A Glimpse of Decay (Book 3): Lost in Twilight (3 page)

“I think we should just keep going down to Culebra,” Nick suggested.  “Anyway, Culebra leads straight to the station.  If we take Bandera, it takes us away from the station and we’ll end up having to take a whole bunch of different streets just to get to where we want to go.”

After sizing up the situation for a brief moment, Vincent said, “Yeah, you’re right.  We’ll just go down to Culebra.” 

As he moved down the highway, he noticed that there were no other vehicles on the road.  After a few miles of riding in silence, they came upon a car that had flipped on its side and ended up in the grassy median.  Two bloodied and tattered reanimated bodies were kneeling down and feasting on the unfortunate driver.

“Why do they want to eat us?” Nick said as he looked at the gruesome scene.  “I just can’t figure it out…what in the world would make them actually want to eat us?”

“Maybe it’s what the weapon was designed for,” Shondra said.  “Isn’t that what the government said, that this was some sort of weapon that got loose?”

“Well, if they made it that way, that’s pretty fucked up,” Nick said.

“Uh, I think that’s an understatement,” Vincent added.  “Dude, just keep trying the radio.  We can have this discussion some other time.”

“Sorry, man, it’s just hard not to talk about it…especially when motherfuckers are eating people right in front of you!” Nick said as he raised his voice in anger.

As the two patrol cars finally reached the Culebra exit, they were greeted with an otherworldly sight.  “My God, this looks like right out of a disaster movie!” Nick exclaimed as Vincent cautiously exited off of the highway.

Ahead of them was a scene of utter desolation.

Culebra Road was a four lane thoroughfare that snaked its way across San Antonio’s west side.  The section of road that the patrol cars were navigating on was lined on either side with shopping strips and residential neighborhoods and it was usually teeming with traffic at that time of the day.  Seeing it devoid of the hustle and bustle of rush hour made Vincent and his passengers realize that the area had been lost.  As the two cars turned left and made their way under the overpass, they saw what could only be described as a war zone.

Scattered across all four lanes of the road were the remnants of two separate vehicle accidents.  Several fires were burning wildly out of control in the businesses around the intersection and the sky was filling with billowing black smoke.  The accident in the east bound lanes was now a roaring inferno and several charred bodies littered the pavement next to the cars.  The glass doors and windows of the strip mall stores were shattered and broken.  Their once bright and vibrant stucco exteriors were now blackened and dirtied.  Shards of broken glass strewn across the parking lots and roadway twinkled in the hot summer sun.  As Shondra gauged the scene, she noticed the rear end of a city bus protruding from out of one of the retail businesses.  Somehow it had crashed through the glass doors of an electronics store.

“How in the hell did that happen?” Shondra asked as they drove past the bus.

“Shit, looks there’s hundreds of them out here,” Nick commented as he surveyed the scene.  He pointed at several large groups of runners in the littered parking lots—they were chasing down the few unlucky individuals who had been brave enough to venture out into public.

“Why in the hell did they come out here?” Shondra asked staring at the astonishing scene.  “Maybe we should try and help them?”

“There’s nothing we can do for them,” Vincent said in a grim tone.  “They were probably looking for supplies and got caught out in the open.  Looks like most of the places were looted.  Look at the grocery store over there…it’s all fucked up.”

“Holy shit,” Don’s voice crackled over the radio.  “It’s all gone to shit.”

“Yeah, it has,” Vincent said.  He looked back at Shondra and his eyes shot down to her gun belt.   “How much ammo do you have left?”  She could hear the concern in his voice.

“About a mag and a half.”

“That’s all?  You didn’t draw any extra ammunition yesterday when they set up the camp?”

“I did,” she said, frustrated, “but I went through most of it trying to get out of there.”

“I got about two boxes,” Nick said.

“Well, hopefully they’ll have more at the station,” Vincent grumbled.  “We’re gonna need it.”

“I hope they have more than that at the station,” Nick quipped.  “Like maybe some food or water…and a toilet.  I gotta take a massive dump.”  He rubbed his stomach and gritted his teeth, flexing the sinews in his jaws.  A deep audible rumble from his guts verified Nick’s dire situation.

“Not a nice thought,” Shondra said.  “Just don’t do it in here, that’s all I gotta say.”

As the two patrol cars made their way east on Culebra, Vincent and the others sat in shocked silence as they took in everything they were seeing.  After driving a few miles further down the road, they saw the flashing emergency lights of a fire truck.  As they neared it, they could see that its front left tire was flattened.  Parked behind it was an empty police car with its front doors swung open.

“Slow down, see if anyone’s there,” Shondra said.

Listening to her, Vincent brought the car to a crawl as they cautiously peered out of the windows.

“Oh fuck, look!” Nick said with revulsion.  “Over there.”  He was pointing to a patch of trees that sat off the road and behind the fire truck and police car.  There were two police officers who were emerging from the brush.  They were stumbling around in a very stiff and painful fashion.  One of the cops was missing his right arm below the elbow and the other one was drenched in blood.  They were reanimated.

“Damn, I know him…the one missing the arm,” Vincent said as he slapped the steering wheel.  “Son of a bitch!”

“Hey man, you see two of our guys over there by the fire truck!” Donald’s voice shrieked over the radio.  “They’re fucking zombies!”

“What should we do?” Nick asked.  He brought his hands up to his face and covered his eyes.  He then let out an anguished yell.  “Fuck!”

“There’s nothing we can do,” Vincent moaned.  “Shit, there’s the firemen now.”  Three bloodied and tattered firefighters came walking into view from behind the fire truck.  Two of them appeared to be runners while the third was reanimated.

“Let’s just keep going,” Shondra pleaded.  There’s nothing we can do for them now.”

Vincent picked up speed and avoided looking into the rear-view mirror.  He tried to keep his mind off of the reanimated officers by looking down at the instrument cluster.  He didn’t see that he had drifted into the oncoming lane, and it was Shondra’s screams that brought his eyes back up to the road.  Coming directly at him was a large pickup truck with big, off road tires.

Vincent jerked the wheel hard to the right and was able to dodge the truck.  He then saw that it was being followed by a small compact car.  Fortunately for Don, he had been following Vincent with enough distance between the two of them and he was able to avoid crashing into his rear.  Vincent braked to a stop and Don pulled up on Nick’s side.

The two drivers exchanged relieved expression and Vincent looked into his rear view mirror.  The truck and the small two door hatchback that was following it were turning around.  The behemoth Ford, with its diesel banging away, pulled up next to Vincent.  A young man was driving it and a frightened looking young woman was sitting right next to him, clinging onto him.

“Thank God,” the man said, relieved.  “We haven’t seen a cop all day.  We thought we were all alone.”  He had to look down at Vincent because the truck had a high lift kit on it.

“Where are you coming from?” Vincent asked.

“We barricaded ourselves in our apartment when this crap started.  We figured we could hold out there, but the place got turned into a damned disaster zone.  We heard the radio say that there was a rescue station at the Robinson Sports Complex, so we figured that we’d try for there.  But now the radio has stopped broadcasting and we can’t get no other stations, so we don’t know if the rescue center is still there.  So it’s me and my girl, and my buddy Reese and his girl in the car behind us…and we don’t know what to do.”

Vincent looked over at Nick and then looked back at the young man.  “Well, you don’t want to go to Robinson Stadium.  We just came from there.  The fences didn’t hold.  It was a massacre.  We barely made it out of there ourselves.”

“Shit, then where do we go?” asked the young man.  Vincent could see fear gripping him, and as he spoke his nostrils flared.

“We’re going to try to make it to the police station on Culebra.”

“Please, babe, not back into the city,” pleaded the young woman who was sitting next to the frightened truck driver.  She yanked on his arm as she tried to make her point.  “Maybe we can try Bandera or Helotes, but don’t take us back into the city.”

The young man looked over at his girlfriend and then looked back down at Vincent.  “We really don’t want to go back into the city…at all.  And that police station is a long way from here, way back towards the city.  Everything is fucked up in there.  There are thousands of those things all over the streets.  We’ve had to go through all kinds of crazy stuff in just trying to get out of there.  On the way over here, another car tried to hook up with us, and as we were passing by the mall at Culebra and Four-Ten, a swarm of those things came at us…”  The driver paused for a moment as he replayed in his mind what had happened.

“What happened to the third car?” Vincent asked.

“Those fucking things—the ones that run—they flipped it over and pulled out those poor people.  All four of them.  Look officer, if that rescue station isn’t open anymore, then we just want to get away from the city completely.  We got enough food and water to last us a few days.”

“Shit, what if West is gone?” Nick asked Vincent.  “What will we do then?”

“We’ll just have to find out.  I know I need to check on my parents, and if there’s fuel there at the station, I’m going to gas this bitch up and haul ass over to my mom and dad’s and see if they’re…well, you know what I mean.  Anyway, I’m sure we all have family we want to check on.”

“My wife…I haven’t heard from her since I put her on the bus that took her to the rescue station at Port San Antonio,” Nick said.

“My boyfriend is in the army, and he got called up for this shit, so I don’t know where he’s at.” Shondra said.  “But I’m with you on seeing what’s going on at West.”

Vincent looked up at the truck driver and said, “Well, we wish you the best of luck.  You’re more than welcome to fall in with us, but I understand you wanting to leave the city.  Good luck.”

“Good luck to you too, officer.”  The driver nodded at Vincent and the truck pulled away.  Vincent looked at his rear-view mirror as the two vehicles disappeared around a curve in the road.

“Well, let’s see what awaits us,” Vincent said.  “Hopefully somebody is still there.”  He put the car in drive and resumed his course for the station.

“I can’t raise them,” Nick said in frustration.  “I can’t seem to get anyone on the radio.”

“Looks like there are a lot of fires burning out there,” Shondra commented as she noticed a growing number of smoke plumes on the horizon.

“There’s no one left to fight them,” Nick said.

“I’m starting to think it’s all fallen apart,” Vincent added.  “Just look and see how all the businesses we pass by seem to be looted.  Total chaos and anarchy.”

As Shondra continued to scan the horizon she noticed two helicopters off in the distance.  “Look, over there!” she exclaimed.  “Off to the left.”

Vincent strained his neck forward to look through the windshield.  “Yep, it’s the military alright.  Blackhawks.”

“About fucking time,” Nick said.  “Where do you think they’re going?”

“Not sure, but at least it’s a sign that they’re working this area,” Vincent said with a twinge of excitement.  “Maybe they have patrols out?”

“Well, they’re definitely headed towards town,” Shondra said.  “Maybe they’re from Fort Sam?  Or the Air Force base?”

“Maybe,” Nick posed.  The three watched in silence as the helicopters faded into the horizon.

“Hey, were those choppers?” Don asked over the radio.

“Yep, they were,” Nick answered back.

“Thank God,” Don said.  “At least we’re not alone.”

***

As the cars slowly approached the West Side Substation, they could tell that it had been abandoned.  The single story building looked like it had been at the center of a battle.  Shattered glass and smoke-streaked windows made Vincent think he was looking at a scene right out of a war movie.  The front parking lot was crammed with abandoned vehicles, including several patrol cars and an EMS unit.  Shattered and bloodied windshields told of some kind of violent incident, and from the sight of several ragged, torn and dismembered bodies scattered across the lot, it looked like another massacre had taken place.

As the police officers surveyed the scene, Shondra noticed that one of the dismembered bodies was dragging itself across the pavement.  “Fuck, look at that!” she exclaimed.

“Shit, looks like the place is gone,” Nick said in a dejected tone.  “Think we should chance it by going in there?”

“Well, if we don’t go in there, we can at least get over to the city maintenance facility next door and get some fuel,” Shondra suggested.  “The gates are open, but we can close them and block off the access point from the substation.”