The Hunger (Book 2): Consumed (12 page)

They drove away, watching the uncle and niece disappear in their mirrors.

Cass ran her finger along the blade of her axe.  “Let’s kill this son of a bitch.”

“If we can.  We might not have a chance.  Getting the doc and Eifort out is the top priority.”

Cass huffed.

The pine tree proved easier to find than Lance expected.  It stood in stark contrast to the maple and spruce.

A driveway, veiled by a camouflaged net, wound through the forest just beyond the pine. 

More gunshots cracked in the distance as they drove by the entrance.  Lance found a soft shoulder a few hundred yards away and pulled into it, backing as far into the trees as possible.  He didn’t know how long it would take them to find Ralph’s place, and he hoped that the car wouldn’t be discovered in the meantime.

Cass tore a few branches of leafy underbrush away from the ground and placed it on the hood of the Corvette.  It didn’t cover much.

“Good enough,” she said.

Lance stared at the car.  “Good enough for what?  Government work?”

“Stop complaining and start walking.”  Cass secured her axe on her back and looped the quiver of arrows over her shoulder.  She held the bow in her left hand.

The .44 was lodged in Lance’s waistband.  He held the nail-infused baseball bat.  “We’re going to get killed, you realize that?  I have a baseball bat and a gun with limited ammo.  You have an axe and a bow.  We’re screwed.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Cass plunged into the woods, moving at a fast walk.  Her eyes darted from the ground to the area ahead of them.  She moved with a practiced silence, her feet finding bare patches of earth more often than not.

Lance fumbled along behind her.  He tried to walk as quietly as possible, but found it more difficult than he would have imagined.

“You sound like an elephant,” Cass whispered after several minutes.  “They’re going to hear you.”

“I’m trying.”

“Try harder, numb nuts.  The element of surprise is all we have going for us.”

They continued on, their progress slowing so Lance could move with more stealth.

The occasional blast of a rifle confirmed they were heading in the right direction.  The afternoon crept away as they snaked between the trees.

Cass stopped suddenly, dropping down to her haunches.  Lance knelt beside her, his eyes scanning the forest ahead.

“What?”

Cass held a finger to her lips.  She nodded straight ahead.

And then he saw it—a fence post, chest high, with thin wires wrapped around it.  The wires connected to another post ten yards away.  The fencing ran to a tree where it changed direction, forming a makeshift corner.

“Stay low.”  Cass crept forward.  She pulled an arrow from the quiver and notched it on the bowstring.

They slinked to the tree with wires wrapped around it and stopped.  Cass leaned against it and peered around for several seconds.

Two more gunshots rang out, much closer than before.

Lance whispered, “What exactly is the plan here?”

“Go in, find our friends, kill Ralph if possible, and get the hell out.”

“Is that all?”  Lance bobbed his head down.  “How have we stayed alive this long?”

Cass ignored him.  She grabbed a small stick from the ground and touched the wires a few times.  “It isn’t electrified.”

“Are you sure that’s a good way to detect electricity?  That’s wood.”

“No.”

“Great.”

Throwing her leg between two of the wires, she climbed inside the fenced-off area.  Lance followed, his quads burning from hunching so low for too long.  Sweat trickled down his back.

His rear leg brushed one of the wires and he winced, expecting a jolt.  None came.  He blew the air out of his lungs and wiped the sweat from his brow.  This had to be the worst plan he’d ever been involved with.

A few hundred feet in, Cass stopped again.  She pointed at a dark spot on a tree trunk at head height.

Lance stared at it, not understanding what it was until it rotated to the left.

A security camera.

“Great,” he said, keeping his voice low.  “How are we supposed to get by cameras?”

“It’s covering the entrance.  We’ll probably be OK if we stay far enough into the trees.”

Off to their right, Lance spotted the driveway.  He hadn’t realized how far in they’d come.

Two voices carried to them as they kneeled by a large spruce tree, taking a quick break.  Lance held his breath, listening as the conversation drew closer.  He lay down behind a rotting log, peering through a small gap under one of the ends.

A young couple walked toward them, hand in hand.  They threw glances over their shoulders every couple of seconds.  They whispered to each other as they walked, though their voices carried further than they probably thought.

The muscles in Lance’s arms tensed as the couple closed in on him, approaching the log.

He had a split second to decide whether he should attack them or hope they kept walking by.  The thought of going after two twenty-year-old kids made him queasy.  He lay motionless, watching as they walked around his hiding place.

“What the—?”

The young man stopped, his eyes growing wide.  His girlfriend sucked in a breath, her hand going to her mouth.

“Uhh...”  Lance struggled with what to do next.  If they cried out, he and Cass would be in deep shit.

“Quiet, you fools!”  Cass leaned away from the tree, her eyes narrowing in anger.  “Are you trying to scare away all the game?”

“What?”  The young man’s expression slid from fear to confusion.

“Yeah, what?”  Lance stared at Cass.

“We’re trying to hunt out here.  The hell do you think I have a bow and arrow for?  Tony wants us to get a deer.”

Lance bit back a cry of joy.  Cass was so quick on her feet that she’d saved their asses once again.  He chewed on his lip to keep from grinning like a fool.

“Oh,” the girl said.  The couple shared a worried glance.  “We were, uh, going for a walk.”

The concern on their faces made Lance wonder what else they were doing.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Just for a walk.”

“Bullshit.  You were leaving.”  Lance looked for the sun through the tree canopy above.  He guessed it was close to five or six in the evening.  The night would come soon.  “If you’re going to leave the camp, you need to do it earlier in the day.”

“We weren’t!”  The girl’s face went a deep red, her voice rising an octave.

Their reactions told Lance all he needed to know.  The two of them were trying to escape the camp.  He could only hope that several of the other people ahead were as wary of Ralph, Tony, and the rest of the moronic Minutemen.

“I said to stay quiet.”  Cass stepped away from the tree and stood before them.  “You don’t even have guns.  You wouldn’t last twenty minutes out there on your own.”

Tears welled in the girl’s eyes.  “We can’t stay with them anymore.  They’re doing such horrible things.”

“I understand, but what you’re doing right now is just stupid.  What are your names?”

“Um,” the boy scratched his head as if the question confused him.  “I’m Michael and this is Josie.  Why?”

“Things will change for you soon, Michael and Josie.  Really soon.  I promise.  Go back to the camp and keep your heads down.”

The boy looked at her exposed legs and stomach.  “Why are you dressed like a prostitute?”

Lance choked on his own spit.  Even people in the middle of the woods thought Cass looked ridiculous.

“Goddamn it,” Cass mumbled.  She dismissed them with a wave.  “Get the hell out of here.”

“You won’t tell anyone?” Josie asked.  Her lower lip trembled.

“No.  Now get moving.  You’re scaring away our dinner.”

The couple went back the way they came.  They wrapped their arms around each other as they clumsily walked back to camp.

Lance got up from behind the fallen tree and jogged after them.  “Hold on a second.”

Cass called after him, but he ignored her.

Michael turned around, his hands kneading in front of him.

“We heard that Tony was bringing in some more prisoners.  Are they here yet?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Where are they keeping them?  I heard one of them is a doctor.  I haven’t been feeling well, so I hoped he could check me out.”  Lance wanted to pat himself on the back for how quickly he’d come up with the lie.

“The same place they keep all of them,” Josie said.

Lance frowned.  “So... in the house?”

“What?”  Michael tilted his head.  “No, they’ll probably have them out back with all the others.”

“Right, yeah.  That’s what I meant.  Out back.”

“But you said—”

“Get out of here before I change my mind and tell Ralph!”  Lance pointed toward the camp.  He hated scaring and threatening them, but he didn’t need them asking any more questions.

Lying had never been his forte.  Liz had constantly been able to talk him in circles when he tried to keep something from her.  People told him that his inability to lie was a good personality trait to have.

He always assumed
they
were lying when they said that.

The couple walked away again, moving faster than before.

Cass came up behind Lance.  “What was that?  Are you trying to get us caught?”

“I found out where they keep their prisoners.”

“Really?  Where?”

“Out back.”

“What does that mean?”

Lance paused.  “Behind the house?”

“So you didn’t
actually
find out where they are?”

“Oh, shut up.  We have a general idea.”

They spotted the camp a few minutes later.

A long, open field was carved into the forest.  They hunkered down by the edge of the clearing, hiding behind a thick tree.

The forest opened into an unmaintained lawn, the driveway cutting down the center of it.  A large, log cabin-style home stood at the far end of the clearing.  Solar panels covered the vast roof, glistening as the sun reflected from them.

Another solar array was spread over a thirty-yard radius in the middle of the clearing, standing atop several poles jutting from the ground.

“That explains how they have power,” Lance said.  “There must be a large battery they use to store energy through the day so they can use it at night.”

“Nathaniel said they have generators too.”

“They could live relatively normal lives here.  Except for the vampires outside that want to eat them.”

Dozens of vehicles were parked haphazardly around the field.  The tanker trucks were side by side next to the cabin.  People milled about them, climbing up and down ladders on the sides and back of each tank.

“What are they doing?”  Lance watched as a family of four opened a hatch on top of one of the silver cylinders and climbed inside.

“I think they’re living in them.”

“What?  Why would they live in big tanks?”  And then it clicked in his mind.  “That’s how they’re surviving each night!  They sleep in those big, metal tubes!”

“That’s pretty damn smart.”

“I’m surprised they’re thick enough to keep the Vladdies out.”

Lance nodded.  She was right.  A normal person wouldn’t be able to do anything against the metal of the tanks, but the incredibly powerful vampires should have broken through the sides by now.

“Maybe they fortified them further.”

Something was attached to the sides of the metal tanks.  The objects were small, about the size of a baseball, and were spaced at regular intervals around the entire length of the trucks.

“What are those little things on the side?” Lance asked.

“How the hell should I know?”

Hundreds of people sat around the vehicles.  Several had built fires, even though it wasn’t dark yet, and the early summer temperature was high.  Most did nothing.  Even less spoke to one another.

A few men, all wearing camouflage or black, stalked around, barking orders and pointing at chores that needed done.

“I’m guessing those are the true believers.”  Lance looked among the men for Tony or Ralph, but didn’t see either.

“The Minutemen.”

“Exactly.”

The whine of an engine came from the right side of the field.  Lance watched as a four-wheeler tore through the overgrown grass, rolling by a large shed and garage near the driveway.  A man steered it, shirtless and tan, a bandana covering his brow.  Another sat behind him, facing backward.

They stopped by the front of the cabin, dismounting.  The front door opened and Tony stepped out.  He shouted something at the two men, pointing back in the direction of the garage.

He argued with them for a few moments before they relented and got back on the four-wheeler.  They disappeared behind the shed, the drone of the all-terrain vehicle dissipating.

Tony walked down the front stairs of the cabin and strutted over to the camp of survivors.

“If I get a chance, I’m going to kill that asshole.”  Cass gestured at the camp.  “We can’t go anywhere near there—too many eyes.  The area by the garage looks like a better bet.”

They backed away from the tree line and worked their way toward the driveway.  The occasional pistol barked from somewhere behind the cabin.

A shriek rang out as Lance ran across the driveway.  He stumbled from the shock of the sound and almost fell in the middle of the open space.  Cass, already across, reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him into the bushes on the other side.

“Holy shit!”  Lance spun around, scanning the field for the daywalker.  “That definitely came from inside the fencing.”

Cass nodded, but said nothing.

Lance recognized the focused expression she wore.  He’d seen it before.  Whenever they got into something serious, her demeanor flipped like a switch.  She was on to something and she wouldn’t ease up until she finished the job.

It reminded him of the thousand-yard stare characters talked about in books and television shows. He figured her focus was more conducive to surviving their current situation than his constant smartassery.

They found a narrow animal trail and followed it, the lack of twigs and leaves covering it allowing them to move silently.  As they came around the back of the large garage, Cass dropped to a knee again.