The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen (11 page)

It took some maneuvering and more time
touching the person than he wanted to spend, but eventually they
were able to lift the person up and push it into the back of the
truck. John wiped his hands on his jeans but he couldn't rid
himself of the revolting feel of that
thing
from his skin. As soon as he could, he was
going to boil some water and scrub the shit out of himself. He
didn't care if he took off a couple of layers of skin in the
process.

With the body hidden away, John turned his
attention back to the open expanse before them. All that remained
was the road. It appeared as vast to him now as the Sahara desert
and just as barren. There weren't any scorpions hiding out there
like there were in the Sahara but something even more deadly.

"We can get back under the truck," John
whispered. He didn't particularly like the idea but right now he
didn't see any other options. "We'll be able to see anything coming
at us from the front and the tires are high enough that we should
be able to see something coming from behind too. I don't think
we're going to make it across the road without drawing attention to
ourselves, and the others. If they come at us from the road we'll
have enough time to get back to the truck and cars and get out of
here. If they come at us from the other way…"

His voice trailed off, they all knew what
would happen if they came at them from the other way. They'd be
forced across the road, further away from the vehicles, and away
from their friends.

"I don't think we have much of a choice. The
body in the back of the truck should mask our smell too," Xander
said.

John certainly hoped so. Moving backward, he
crawled under the truck again with Xander and Donald. He settled in
so that he was facing the three open spaces to the car. Xander
faced forward while Donald faced the back. He didn't like not being
able to see the road but he knew that the other two could. John
twisted his head to look up at the sky once more. They couldn't
have been granted the miracle of the stars again only to have it
torn away from them by death.

Keeping hold of his weapons, John pressed
his cheek against the pavement. He was trying to hold onto the
promise of the stars as another loud crashed echoed through the
night. The awful laughter followed it.

Mary Ellen,

"Where are they?" Riley muttered as she
paced anxiously by the plate glass window in the front of the
building.

Mary Ellen watched the young girl from the
corner of her eye, but she kept her gaze focused on their three new
acquaintances, and Peter and Nancy. Shifting her stance, she held
her gun before her as she nudged Rochelle behind her.

Jim, Claire, and Freddie acted friendly
enough but their guns certainly weren't. She knew Peter was a
ticking time bomb, one that might not go off on them right now, but
he may very well go off on Jim and Claire. She really wasn't in the
mood to end up in a fight or to have bullets flying at her.

And the others still weren't back. Her eyes
darted to Riley as dread curled through her. The three of them were
out there somewhere, but there had been no sign of them since
they'd moved the vehicles into the parking lot across the street.
They had heard those sick people out there, moving around, laughing
as things were broken and screams echoed throughout the night.

Tears burned in Mary Ellen's eyes but she
forcefully batted them back. Tears wouldn't do anyone any good
right now and they didn't know that something had happened to them.
There had been no gunshots, and there was no way that all of them
had been taken without at least getting one shot off. They were too
strong and smart for that. They'd been through too much to go down
without a fight.

They were still out there, she was certain
of it. It was just a matter of where.

Riley pulled the corner of the curtain back
a little and peeked outside. "They have to come back," she
whispered fervently. "They simply
have
to come back."

Al walked over and rested his hand on her
arm. She glanced back at him before looking over at the main group
still gathered by the counter. The cat jumped onto the counter and
began to lick her back paw before wiping it against her ear.
It must be nice to be that unaffected by what
was going on,
Mary Ellen thought.

Something crashed in the night, causing Mary
Ellen to jump. She glanced at the wall behind her, but though
things had changed in the world, it was still impossible for her to
see through wood.

Carl walked over to the other side of the
window. He stood on the opposite end of Riley and Al and pulled
back a small piece of the curtain. "There!" Riley said excitedly
and thrust her finger at the glass. "By that truck!"

Carl's shoulders slumped; Mary Ellen could
feel the relief radiating from him as he leaned closer to the
window. Carl had sent them out there, he'd told them to move those
vehicles. Mary Ellen couldn't imagine what the weight of that must
have been like as they waited for the three of them to come
back.

"There's something moving toward them."
Riley's hands fisted in the curtain as her nose nearly touched the
glass.

Carl lifted his gun and pointed it at the
window. "Wait! Don't," Jim said as he stepped away from the
counter.

"One of those things is after them!" Riley
hissed.

"You can't shoot through that window," Jim
growled. "You'll bring them right to us."

"Our friends are in trouble." Riley shot a
deadly look over her shoulder.

"My
son
is
in here," Jim said.

Riley's eyes darted to the young boy
cowering by the register in his mother's embrace. Sadness tugged at
Mary Ellen's heart when Riley's lower lip began to tremble and she
closed her mouth. Al kept his hand on Riley's arm as she turned to
look at Carl. His face was strained with indecision but he lowered
his weapon.

"I won't shoot unless I absolutely have to,"
Carl promised.

"Unless they come this way," Jim said.

"Unless they come this way," Carl agreed but
Mary Ellen wasn't so sure she believed him. She didn't think he
would be able to stop himself from helping the others if it became
necessary. "Step away from the window Ri."

"No," she responded instantly.

"Riley…"

"I'm not… no," she choked out.

"Leave her be," Al said.

Mary Ellen couldn't take the tension
anymore; she had to know what was happening out there. Grabbing
hold of Rochelle's arm, she steered her daughter to the window. She
nudged Rochelle to the side before moving to stand beside Carl. Her
eyes narrowed as she searched the night, it took her a minute to
spot the others leaning against a pickup with gigantic tires that
were a little extravagant to her. She also spotted the sick person
falling on the ground before them.

She turned away, unable to watch, as Donald
leaned forward with his knife. Taking a few deep breaths, she
steadied herself before looking back at the parking lot again. The
three of them were working on getting the body into the back of the
truck.

"They're not going to make it across that
road," Riley murmured.

As the words left her mouth, the three guys
slipped underneath the truck again. Mary Ellen wasn't sure what
their intentions were until they remained beneath the vehicle. The
tires that had seemed so extravagant before now provided a haven
for them, how much of one she didn't know, but at least they had a
place to hide.

"What do we do?" Riley asked.

"There's nothing we can do," Al responded.
"They're safe right now and they have a decent spot to keep watch
from."

"It might be better if you moved away from
the window miss," Jim said. Riley glanced questioningly at him over
her shoulder. "Like I said, sometimes they come at night. If they
see you, you won't have to worry about your friends."

Mary Ellen didn't think Riley was going to
listen to him but she took a deep breath and released the curtain.
Riley didn't walk away from the window, but moved to lean against
the wall beside the glass. Carl glanced at Mary Ellen before
turning back to the room. Mary Ellen gave one final glance at the
three huddled under the truck, if she hadn't known to look for them
there, she never would have seen them. She prayed it stayed that
way as she dropped the curtain into place.

"Do you just stay in this room?" Carl
inquired of Jim.

"For the most part. There's a bathroom off
the office through there." Jim pointed to the door behind the cash
register. "We don't flush the toilet at night but they don't come
around in the daytime. There's also a storage room around the back.
It's mostly dead flowers now, the stench of them is overwhelming
but it masks our odor in here, I think."

"I'm sure it helps," Carl agreed.

A small thud at the side of the building
drew Mary Ellen's eyes to the wall behind her again as her
heartbeat escalated to laborious levels. Jim grabbed his shotgun
and stepped away from the counter. Claire pushed Freddie behind
her; she lifted the rifle off the counter and held it against her
chest. Another thud sounded but this one was a few feet away from
the original.

"What is that?" Peter asked in a low
hiss.

"It's them," Jim said. "I told you that they
come sometimes. Something has them riled up; they're not normally
as loud as they have been tonight."

"Is it our friends?" Riley asked
nervously.

Jim shook his head. "No, I think your
friends would be dead if it were."

Riley blanched but she must have taken some
comfort in his words as she stepped away from the wall by the
window. She glanced at Mary Ellen before moving closer to her.

"I'm pretty sure they don't know we're here,
I think they'd come in if they did. Sometimes I swear they're just
playing with us, toying with us until they decide it's their dinner
time," Jim continued in a low murmur that made Mary Ellen think of
tales told round the campfire.

Riley stayed by her side, they turned to
follow the thumps moving across the side of the building. The
banging echoed throughout the store as the sick people moved along
the wood frame. Mary Ellen held her breath while she tried to
ascertain how many of them there were out there. It was impossible
to tell as one thump after another sounded from different
locations. Stretching behind her, she took hold of Rochelle's hand.
The thumping became a metallic clatter as someone banged against
the back door and that eerie laugh drifted through the building.
Rochelle shuddered behind her, she pressed closer when the knob
began to rattle.

Carl nodded to Al before hurrying to stand
beside the backdoor. Riley's jaw was set as she stalked forward.
Mary Ellen pulled Rochelle away from the large plate glass window.
If those things were going to get in, it would be through that
window. She really hoped that Jim was right and that the odor of
the dead flowers masked the aroma of fear and sweat she knew they
were all emitting.

The grunts sounding outside made her think
that the sick people were turning on each other. As she listened to
them, Mary Ellen became more convinced that Riley's trapped ancient
virus theory was true. Those people certainly sounded almost
prehistoric as they moved around the building.

"They sound as if they have no reasoning
left but they're smart and cunning," Al murmured.

"They know we're here," Nancy breathed.

Mary Ellen feared a pending meltdown as
Nancy's gaze flew around the room and she rang her hands before
her. The skin on Nancy's hands became so red that for a second Mary
Ellen thought she'd already ripped her flesh off. Riley stepped
closer to Nancy, took hold of her hands and gently pulled them
apart. She bent closer to Nancy and spoke words that Mary Ellen
couldn't hear. Nancy's eyes stopped rolling in her head and the
flaring of her nostrils eased. Nancy's lower lip continued to
tremble, tears slid down her cheeks, but she calmed further as
Riley kept speaking with her.

Mary Ellen jumped and spun toward the wooden
front door behind her as a loud knock sounded against it. Josh
stepped away from the group gathered by the backdoor and moved
closer to her as the front door rattled. His black eyes briefly met
hers before the both of them focused on the front door again.

Mary Ellen's hands were beginning to sweat
on the grip of her gun; she didn't dare adjust her hold to wipe her
hands on her shirt in case someone broke in. Rochelle moved out
from behind her and stepped closer to Al. Rochelle made a gesture
with her hand toward Carl who studied her before pulling out
another gun from his waistband.

Mary Ellen almost stepped forward and shook
her head no. She didn't want her daughter handling the weapon, but
she also didn't want Rochelle to become someone's meal. As much as
everything inside of her was against her daughter's hand wrapping
around the butt of that gun, she bit her tongue. She would hate
herself more if something happened to Rochelle because she didn't
have the weapon.

"Aim for their chest," Carl whispered. "And
don't you pull the trigger unless you absolutely have to."

"I know," Rochelle whispered back.

Carl studied her for a second longer before
glancing at Mary Ellen. She gave him a brief nod of her head before
focusing her attention on the front door again. The banging against
it had stopped but she couldn't shake the feeling that they were
standing out there laughing at them inside. If something came
through that door, she and Josh would be in the perfect position to
stop the first wave. She would do everything she could to make sure
that Rochelle didn't have to pull the trigger.