Hamsikker 2 (8 page)

“You think?” Javier sighed. He looked back at the street.  There were a couple of cars parked close by. “I guess. I’ll get Mara to help me. We’ll go check out those cars first of all, then…”

Two screams simultaneously filled the air, causing Jonas to spin his head, firstly in the direction of the store, and then in the direction of the road. Someone inside the store was in trouble, but he couldn’t see who or what was happening. The second scream was from Pippa. The door to the campervan they had pulled up beside was now open, and a man was stepping out. He practically fell out, and stumbled towards Pippa who managed to push Freya away. The man’s face was peppered with scratches, and as he got to his feet Jonas knew the man was dead. Peter charged at him, not waiting for the zombie to attack, and then Jonas heard another scream from inside the store. This time he knew who it was: Dakota. The scream was definitely one of terror, and it ended abruptly, the echoes of it ringing in his ears, leaving scars across his worried mind. He sprang to life, and sprinted for the store, hoping he wasn’t too late.

CHAPTER FIVE

A bell tinkled as Jonas pushed open the door and entered the store. The air smelt warm and stale, and he saw Terry straight away. He was stood in an aisle with his back to Jonas. He held a large knife above his head and was walking backwards slowly.

“Terry, what the fuck is going on?” Jonas gripped the axe in his hands, looking for Dakota and Quinn.

Terry whirled around. “Hamsikiker? I think…I think she’s…”

Jonas saw Terry’s eyes dart to a door at the back of the store. “What is it? Are they in there? What’s through that door?”

Jonas walked past Terry who wasn’t answering. The man looked petrified, and Jonas couldn’t afford to waste any more time. If Dakota was in trouble, Terry would just have to take care of himself. Jonas put his hand on the blue door. It was cold, and it creaked as he opened it. Beyond lay a narrow corridor, and Jonas could feel the air get cooler with every step he took on the tiled floor. Another door to the left was closed, and Jonas called out softly. “Dakota?” There was no answer, and he tried the door, but it was locked. Up ahead lay another blue door, and he heard noises on the other side. Voices. They were faint, but he wasn’t imagining them, and he hoped it was Dakota and Quinn. They were too muffled to be heard clearly.

He pushed the door open slowly. “Dakota?”

As the door opened and revealed the room beyond, Jonas was taken aback. He stepped forward into a large garage with a roller door to one side and walls with metal shelves surrounding him loaded with tools, cans of oil, dirty cloths, and spare tires. A large A-frame ladder rested by one wall, and a car stripped of parts lay in the center of the garage like a rusted dinosaur with nothing left of its body but bones. In the middle of the garage were Quinn and Dakota. All around them, suspended from the ceiling, hung dead bodies, all of them naked. Jonas counted five in all. Four of the bodies were twitching, their legs and arms jerking spasmodically. This wasn’t the last desperate attempt of a family trying to avoid becoming part of the undead, but a cynical murder. Someone had forced them up there and hung them, leaving them to forever hang in suspense, never able to free themselves. The four twitching bodies belonged to men; some old, some young. The fifth body, the one not moving, was a woman, and it looked like she had a bullet hole in her forehead.

There were a few bloodstains on the ground which Jonas tried to avoid as he approached Dakota. “Are you hurt? What happened?”

Dakota flung her arms around her husband as she sobbed. Jonas looked to Quinn for answers, searching her face for clues as to how these people had ended up like that.

“They were all like this when we found them. Dakota came in here first and got quite a shock. I’m guessing you heard her scream.” Quinn looked shaken. Jonas couldn’t recall the last time he had seen her looking so upset, so tired - so beaten. “Who would do such a thing? They must’ve pissed someone off. Who would kill these people and just… Jesus, just when you think you’ve seen everything.”

Jonas had to admit, he couldn’t understand why anyone would hang four men and leave them to die and then to return. Stripping them naked just seemed malicious. It was as if the murderer wanted them not only to die, but to be humiliated too. He couldn’t fathom as to why the woman had been spared the ignominy of returning as a zombie. She had been hung, but shot in the head. What was the point? Perhaps Jonas was wrong to feel sorry for them. Perhaps they deserved it. Who was he to know what those four men had done? Perhaps they were the evil ones, and they deserved what they got. The smell of the oil and the blood took Jonas back to Jeffersontown, to the day when he had gone into a garage with five other people but had only come out with one other man still alive. The smell forced him to remember Cliff. Was what had happened to these men really any worse than what he’d done? He had killed Cliff and left him to rot. The method was different, but the result was basically the same.

“I heard two screams,” said Jonas. The coolness and stillness of the garage was unrelenting, and he found himself wanting to leave. The bodies above were uttering faint moans, and the movement of their bodies caused the rope to make groaning, squeaking sounds.

“Me again,” said Dakota as she pulled away from Jonas. “There’s a body over there in the corner.”

Jonas looked and saw an old man dressed in dungarees and a red and white striped shirt. The top of his head was caved in, and blood streaked his face.

“He wasn’t like that when we found him,” said Quinn. She held up a bloody crowbar. “The first scream must’ve alerted him to our presence. He was dead and came out of nowhere. We figured he must’ve been trapped in here. You would’ve heard Dakota’s second scream when he jumped her.”

Dakota wiped her eyes. She had stopped crying, although Jonas could see she was still shaken. “I just saw him come out of the shadows at me. Thank God that Quinn was around.”

As opposed to me, thought Jonas. “Thank God you were,” he said.

Quinn shrugged. “Let’s get the hell out of here. This place is horrible.”

“Shouldn’t we do something,” asked Dakota feebly, “about, you know, them?” She looked down at the ground, but pointed above her head.

“It’s too risky,” said Jonas. “We shoot, and we risk bringing more of them here. It may not feel right, but this is not our argument.”

They made their way back through to the store. Dakota and Quinn continued outside whilst Jonas checked on Terry.

“So I take it you didn’t find anything useful in here?”

Terry looked disconsolate. “No. The place has been turned over, but there’s nothing. I’m sorry, Hamsikker. Truly, I am.”

Jonas looked outside. The zombie that had been attacking Pippa was lying on the floor, and the others were crowded around the campervan. He would have to check on the situation, but right now Terry needed help. The man’s usual demeanor had been replaced by a look of weariness that Jonas was beginning to see all too much of.

“What is it, Terry?”

“I can’t do this anymore. After we lost Randal, I didn’t know what we would do. Then when we came across Saint Paul’s, I thought we’d be able to survive this. Today, right now, I’m not so sure anymore. I heard Dakota screaming, and I froze. I’m ashamed to say that I let Quinn run in there after her, and I stayed here. I’m a coward, Hamsikker. I left a pregnant woman alone. The thought of seeing just one more zombie…”

“I don’t think you’re a coward, Terry. You’ve done more than enough to prove to me that you’re anything but.” Jonas remembered how he had been the first one to try and help Randal when he was attacked. Terry had certainly changed though. He used to help look after Freya, but now he kept his distance. It was as if Terry was cutting himself off from the group.

“I just can’t face being responsible for other people’s lives. I couldn’t help Randal or Tyler, and the rest of you are so good that… Look, I’ve been thinking about it a while, and I think it’s best if I leave.”

Jonas stepped forward and opened the store’s door. The voices of the other’s talking became clearer, and Jonas held it open. “Terry, those people need you. I need you. We’re a team, and any talk of leaving is just crazy. So you froze up, so what? We’ve all been there. You think I don’t get scared? You think you’re any worse than Erik or Quinn? There’s nothing to worry about, Terry, we’re all with you, we’ll all help you. Come on, let’s get back to the others and see if we can’t get on the road again.”

Terry joined Jonas at the door and looked outside at the rest of the group. “No. I’m leaving, Hamsikker. I’ve always thought we should head for the coast.”

“Terry, not that again. You know how hard it will be to…”

“Don’t, okay? Just don’t.” Terry took a step outside, and Jonas followed him, letting the door close. “I know you think I’m mad, but it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I kept going along with everything, but I have to go. I need to. If I stay with you I’m just going to end up driving myself mad or do something worse, and someone will end up getting hurt. I’ll go tonight. I don’t want any long good bye. I just want to slip away, so do me a favor, and don’t tell anyone else about this, please. I need to be on my own, and this is what I want to do. Honestly. I’m going to get myself to the east coast, find myself a boat, and take it from there.”

“Sure.” Jonas didn’t know what else he could say. He knew it had been on Terry’s mind for a while about trying for the coast, and it seemed like the man had made his mind up. “Just do me a favor, Terry, and don’t disappear before I get a chance to say goodbye. I’ll sort you out a few supplies, enough to last you a few days at least on your own. Deal?”

“Deal.”

As they walked back towards the others, Jonas wondered if there was anything he could say to convince Terry to stay. He couldn’t blame the man for freezing back there, nor could he blame him for wanting to try to make it on his own. It wasn’t easy being thrown together with a bunch of strangers and putting your life on the line every day with them. He doubted Terry would change his mind, but he would give him every chance to reconsider.

“Everyone good?” asked Jonas as he approached Gabe.

“We’re fine. Pippa got a bit of a fright, but no harm done. This guy came off worse.” Javier pointed to the zombie that had emerged from the campervan. Prostrate on the ground, his head was nothing but a pile of red and white gore, his brain mashed into the sidewalk. “Peter was quite the hero.”

“He sure was,” said Rose. “Very dashing.”

It seemed almost as if Rose and Gabe were enjoying the action. Jonas noticed they were the only ones smiling. “Did you manage to get any gas?”

“No, not yet,” said Javier. “What with all the excitement, we got a little sidetracked.”

“I was going to ask you about that.” Mrs. Danick nudged Jonas’s arm. “I think we should ditch the van and take this camper.”

Javier laughed. “Yeah, sure, and we’ll stop for a picnic lunch later while I write the postcards.” He looked at Jonas and rolled his eyes.

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” said Hamsikker, ignoring Gabe’s sarcastic comments. “There’s still plenty of room for the supplies, and the windows and seats will make traveling a lot more comfortable for those in back.” It was smaller than the white van, but would provide a lot more comfort for traveling. Jonas was sure that Gabe would understand.

“Hamsikker, can I remind you that time is not on our side?” Javier was fed up of the distractions and eager to get moving. Hamsikker was too easily swayed by the others. Javier was beginning to doubt he’d made the right decision in letting the others tag along. Instead of inheriting a small army, it felt like he’d inherited a group of children, constantly demanding attention.

“It won’t take us long to transfer the gear if we all help,” said Mrs. Danick. “Plus, I checked the gas, and it’s near full. There’s a bit of a funky smell in there, thanks to our dear departed friend, but a few minutes on the road with the windows down should sort that out.” Mrs. Danick smiled at Gabe triumphantly.

“Fine, let’s do it then.” Javier bit his tongue and resisted the urge to slap Mrs. Danick in the face. “Then we really need to get going. I want to be much further north by sundown.”

It took them a further ten minutes to get everything organized, and they resumed their seats when everything was transferred into the campervan. Jonas returned to driving the SUV, while Javier took the camper. After a quick bite to eat, Erik got them back on track, and they spent the afternoon hours navigating their way north. The sun never managed to fully break through the cloud, and by early evening a drizzle had settled in, making progress slow. They avoided any more confrontation with the dead, and as they neared Indianapolis Jonas realized they were going to have to find somewhere to stop for the night. In the gloomy dusk, the dead were harder to spot, and he had to swerve around several at the last moment. Erik was struggling to navigate in the darkness, and when they passed a sign that stated Indianapolis was thirty miles away, Jonas called it.

“Erik, we need to quit while we’re ahead. Let’s get somewhere safe tonight, and call it a day. I’m straining to see much in this damn weather, and if we keep going into the night, we’re liable to hit something on the road.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Erik shuffled around in his seat. “That all right with you guys?”

Dakota, Quinn, and Terry all concurred, and they decided that Gabe would follow them wherever they stopped. The others would surely see it was too dangerous driving at night.

“There’s a town up ahead. Martinsville, I think,” announced Erik. “Commuter town for Indianapolis. We’re on the fringes now, so everyone keep a look out for somewhere to stay. We don’t want to go right into the center, that’s way too risky. I know we’d all like a decent bed for the night, but I’m inclined to say we take somewhere that’s likely to be empty. Maybe a warehouse or…”

“Or a factory?” asked Quinn. “Look over there to the right. There’s a small business park. I doubt we’d find much company in there, dead or alive.”

“Please let there be a mattress factory,” said Dakota as they turned into the side road toward the park, “my back is killing me.”

They slowed down to a crawl and monitored the buildings as they drove past warehouse after warehouse. Nothing moved, nothing came crawling out of the shadows, and nothing stirred when Jonas pulled up outside a textile factory. They sat in the car waiting for the camper to stop behind them and watched the building. It had a small brick office at the front, with two square windows and a lime green door that was wide open. Surrounding it was the hub of the factory, a huge oblong shaped building with a forklift parked up beside what appeared to be a delivery bay. A gantry ran up one wall where a signpost was being erected. Evidently the work had been stopped before completion, and the letters above the door only read ‘C.R.Lew’, before abruptly stopping.