The Hand That Feeds: A Horror Novel (13 page)

The music flooded the
bay area and provided a comfortable cover from the silence. John was able to push aside his fear and focus on the brake job he’d yet to finish. He slid under the truck and hummed along to the old rock classic echoing around the shop. By the time the song was over, he was lost in his task. The morning DJ’s voice cut in as the song faded out.

“This is Mark in the morning and that was sweet emotions by Aerosmith. I’m sure most of you are getting out of bed right now
, so I want to remind you of the emergency alert we’ve been passing along all morning.”

John’s hand froze in place
, as a sudden sensation of horror rushed over him. He focused his attention on the radio, sure he was about to get the answer to why he was still alone.

“Captain Travis Vickers of the Kansas State Police released a public announcement at
four o’clock this morning, for radio and television stations within the area. There is an apparent outbreak of what they are calling an Ebola type virus within the area of Evansville in Norwich County. The state police have been working on setting up a cordon of the affected area and local residents are warned to stay in their homes and wait for further instructions. Now, I know what you’re thinking…”

John slid out from under the truck, wrench still in hand. He got to his feet and looked around the shop as if it were his first time seeing it. The DJ continued to give his opinion about the outbreak
, but John had heard all he needed to hear. He ran through his options trying to understand how he’d made it past the cordon in the first place. He knew he had to get home. He guessed that he hadn’t been stopped because his house was already inside the affected area.

“Oh crap.”

The words slid out of his mouth in a whisper. He was scared and viewed the shadows in the shop with renewed concern. He headed for the back door with determined steps, deciding to leave the radio on and get to his truck as fast as he could. He laid the rest of his tools on the hood of a car near the rear of the shop and stumbled as he looked over his shoulder. He eyed the glass window between the shop and front store. The light from outside dimly illuminated the storefront, but there was enough light for his mind to see movements within the long shadows. Once he was close enough to the back door to reach out and grab the handle, he saw something moving out front. He tried to watch the way behind him and the way ahead at the same time. He fumbled with the door handle before getting a good hold. He turned the knob, but something held him still. His muscles tensed as he slid his face forward and put his ear to the door. The sounds of the DJ’s voice echoed in his head as he tried to focus on something else.

T
he radio broke into another song as John held still. The beat of the music washed across the walls of the shop and nearly blocked out everything else. He started to move, but a new sound reached his ears. It was so slight at first that he wasn’t sure if he’d imagined it. His senses fiercely aware, John heard something scratch across the outside of the door.

He
jerked back as his heart leapt into his throat. His shaking hand reached out and locked the door handle as he back away. His eyes focused on the slit beneath the door. He got down on his hands and knees, then edged forward, focusing on the light shining through underneath.

John held
his breath and leaned down, placing his eye as close to the floor as his head would allow. The dim light of a cloud covered day provided a grey view beyond. The black asphalt was first in sight followed by a few unrecognizable pieces of trash strewn about the parking lot. John struggled to see the wheels of his truck, but could not.

He laid flat on the floor for a better view
, but could see little more from his new position. He stared out at the parking lot for several minutes, counting his thumping heart with every beat. His mind raced through the information the DJ relayed, but failed to come any closer to understanding what he could do. He felt the hair on his neck rise as he decided he would have to make a run for it. He placed his hands on the ground to get up as a shadow moved across the door slit, and something bumped slightly against the door as it did. John held his breath and slid his face toward the edge. It moved again and stopped directly in front of the door.

John
knew what he saw was a shoe and the spots of dried blood across the side were unmistakable. He heard a sound slither under the door like a whisper. It was unmistakable for him and the pounding drums on the radio did little to subdue the knot forming in his gut. He had heard that guttural moan before in his son’s bedroom and in the dark space beneath his house. That same moan now awaited him on the other side of the door.

14

John laid in silence on the cold shop floor. He was holding his breath, listening intently to the sounds outside the door. The shuffling feet moved and he lost sight of the blood stained shoes. He didn’t move or breathe for several minutes; until finally his lungs could take it no longer.

He g
asped for breath and felt his heart thump wildly. He knew at once that the lack of people in town had nothing to do with the time. Everything that happened to Alex was now spreading across the city. The creature he saw in the cop car was a terrible reminder of what was probably lurking outside.

A quick check of the shop left John with two choices. He could risk trying to get back to his truck
to go home, or stay where he was and hope someone would come and find him. He wasn’t much for waiting. He figured the government’s response would drag on, leaving him stranded for much longer than he could stand, not to mention Angela.

He
found a crow bar and held it firm in one hand, and then slid a hammer through his front belt loop and considered himself as ready as he was going to be. He fished the keys to his truck out of his pocket and held them in his free hand, then found himself trying to gather the courage to open the door.
I know what to expect
, he thought. The memory of his fight with Stacy wasn’t helping his nerves. He shook his head with determination and grabbed the door handle. He opened the door and stepped out without thinking it through.

His defensive stance kept him balanced as he scanned the parking lot. He half expected to come face to face with some lumbering corpse
, but found the lot empty and quiet. John took a step, but thought quickly enough to catch the door before it closed. He slid a brick with his foot and propped the door open, and then eyed his truck for another minute before moving toward it. The coast was clear, but he heard the all too familiar moaning coming from around the other side of the building. He picked up speed and was half way across the lot before a sudden shout froze him in place.

“Hey
, man!”

John spun around and found
a lone figure on the roof of the shop yelling down at him.

“What are you doing up there?
”

“Trying to get down
.”

John took another quick scan of the parking lot. “Then get down and hurry up.”
He started back toward the truck, but only got another few steps.

“Have you seen these…things?”

John knew time was limited and didn’t feel having a conversation was an appropriate use of it. He spun around with a set of directions in mind. “Jump down onto the lower roof and I’ll help you the rest of the way.” He motioned toward the top of the store connected to the shop. “And hurry.”

John kept his key ring around his middle finger and
made a fist. The moaning grew louder and his stomach knotted as he deliberately walked back toward the shop’s side door. By the time he reached the door, the man on the roof was on top of the store waiting.

“You have to jump,” John said. “We don’t have time for anything else.”

The volume of the moaning was powerful and drawing closer. John knew they had a minute or two at best. He got a good look at the man for the first time and saw a familiar fear in his wide-eyed glare. He was measuring the eight foot leap down on to the parking lot, but obviously aware of the nearing sounds.

“Just do it,” John
said.

The man yelled and jumped. John realized at the last second that he was jumping down toward him. Unable to dodge out of the way
, John took the weight of the man and fell flat on his back. The clang of the crowbar rolling across the parking lot was the only sound capable of piercing the moans. The man rolled over and John saw the first of them moving around the side of the store. The death in their eyes was overwhelming, striking an instant terror that John was all too familiar with. He struggled to get to his feet, searching the ground for his crowbar.

“Oh
, my God.”

The man cried out
, then screamed as he grabbed at John. John pushed him away in time to pick up his crowbar. He saw another group of figures moving around the other side of the shop, some at a much faster pace than the others.

“You have to get me out of here.”

John tried to ignore the man and considered leaving him behind. He took a few steps back and saw the true size of the situation. Figures littered the street beside the shop, more than he could count. Blood stained hospital gowns covered most of the walking dead, some in more decay than the others. The random nakedness was disturbing. There was no end to the amount of missing flesh, dangling eyes, and half eaten faces. The horror of it was more than the man could take, but John tried to keep his wits about him. The man grabbed a hold of his arm and pulled at him as he glared at the other group of dead coming around the far side of the shop.

“Where the hell did they all come from so fast?” John
asked.

The man
pulled John back toward the shop’s side door. “We have to get inside.”

“That’s a death trap,” John said, “We have to get out of here.”

The man pulled at John’s arm as hard as he could. Fed up, John raised the crowbar up above his head. The man coward away clawing at John’s freehand. He fell to the ground, pulling at John’s keys, and they slipped off his finger.

“Give them to me or I’ll bash your head in
,” John said.

The dead were all around them. Those in front reached out toward the men as they struggled with one another. John knew there was no time to waste. He swung the crowbar and hit the man on the shoulder.
The dead closed in, but John knew without the keys, he was done for sure. He stood at the man’s feet offering one last chance.

“Give me my keys now.”

The man screamed like a woman, his eyes on the stumbling naked corpse only a few feet away.

“Enough
.”

John swung the crowbar
and hit the man on the side of the head. His head split open as he slumped back on to the parking lot pavement. Blood spurt from the wound and covered his face and neck as his eyes rolled back in his head. John reached for the keys and struggled to pull them free. He could sense the dead nearly on top of him, but knew he had to have the keys. He pried at the man’s fingers bending them back until they nearly snapped.

The smell of ro
tted meat filled John’s senses and he expected to feel their hands clawing at him. His attention was on the keys and he didn’t see the man’s eyes regain focus. One hard push sent the exposed crowbar back into John’s face. His sight went blank and a moment later, he realized he was lying on his back without the keys to his truck or the crowbar. He sat up in time to see the man, his head and chest now covered in blood, rushing into the side door of the shop and closing it behind him. The pain in John’s head was nothing compared to the sudden fear in his heart. The dead were all around him, the sounds of their nefarious need for flesh bearing down on him. He jumped to his feet and felt the world spin around him. He staggered as he backed away from the first attacker. The filthy hands of the dead man reeked of decay. Blood stained his chest from numerous bites in his skin.

A quick look revealed at least ten more dead
moving toward him. John had few options. Without his keys, he would have to make a run for it and there was only one direction he could go. He spun around, took three long strides, and leapt up into the bed of his truck. From that height, he was struck by the number of the dead. An uncountable amount of the recently deceased lurched across the parking lot, the road to the north of the shop, and the main street beyond. John jumped up on top of the truck’s cab as a dozen of them gathered around the vehicle.

Outstretched hands reached out for John as the dead wailed
, trying to get a hold of him. He eyed the six foot brick wall around the edge of the parking lot and tried to gauge the distance. He took one step onto the hood of the truck and pushed off with all his strength. He crossed the open space between the truck and the wall and hit the top of the bricks with a solid thud against his stomach.

He
pushed up the rest of the way and stood up on top of the wall, then looked down on the other side at an empty alleyway. He wasted little time jumping down. He recognized the housing track by the standard model of houses, but his mind was moving too fast to remember how to get back out to the main street. He took a moment to listen for any sounds he could recognize. Unable to make out anything over the constant moan of the dead behind the wall, John turned to the north and ran. He picked the first backyard he could see into and pushed open the gate. He ran up to the back patio and searched for any signs of life.

“Is there anyone i
n there?” He banged on the back door as hard as he could. “I need to get in, they’re coming.” He continued to pound his fist on the door. A quick look revealed a wide window at the back of the house covered over with drapes. “Come on, damn it.” He banged his forehead on the door and stood there trying to decide what to do next when a low voice called out to him.

“Go away.”

“What…hey open up,” John said.

“Get off my porch.”

“What the hell’s wrong with you? I need help. Let me in.”

“I have a gun in here.” There was a long uncomfortable silence as two people whisper
ed back and forth on the other side of the door. “I’ll shoot you through the door. Get off my patio.”

John instinctively held his hands up and backed away. He was shocked by the threat
, but wasn’t sure he wouldn’t do the exact same thing. He knew what caused the virus, but no one else did. He headed back through the gate and into the alleyway. He considered trying the next house, but didn’t hold out much hope for a different result. He studied the houses and his eyes fixed on an awkward movement at the far end of the alley. A figure stepped out into the open, looked back at John, and then moved back behind a fence. The figure reemerged a minute later crouched down on one knee. John could see it was a man and not one of the dead. The two appeared to come to the same conclusion at the same time. John started running toward him as the man came to his feet and nervously waited. He approached and realized the figure was barely a man at all. The baby face and shoulder length hair reminded John of a bass player in a local band more than anything else.

“
Hey, man, you all right?” John asked.

The young man studied John closely
. “I’m Brian,” he said.

John shook his hand and did his own study for open wounds.
“John.”

“What the hell is all this?” Brian asked. “I got up this morning and everything was fine. I was standing in my kitchen eating cereal and I s
aw my neighbor in our backyard with blood all over his shirt.” He wiped at his eyes with his hand and John thought he might break down. “He tried to bite me. I’ve known that guy all my life and he tried to freaking bite me. I had to defend myself.”

John nodded and
looked behind them to make sure the coast was clear. “I get it,” he said. “You did what you had to. You don’t have to justify yourself to me, I’ve done things.” They looked into each other’s eyes and silently settled the conversation. “The question is, what are we going to do now? I have to get home to my wife and son. Where’s your family?”

Brian shrugged. “My mom works at the hospital. She wasn’t home when I got up this morning. My dad lives out in Martinsville.”

John wasn’t sure if Brian knew how bad it was at the hospital, but he decided not to get in to it. “We need weapons and a car.”

Brian hesitated, looked over his shoulder
, and then eyed John as if he hadn’t heard what he said.

“You still with me?”
John asked, not sure if Brian had seen too much for his own good. He reached out and shook him on the shoulder. “You have to keep it together.”

Brian’s expression shifted and he focused.
“I heard you,” he said. “My mom took her car to work. I don’t have my own.”

John considered their options and decided to keep moving. He didn’t want a tag along
, but knew having someone may come in handy if he ran into trouble. “Let’s head back toward Main Street, try and see if we can get around that main group of them.”

“Group of what?”
Brian asked.

“You mean you haven’t…” John stopped. He wasn’t sure ho
w to explain what was happening, but a second later, he didn’t have to. Three figures stepped out around the housing track wall in the direction of the street in front of the houses. It only took a glance for John to know what was coming. “I don’t know how to tell you this,” he said as he grabbed a hold of Brian’s arm, “but your neighbor wasn’t crazy.”

“How can you know that?”

John spun Brian around to face the front of the house. “He was already dead.”

“What?” Brian
asked. “Hey, there’s someone else…” his words trailed off as the figures came forward like slow, clumsy animals, their mouths opened and emitting a terrible sound. Brian took a slow step backwards as John readied himself to run. “There’s something not right about them.” Brian took another step back as the figures closed the distance.