The Survivor Chronicles (Book 3): The Forsaken (15 page)

Where was John?
She thought frantically.

Riley disappeared through the door and into the bedroom again. The flashlight stopped spiraling around and John was finally revealed again as he held it up beneath his chin. Riley reappeared and gave them the thumbs up sign again.

"I'm going to kill that kid," Carl groaned.

"Get in line," Xander muttered.

Riley climbed back through the doorway and grabbed the blanket from the floor. She shook bits of glass and plates off of it before heading over and tossing it up to Bobby along with the pillows. Mary Ellen heard the muffled shout before Riley turned toward where John remained on the bedroom side of the motor home.

With his flashlight between his teeth, John knelt down and grabbed hold of another door. "What is that?" Mary Ellen asked.

"Bathroom I think," Donald answered.

John tugged at it for a few seconds before flipping a switch that must have been keeping the door locked. He didn't have a chance to try and pull the door open again as it burst upward with enough force to throw him through the doorway and into the living room area. Muffled shouts echoed from inside the RV as the broom was knocked aside and the door swung closed with a resounding crash that blew Riley and John's hair back.

Mary Ellen took an instinctive step away before moving closer to the window again. Her mind churned rapidly as she tried to puzzle out what had just happened. John's face twisted into a grimace as he rolled to the side and attempted to get his hands underneath him. Riley was going back for him when he began to wave his hand at her to go away. She ignored him though and grabbed hold of his arm to help him to his feet. John was bent over as he limped forward; his arm was wrapped around his middle in a protective gesture.

A loud crash echoed throughout, the door in the middle of the home began to rattle and shake within its frame. "Get out!" Xander shouted as he ran as fast as he could manage toward the tires. "Bobby, get them out of there!"

Riley threw John's arm around her shoulders and propelled him forward. The door in the middle of the home became completely still before it began to open. "Hurry!" Mary Ellen screamed as she slapped her hands against the glass.

Whatever was on the other side hadn't been prepared for the weight of the door as it crashed closed again. It didn't stay that way for long though. A mottled black and red hand, that brought to mind images of rotting fruit in a bowl, wrapped around the door and grasped hold of it. Even though she knew it wasn't real, she heard a creaking sound in her head as the door inched open again.

Bobby had knelt down; his arms were stretched into the motor home in an attempt to grab them. A head emerged from the shadows of the hall and poked around the door. For the space of a heartbeat, Mary Ellen wasn't sure that the world continued to turn as a face that seemed to have emerged straight from the bowels of Hell peered out at them. There were very few features left to distinguish as most of them were obscured by some kind of reddish rot that had begun to eat away at the person's cheeks and nose. She caught a glimpse of mottled brown, shoulder length hair that could have belonged to either a man or woman, before the sick human slithered like a worm through the opening it had managed to make in between the door and the frame.

As Riley stepped beneath the passenger window, Mary Ellen realized with a sinking heart that there was no way they were going to get out of there in time. Riley kept her arm locked around John's waist as she grabbed for Bobby's hands. A scream rose and strangled in Mary Ellen's throat as the thing crept toward them with the agility of a stealthy predator hunting its prey.

Riley,

The live ones smell worse than the dead ones
, she couldn't recall where she'd heard that before, but it was screaming through her head right now as the scent of the sick person hit her.

The worst part was that it was true. She had become accustomed to the stench of rotten and decomposing flesh, but these live ones smelled even more potent. It was as if still being able to walk around somehow enhanced the scent, or perhaps it was the fact that they were still breathing. Maybe these sick people were decaying from the inside out and every breath forced the rot out of them. She felt that the idea that they were decomposing was a definite possibility if the look of this person's face was any indication. It was so badly disfigured that she couldn't even tell if it was male or female anymore.

Her eyes watered, it was becoming difficult to breathe in the snug confines of the motor home as the thing that could
almost
still be considered a human stalked them from the shadows. John leaned to the side in an attempt to take his weight off of her, but his arm was still draped around her shoulders, his breathing was heavy in her ear. She wasn't sure if John had broken any ribs but he had at the very least bruised them pretty good.

There was no way either of them were going to be able to move quickly if that twisted human came at them, and it
was
going to come at them, of that much she was certain as she followed its stealthy movements through the shadows. The little bit of illumination filtering through the windows reflected off of its eyes and made them gleam like a cat's. It was a disconcerting picture to see the two white orbs looking back at her from the dark of the cabinets.

"Grab my hands," Bobby grunted from above.

She glanced up at her friend's hands dangling temptingly above her. "Reach for him John," she said from between clenched teeth as she grappled to free her gun from her side.

Why did I put the damn thing away?
She thought angrily.

"You first," John told her.

"You can't even stand upright on your own. Reach for his arms!" she snapped.

John hesitated before trying to stretch his arms above his head. A loud groan escaped him; he winced and grabbed hold of his ribs again. Riley took a stumbling step back and unwrapped her arm from around John's waist as she realized there was no way she was going to be able to get him out of here right now.

"I'm coming down," Bobby said.

"No!" Riley shouted at him. "Three of us down here isn't going to help any."

And it would only be feeding the animals more,
she realized as she was finally able to pull her gun free. Stepping in front of John, she planted her body before his as she tried to track the motion of their stalker through the shadows. It had climbed onto the dining room table that John had been standing on, but unlike John it was crouched with one hand grasping the table and the other hanging before it. Its eyes continued to shine as it tilted its head to the side to study them.

Her hand didn't waver as she pointed the gun at it and pulled the trigger. Though she'd done it within an instant, the thing was already moving before the bullet left the gun. Her ears rang from the bullets being fired within the close confines. She couldn't keep up with its scurrying movements as she fired four more times in a desperate attempt to kill it.

The palms of her hands were sweating and an annoying trickle slid down the side of her face and into her eye. She didn't dare take her eyes off of the person for an instant though, not even to wipe the sweat away as it continued to move swiftly through the RV. Bobby released a startled cry and jerked back as it scrambled across the couch and ran over the windshield.

She caught a brief glimpse of the others gathered outside the windshield before it raced toward the cabinets again. She continued to track it through the shadows as the certainty that it was going to kill them, and eat them, began to consume her. Her finger pulled on the trigger again, the bullet slammed into the cabinet just centimeters from the person's face.

It fell back; a startled squeal escaped it before it scurried off in a different direction. There were spiders that didn't move as rapidly, or as smoothly as it did, she realized as it hit the door in the middle of the RV and tumbled into the backroom. She wasn't fooled into thinking it had given up though as she heard its movements through the back of the vehicle.

"Riley," Bobby breathed from above her.

Her heart was in her throat when she chanced a brief glance up at him. Something banged in the backroom, causing her to jump as a small squeak escaped her. John's breathing seemed exceedingly loud in the ensuing hush that overtook the RV. She was tempted to put her hand over his mouth but she knew it wouldn't do any good. Another loud bang sounded from the backroom, she didn't know what it was doing back there but she knew it couldn't be anything good.

Riley took a step back with John as she frantically searched for some way to get them out of here. Bobby stretched his hands down again as the door in the middle began to creak open once more. She tried to get off another shot in an attempt to scare it away, but the empty clicking of the gun reminded her of the click of a coffin closing on them as John let out a low groan.

"In my waistband at my back is my gun," he grated.

Her hand fumbled at his back but she didn't feel anything there. "John..." Her words trailed off as she spotted the gun lying amongst the rubble that had tumbled from the cabinets. It must have fallen out when he'd been knocked through the door. A scream of frustration welled up her throat but she kept it trapped inside. "John."

"Shit," he muttered as the door opened even further and that hideous face peered out at them again. There was a knowledge in those gleaming eyes, a knowing that they were nearly defenseless, as it placed one hand onto the cabinet and then another.

"Get down! Get down!" It took a moment for Carl's shouts to penetrate her ringing ears and scattered thoughts. "Get away from the windshield!"

Riley spun and grabbed hold of John. Pulling him down with her behind the passenger seat of the RV, she threw her hands over her ears as gunshots reverberated loudly through the air. She flinched and curled closer to John. The zing of a bullet bouncing through the RV resonated as glass shattered and fell to the ground in a tinkling wave.

What little fresh air there was outside filtered into the RV. She peeked her head over top of the chair to take in the broken front window and the curtain flapping in the subtle breeze. "We have to go," she said briskly to John.

Grabbing hold of his arm, she ignored his protesting groan as she helped him back to his feet. They hadn't even made it out from behind the chair before it came screaming out of the shadows at them. Either the idea of its meal escaping, or the prospect of the fresh meat outside the window had made it reckless as it charged toward the front of the vehicle.

Riley fell back with John. They pressed themselves against the wall as it raced toward the others. Three rounds from Carl's gun slammed into its chest, knocking it back into the RV. Riley's mouth dropped open, her hand clenched around John's arm as it began to kick around on its back. It released a series of sounds that reminded her of a frightened pig while it continued to spin in circles. Finally, blessedly, it went silent. Its hands continued to clutch at its bleeding chest before falling limply to its side.

Though she knew they were now safe, she found herself unable to move as her gaze was riveted on what had once been a normal human being. John seemed to be feeling the same way as he remained immobile beside her. "Are you ok?" Carl demanded gruffly.

John managed a brief nod but Riley stayed silent. Glass crunched under foot when Xander stepped carefully into the RV. He was nearly as pale as she felt as he climbed onto the passenger chair. It took all she had not to throw herself into his arms when he held his hand out to her, but they had to get John out of there before she could give herself a chance to take a few minutes to sit and breathe. She kept her arm around John as she took hold of Xander's hand and allowed him to help her navigate through the debris littering the floor.

Carl stepped forward and took hold of John's arm. Her shoulders sagged as his weight was eased from her tensed and aching shoulders. "Thank you," she said to Carl as they stopped beside him.

He gave her a brief nod before walking carefully around the dead body lying on the ground. "Think I broke a rib," John muttered as he cradled his side.

"Next time don't open closed doors," Carl told him.

John scowled at him. "We would all appreciate some toilet paper wouldn't we?" he retorted.

"That we would," Mary Ellen told him soothingly as she took hold of John's free arm and helped Carl lead him over to a grassy spot in the median.

"You ok?" Xander asked.

"Yeah," Riley said, but even so it felt really good to allow her legs to give out beside John. Her fingers dug into the ground, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she tried to calm the frantic beat of her heart.

"OW!" Riley's eyes flew open at John's shout. Mary Ellen was pressing tenderly against his ribs as she tried to discern the amount of damage that had been inflicted upon him.

"Sorry," Mary Ellen muttered.

Bobby had jumped down from the RV and was approaching them with an armload of blankets. He rested his hand on her shoulder as he stopped beside her. "Glad you're still alive."

"Me too," Riley muttered.

"I'm going to put this stuff in the truck."

"I'll help you," Donald volunteered.

"Can you bring back some tape?" Mary Ellen asked. "I don't think there are any broken ribs, but just to be on the safe side."

"Sure," Bobby said.

"There's some duct tape behind the seat in the truck, it will have to do," Carl told him.

"Got it."

"You going to be ok?" Rochelle asked nervously as she hovered by John's feet.

"I'll be fine kid," he told her.

Riley watched as Bobby and Donald headed toward the truck with their newfound supplies. She knew they should be getting ready to go, sitting still was never a good thing, but the simple feel of the grass beneath her was extremely enticing. She couldn't stay there forever though. Taking a deep breath, she held her hand up to Xander and allowed him to help her to her feet.

He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and drew her against him. Laying her head against his chest, she listened to the steady, reassuring beat of his heart. "Here you go," Bobby said as he reappeared and held the tape out to Mary Ellen.

John lifted his shirt as she took hold of the tape and turned back to him. "This is probably going to hurt," she told him.

"I'm sure it will," he responded with a weak smile.

Riley winced as the tape made a loud, sticky noise when Mary Ellen pulled it out. Carl returned to John's side with a pillowcase. "Put this around him before you tape him, we don't want to tear his skin off when we take the tape off."

"Yes, let's not do that," John muttered.

Carl held the pillowcase in place as Mary Ellen taped John's ribs with tender care. When she was done, Mary Ellen sat back and rose to her feet. John was sweating profusely, his face was flushed, but he seemed to be holding up well enough as he took a deep breath and attempted to rise to his feet. Carl grabbed hold of John's elbow and helped him up when he almost fell back down.

"Thanks," John said. Carl nodded and released his arm. John lifted his head and pinned Riley with his gaze. "
You
, I am
never
going into anything with just
you
again."

Riley couldn't help but chuckle. "I'll agree with that."

"I thought you would."

"We should get out of here," Carl said.

Al was holding the map from the welcome center in his hand as they approached them. "Well that's something we're going to have to discuss," he said as he placed the map on the tailgate of a small pickup truck.

Riley exchanged a look with Xander; she'd thought they were making good time on the highway. "If we stay on the highway," Al said. "We're going to run into Hartford, and even if by some miracle we manage to make it through that city, we'd have to make it through Waterbury and Danbury afterward too. After what we heard from those people at the rest area, I don't think we'd be able to make it through one city, let alone three of them."

Riley felt her heart plummet into her toes as she stared at the squiggly lines, towns and route numbers spread out before her. She didn't recognize any of the places on the map and it was enough to make her eyes cross. "We can stay on the highway for a little bit more time, but eventually we are going to have to get off and start trying to make it through the back roads. The only problem is, the closer we get to the cities the more populated the towns around them become."

Carl uttered a curse as he began to tap his fingers on the back of the truck. "So get off the highway now is what you're saying," Xander said.

"It's our best option. The cabin is in the Catskills, we'll be heading more toward southern New York than northern."