Read The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen Online

Authors: Erica Stevens

Tags: #horror, #scifi, #suspense, #adventure, #mystery, #action, #death, #chaos, #apocalyptic, #apocalyptic fiction end of the world

The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen (9 page)

BOOK: The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen
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"And there seems to be more of them," Josh
said.

"The destruction here isn't as bad as it was
in Mass and Rhode Island," Al said.

"Is that where you're from?" Jim
inquired.

"Most of us."

Nancy remained hovering nervously by the
doorway, her head bent, and her hands folded before her. She acted
calmer than when they'd first encountered her but an almost feral
air still surrounded her. Xander watched her before turning back to
the couple and child. Jim pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and
wiped at the sweat lining his forehead and upper lip.

"I always wanted to see the ocean," Claire
murmured.

"Believe me, you don't want to see it when
it's chasing you down the highway," John muttered. Carl shot him a
look but John's face remained impassive as he stared at his friend.
"Well it's true."

Carl turned back to Claire. "It
was
beautiful," he told them. "But
I'd suggest staying away for awhile."

"I don't think we'll be taking any trips
anytime soon," Jim said.

Carl gave a small snort before lifting his
hat and pushing his hair back. "We should probably move the
vehicles before they're noticed."

"I don't think those things are coherent
enough to realize that the vehicles are even out there much less
being driven around," Jim said.

"They're a lot smarter than you would
think," Xander told him as he fished the keys for the Ford out of
his pocket. "Don't ever discredit them; it will only get you
killed."

Jim's eyes shot toward his family before
going back to the door. "Are we in danger because we let you in
here?"

"You've been in danger this whole time,"
Peter said bluntly. "You didn't have much of a choice about letting
us in."

"Peter!" Riley hissed.

Xander grabbed hold of her arm and shook his
head when she shifted her gun before her. Peter didn't even look at
her. His jaw remained locked; his eyes were focused on the family
gathered by the cash register. "It will be fine," Carl assured them
but his eyes remained on Peter. "We just have to get the vehicles
out of view."

Jim nodded but he didn't look overly
convinced. "There's plenty of woods around here but I'm not sure
you're going to be able to put a car in them."

Carl glanced around the room. "Xander,
Donald, and John, why don't you guys get the vehicles somewhere
safe?"

Xander nodded and squeezed Riley's hand.
"I'm coming with you," she said.

"No, stay here." He pressed his lips against
her ear so that no one else would hear what he said to her.
"There's a reason Carl is staying in here. He might need your help
with Peter or with Jim later."

She looked torn as she glanced between Jim,
Peter, and then him. He thought she might fight him but she gave a
brief bow of her head instead. "Be careful," she whispered.

"Always." He kissed her before joining John
and Donald by the door.

"Should we bring the supplies in?" John
asked Carl.

Carl frowned but he shook his head no. "No,
it will take too long. Just get the vehicles out of sight and get
back here as soon as possible."

"Ok." Xander turned back to Donald and
nodded to him. Donald unlocked the door, pushed it open and stepped
into the peaceful night. Nothing moved, not even a breeze stirred
the trees, but he knew how much looks could be deceiving.

"Can we hide them in the woods?" John
asked.

Xander had no idea where they were going to
put the truck as he searched the trees surrounding the back of the
store. They could probably maneuver the cars in between some of
those trees, but the truck would be a lot more difficult. Xander
glanced at the parking lot of the building next door and then at
the department store across the street from them.

"We might have to put them across the
street," he answered.

"I think we should," Donald said. "I don't
know how we're going to get any of them into the trees, and even if
we could there's still no guarantee that hiding the cars will throw
the sick ones off of our trail. There's enough vehicles across the
street that they might not be noticed, and if they are…"

"The sick ones will probably go for the
department store first," John finished when Donald's voice trailed
off.

"Yeah," Donald said as his gaze continued to
search the night. "I just hate being so far away from the truck and
cars."

"I don't think we have a choice. Let's go,"
Xander said.

He hurried to the car and slid inside. He
couldn't see the ignition well, and it took him a couple of tries,
but he finally slid the key into it. John was already driving out
of the parking lot when he turned the ignition over. The sound of
the car firing up set his teeth on edge but he shifted it into
drive and searched the night as he cautiously drove it forward.

He didn't dare turn the lights on, but the
other vehicles headlights had come to life automatically. The
automatic headlights were a feature he was beginning to despise as
he followed the others onto the road, and into the vast parking lot
across the street. There were about thirty other vehicles in the
parking lot. He slid the car in between two others and turned it
off.

Feeling as if he was leaving a little bit of
his salvation and security behind, he reluctantly shoved the keys
in his pocket, climbed out from behind the wheel and locked the
doors. He jogged over to join Donald and John next to the truck. "I
don't feel good about this," Donald whispered.

"We don't have much of a choice," Xander
said. "There's nowhere else for us to hide them and we have to get
them out of that parking lot. If Jim and his family can hear the
sick people outside at night that means they're roaming through the
parking lot over there."

He'd said the words but his feet stayed in
place as he glanced at the vehicles that had gotten them this far.
"We can probably keep an eye on them from the florist shop and no
one can take them without the keys," John said. "I'm going to grab
some more food first, I'm starving."

Xander almost argued that they should just
go back, but the rumbling in his stomach silenced him. He followed
Donald and John to the back doors of the truck and held one open
for John to climb into the bed. His eyes rapidly scanned over the
parking lot as he searched for anything out there that could be a
threat. John sat on the edge of the truck and jumped down with a
bag clutched in his hand. Xander took the bag from him so John
could close and lock the door.

Slinking through the shadows next to the
department store, Xander spotted someone moving by the building. He
seized hold of John's arm and pushed him against the doors of the
truck as the loud grunts of some of the sick people drifted through
the night.

The beat of his heart accelerated, his head
began to pound with the rapid pulse of his blood. Xander released
John; he brought his gun before him and clutched it with both
hands. John placed the bag of supplies under the truck and moved
toward the side of it. Following behind him, Xander stayed low to
the ground with Donald on his heels.

The strange grunts grew closer and the
scuffling sounds of those things feet slapping against the asphalt
filled the air. Xander knelt down on the asphalt to peer under the
truck, but he saw no movement below the surrounding vehicles.
Lifting his head, he shook it no in response to the questioning
look he saw in John's eyes.

He jumped and spun toward the back of the
truck when something behind them shattered. A loud crash filled the
air seconds before a woman began to scream in a loud continuous
wail that would have pierced his eardrums if he'd been any closer
to her. The agony and terror behind those screams made him long to
go to the woman, to try and save her, but he knew it was already
too late and he didn't even know where to start looking for
her.

The scream abruptly cut off and then one
more high-pitched wail resonated through the air. This time the
silence that followed stretched into seconds that seemed to extend
into hours but was probably no more than minutes. His hand trembled
as he lifted it up to push his sweat soaked hair away from his
forehead. Donald and John had taken on a sick, pasty hue. Neither
of them attempted to move.

Xander took a deep breath, rested his hand
against the side of the truck and cautiously lifted his head to
look through the windows of the mini-van beside them. He peered
through the windows to search the night beyond the vehicles, but
nothing moved within the darkness. Even still, he felt that moving
away from the truck was a bad idea right now.

He sat back against the truck again and
poked his head underneath it. He didn't know what he expected to
accomplish, or what he assumed he would see, but he was greeted
with nothing but darkness and asphalt. He sat back up and leaned
against the mini-van. Donald went to move but Xander grabbed hold
of his arm to hold him in place.

"Wait," he whispered.

Donald frowned at him. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, I just don't think it's safe
right now. Stay here."

Leaning back down, he slid underneath the
truck and crawled on his belly to the other side. The rough asphalt
scraped against his chest and stomach, the acrid smell of the oil
that had seeped into the parking lot drifted up to fill his nose.
He searched the parking lot around him but the moonless night and
cars obscured most of his view. Silently slipping out from under
the truck, he crawled on his knees to the car beside the truck. He
lifted his head to peer through the windows toward the store.

He ducked away when he spotted three figures
running through the gloom on the side of the building. The breath
hissed out of him, he leaned his back against the car. Across the
way, he could barely make out the sign on top of the building that
marked the floral shop. His mind spun and adrenaline rushed through
his body. He took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm
himself.

Turning back around, he rested his
fingertips against the window and lifted his head to barely peek
through the window again. He didn't see anyone amongst the shadows
but that didn't mean they weren't there. His head tilted back, he
searched the tops of the vehicles before scanning the roof of the
store. He wouldn't be astounded to see them moving across the roofs
of either; the rabidly sick humans enjoyed climbing things.

Like
chimpanzees
, he thought silently. He wondered if perhaps
the virus that had been released from the earth was not only some
form of meningoencephalitis but also something that caused people
to revert to a more primate-like state. If it was a virus from the
early days of human evolution, he assumed it could be a
possibility. Those people were definitely driven by something more
primitive and far more feral than anything that resided within a
fully evolved human.

Nothing moved on top of the roof of the
store or the tops of the vehicles. Xander retreated and crawled
beneath the truck to rejoin the others. "Did you see anything?"
John demanded in a whisper.

"Three of them, disappearing around the side
of the building. I didn't see any others though," he answered.

"I'm so tired of these sick freaks," John
muttered.

So was he, but he kept silent as he strained
to hear anything out there. "What do we do?" Donald asked.

They couldn't stay here; they were sitting
ducks if they did, especially if more of those things arrived. But
if they got up now and tried to make it back to the florist shop
they would be exposed and they could be putting the others at risk.
They'd gotten lucky that they hadn't been spotted when they'd moved
the vehicles across the street; he knew those things would have
already been on them if they had been seen. Or maybe they had been
seen and those things were just playing with them.

A chill like the kind he got when someone
dropped ice down the back of his shirt slid over his spine. He
dropped his forehead into his hand as his mind spun. Somewhere in
the far off distance, he heard another cry, but this one had
nothing to do with suffering. It was the cry of something on the
hunt, and whatever was on the hunt was
excited
.

He cursed as he dropped his hand back down
to his side. He looked to the others but he saw the same bleakness
in their eyes as he felt curling within his soul. Sorrow filled him
at the thought of Riley. She was probably already worried sick,
never mind if he didn't make it back tonight. Never mind if he
didn't make it back at
all
. He
couldn't think about the consequences of that, of what it would do
to her, it would only make him reckless if he did.

Sitting back on his heels, Xander pressed
his back against the truck as another scream resonated through the
night.

"We survive, somehow," he finally
answered.

CHAPTER 7

John,

Once, when he'd been eight, his grandparents
had left him behind at a gas station while he'd been in the
bathroom. At first it had been great fun, he'd walked around the
building, he'd thrown stones, he'd explored the comics inside the
store and tried to peek at the contents of the nudie magazines in
the stacks near the counter. The teenage clerk behind the counter
flipped through his own sports magazine. He pretended not to notice
John when he tilted the adult magazines back and forth.

It wasn't until an hour passed, and his
stomach was rumbling from the smell of the microwave burrito a
customer was cooking, that he began to realize freedom wasn't such
a great thing. The clerk had stopped flipping through his magazine
to study him. "Don't you have a home kid?"

"Uh yeah," John had answered absently. He
just wasn't entirely sure how to get there from here.

BOOK: The Survivor Chronicles: The Risen
10.96Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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