon as she arrived, he broke the window on the driver’s side. The car alarm immediately started its ear splitting wail. He shoved the lug wrench through his belt. He was sure it would be the best weapon he would find for a while.

  With Allison in tow for a second time in one day, the Chief dragged her away from the Charger toward the center of the garage. He lifted her easily over the railing and practically tossed her down to second level, then he climbed over and jumped. They hid behind the cars parked along the inner row and watched as a steady parade of the infected walked by on their way to the car alarm.

  “We have to move fast because infected outside the garage are going to be drawn to the sound, too,” he said.

  Allison was beginning to catch on to the plan because she turned and checked the first level that was now behind and below her. She didn’t wait for the Chief to toss her over the railing. This time she jumped and moved quickly to hide behind a car. The Chief smiled and followed her.

  Being back on the first level, the Chief and Allison were able to hop the low wall as far from the exits as they could get. Even as they moved away from the garage they were stunned speechless by the sheer numbers of the infected dead being summoned by the car alarm on the third floor. What had begun as a death trap turned into a way for them to remove large numbers of the infected from their path, but what frightened them was how easy it was to become cornered.

  They still had most of the peninsular city to cross, and that meant countless streets that were unknown to them. All it would take was to go down the wrong alley and they could find themselves trapped with nowhere to go. When they decided to cut across the garage, they would have been safe if they had run for the other side and jumped over the wall on the ground level. Even Allison's mistake didn't seem like the end of the world, but it certainly could have been.

  The Chief had to admit to himself that he was a bit more impressed with Allison since the plane crash, and he had even started to like her more because she was at least trying to act like a survivor, but her blunder when she panicked and ran up the ramp made the Chief wonder if she was capable of consistently making the right decisions.

  Over the last six months or so, the Chief had seen good decisions and bad. The worst decisions seemed to be made by people he didn't know. Jean's decision to leave the shelter a few months ago had been a bad one. It nearly cost her life when she was captured by the crew of a Russian ship, but not because they were bad people. It was what they became after the infection had spread through their crew.

  Even though that was a bad decision, Jean showed she was capable of making sustained good judgement calls, and she survived the ordeal largely on her own. The Chief told himself that he didn't think Allison would have survived the same ordeal, and he wasn't so sure she could survive this one, even with him along to protect her. He decided that the best place for her would be somewhere behind him until they were safe again.

  The Chief motioned with a finger to his lips not to speak and then gently guided her into position behind him. She seemed to understand.

  The trees along the side of the garage gave them enough cover to make it to the next street, and the infected that were being drawn toward the parking garage were mainly using the paved areas and sidewalks. It wasn't that the infected had the mental powers to stay on the road and then use the entrance of the garage. It was a case of taking the path of least resistance and then banging into things that were in the way until they eventually got around something. The trees surrounding the grassy area next to the parking garage served as a natural barrier that deflected the infected dead back onto the road, and with the exception of a half dozen or so infected that were stuck on a bicycle rack, most of them were past the place where the Chief and Allison had to leave the cover of the trees.

  For about the hundredth time the Chief checked the position of the sun. He knew it would worry his good friends, who were hopefully in the Fort Sumter shelter by now, but it was looking more and more like they would be spending the night in Charleston. He wondered if it would be possible to find a place that still had some supplies or if they should just settle for something that wasn't a death trap.

  On his signal, he and Allison made a run for the other side of the street. Other than the infected that were stuck on the bicycle rack, they seemed to go unnoticed, and that group didn't pose any threat. If anything, they were useful because their groaning was distracting some of the infected toward them.

  They edged along the wall of a building until they reached an intersection that said they were on East Bay Street. The Chief remembered that East Bay Street was the road that would take them all the way to the Coast Guard base if they took the longer route. It was safer in one way. After reaching White Point Garden, there would be water on one side and buildings on the other. If they got trapped, they could jump over the railing into the water and swim far enough out to be safe. He didn't think Allison would be too happy with getting wet, but the alternative was far less attractive.

  The Chief looked around the corner and studied the next couple of blocks. There was a parking lot on the left and homes on the right. Most of the homes were turned sideways to the street, which was a common form of architecture in the city. He leaned out a bit more to see what kind of building was connected to the parking lot, and he could just make out a few shopping carts mixed in with the cars that had been randomly abandoned at the store. Shopping carts meant supplies if the building hadn't already been looted, but judging by the number of infected that had swarmed the parking garage after the car alarm began blaring, not many people made it out of this area, and not many people would have chosen to come here for supplies. The Chief certainly wouldn't have chosen this place.

  "A
llison, there's some kind of store about a block from here. Judging by the number of shopping carts it might be a grocery store. If we have to fight our way out of trouble, don't let yourself get cornered. Try to stay on the ground if you have to run, and try to stay in the area by circling back on this spot. Got it?"

  "Yeah, I got it, Chief," she said. "What if I see a chance to get inside the building?”

  "That's what I'm hoping for, Allison. If you see a way in, let me know so we can go in together. There's likely to be something bad roaming around in there that hasn't been able to find its own way out, so we're going to help it find another way out."

  Strangely enough, Allison's question gave the Chief an idea.

  "Allison, you're a genius," he said.

  "Seriously, Chief?" She gave him a look like he had to be choosing the wrong time to be kidding around.

  "Seriously," he answered. "We need to get around behind the store. I can't think of many stores that have their loading bays at ground level. If we can get into the storage areas, we can find a way to attract the attention of the infected out the back door. They'll eventually fall off of the loading dock, and they won't be able to get back in."

  "That was my idea, Chief?" asked Allison.

  He smiled at her and said, "Not directly, but your question about getting inside the building made me think we aren't likely to be able to walk right in the front door, and if you had seen this area when the whole world went to hell, you would know that there wasn't time to loot for food, water, and batteries. The infection spread through here like wildfire."

  "Do you think they had a chance to lock the doors?" she asked.

  "There's a possibility of that, but if the store was really modern, the doors could have also been automatic. Once power failed, they would shut, and I don't know if the infected would have had a reason to push them open, but I know they aren't smart enough to pull them open. Let's circle around behind the store and see if we can get in through the loading dock."

  They stayed close to the wall and went to the end of the street. Not far away the horn continued to call to all of the infected dead in the streets. Hopefully, they would all find their way up to the third level of the parking garage before the battery finally died.

  When they circled the block of buildings and were able to see the back of the building, they also saw that large numbers of people had tried to escape using the street behind the grocery store. It really wasn't a street, and with the exception of the place where trucks could back up to the loading dock, it was only one lane. Most of that lane was filled with cars, dumpsters, and human remains.

  There were no infected wandering around behind the building, and what few may have been in the front parking lot were being drawn down the street to the parking garage.

  "Allison, if not for the plane crash, I'd say you have some unbelievably good luck. Even running up the ramp inside the garage turned into a good thing."

  "I planned that all along," she answered.

  The Chief gave her a sideways look to see if she was serious and caught just a hint of her grin.

  "Let's go," he said, "and here's the plan. If we can go in the back door, we have to make sure the front doors are closed tight, and then we have to get all of the infected to walk out the back door. The main problem is getting trapped inside somewhere between the front and back doors with infected blocking our exit."

  Allison looked like she was thinking about it for a moment, and then she said, "Chief, I was in line at a Walmart once. You know, one of those times when it's really packed but they only have two registers open. I was about twelve carts from the front when they announced something was on sale at the back of the store. I wouldn't have given up my place in line if it had been free, but almost everyone in front of me took off."

  "What are you talking about, Allison? Not that I would seriously think you're suggesting a sale announcement would get them all out, but I don't see what you're saying."

  "I'm just saying, Chief, that no matter how good the sale is, you're not going to get all of them to come out the back door. Some are going to stay right where they are, or they're going to go in a completely different direction."

  The Chief understood what Allison meant. It was likely that they would have to flush out as many as they could, but then they would still have to dispose of some inside the building.

  They reached the loading dock and found the steps that led up onto the platform. On the opposite end was a ramp that was used to drive a forklift up onto the loading dock. The concrete loading dock itself was close to six feet from the payment below.

  The Chief studied the layout and said, "I think they had to have a higher loading dock than normal because of the possibility of flooding. We're only a block from the river, and a surge through here would wipe out a lot of inventory. They must've used the forklift to unload trucks and then drive up the ramp."

  Even though they would have to find a way to block the ramp and the stairs, they were happy with the height of the loading dock. Anything that went over the edge wasn't going to make it back up onto the same level as them. Because the horn in the garage had worked so well, they also had the time to get the stairs and ramp blocked without having to deal with infected dead coming at them from those two directions.

  The Chief went over to the large door of the loading dock and checked to see if it was locked. When it wouldn't move he resigned himself to the fact that he would have to go inside to unlock it. He checked the solid metal door to the right of the big door, and the handle moved easily to the open position. Since he couldn't see inside the door, he put his ear against the cool metal and listened...not a sound.

  Allison had been standing off at a distance watching how carefully the Chief was doing everything, and she didn't see they had company. Three of the infected walked up the forklift ramp without a sound and were practically on her before the Chief even turned in her direction. All she saw was his reaction and the way he bolted at her, and for just a moment she thought he was attacking her.

  That was probably what saved her life. The Chief looked big when he was standing still. He looked even bigger when he was charging at you like a bull. Allison turned and started to run from him all in one motion, and she collided with the three infected dead that were right behind her. The first one was already reaching for her, so Allison got a face full of stinking, rotting hands as her momentum carried her directly into them.

  The infected dead could still reach, grab, and bite, but they couldn't react quickly, especially those that had been decaying for a long time. Those that had died at the beginning were even likely to pull apart like an over cooked roast. Allison's sudden reaction knocked them backward and over the edge of the loading dock, and the Chief grabbed Allison just in time to keep her from going over with them. He pulled her back from the edge and held her in a big bear hug as she shook uncontrollably for what seemed like an hour.

  When the Chief finally knew he could let her go, he held her out at arms length and checked her face.

  "Were you bitten or scratched?" he asked.

  She shook her head and he saw that the tears were pouring down her cheeks.

  "Are you sure?"

  She nodded but said, "One of them stuck its finger in my mouth, and I think I'm going to be sick."

  Allison turned and went to her knees and started retching so hard the Chief thought she would tear a muscle in her abdomen. Breakfast had been a long time ago, so it was mostly dry heaving, but the taste had to be awful. The Chief knew he had to get inside the building and find her something to kill the taste, and probably even some hydrogen peroxide to rinse the germs out of her mouth.

  The Chief looked along both ends of the building and saw there were no more infected coming their way, so he helped Allison to her feet and half carried her across the loading dock to the farthest corner. If any came along while he was inside, they weren't likely to see her where she was sitting.

  "Allison, you need to stay really quiet until I
get back. The forklift is most likely inside the door, so I'm going to have a look around. I'll get you some mouthwash and see if I can find a way to deal with whatever's inside the building. If you have to get away from anything while I'm gone, come inside and find me. Do you understand?"

  Allison nodded that she understood, so the Chief went back to the door and eased it open. It looked pitch black inside, but there were no sounds of movement so he slipped inside and closed the door shut behind him.

  The smell inside was awful, but without power and a few months to rot, there was plenty inside the store that could smell bad. Even worse, it was an unimaginable cocktail of odors from many different sources. Standing in the darkness the Chief thought it over and came to the conclusion that the front doors must be shut, and the windows must be intact, or the place would have had time for the odors to dissipate.

  The Chief waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness before moving from his place by the door. He was happy when he saw there were two forklifts instead of one. That meant he could block the stairs and the ramp, and if the front doors were really secure, they would at least have a safe place to spend the night.

  The double doors that led from the storerooms to the main floor of the grocery store were directly in front of him. Each door had a circular glass window in it, and there was enough light coming from the store for him to see if it was safe. As he quietly stepped closer he saw a side that reminded all Harris Teeter employees to wash their hands before returning to work.

  He thought to himself, "That won't be a problem anymore."

  From his vantage point, he could see down two aisles, and he thought it could look worse. Shelves were in disarray, and the floors were covered with boxes and cans, but it was obvious that no survivors had been able to resupply from this store. The littered aisles were evidence that there had been struggles, probably when the infection started, and there had been or still were infected dead blundering around inside the store.

  A crashing sound somewhere far off in the store confirmed the theory that something, whether living or dead, was in the store. The only question was how many. The Chief slipped the lug wrench from his belt and moved without a sound through the doors. It was like stepping back into daylight because there were skylights as well as windows. Something was moving on an aisle to the left. He could tell because it kept bumping into items that had been knocked from the shelves.