The Wild Ones (Book 2) Read online

I’d pulled him aside, away from the others who were now inside the station. We were standing in one of the old trains that had been converted into a small café and gift store. It was kind of neat, actually. But like many things in the new world it would soon decay. I figured we could have the heated conversation in there without the others listening in.

  “This isn’t about me or you. This is about Daniels and the doc. You know as well as I do what they are going to do to him. Never mind the doc. A woman among those animals? And did you see Lola’s face?”

  “Of course I did. And yes I know.”

  He ran a hand over his head. Lifting his arm sent a waft of gross body odor my way. All of us looked and smelled like we needed a shower. Up to now we were using streams, rivers, anything to wash the grime of life away. I never knew how bad a person could smell until the apocalypse hit.

  “There are less of them now. Eight of us, eight of them.”

  “Scott. I get it. I do. If I could snap my fingers, I would have them back in an instant. But what you are asking me to agree to is suicide.”

  “If we were in our thirties would you agree?”

  “Probably.”

  “So it’s an age thing?”

  He stared at me and I would have loved to have known what was going through his mind. Age meant nothing now. Survival was all that mattered.

  He shook his head.

  “Then what is it?”

  “I don’t want to lose you.”

  My brow furrowed. “If I’m not mistaken, I could have sworn my big brother just showed a little heart.”

  He grinned. “You know what I mean. You are all I have left.”

  “And Daniels is all she has.”

  I think that was what did it. His demeanor changed. Having the comparison allowed him to see what was at stake but to drive the message home I flipped it around.

  “If that was me in there, what would you do?” I asked.

  He didn’t need to respond. A nod was all I needed to see.

  * * *

  Ten minutes later we gathered everyone together. As much as I was clear about what needed to be done, neither Nick nor I were in a position to tell the others what they had to do. It had to be a joint decision. I leaned up against the wall as Nick stood at the center of the room laying it all out. He didn’t mince words. He made it clear that there was a chance that some of us wouldn’t make it through and because of that, he would understand if they chose to stay.

  “I’ll give you some time to think it over,” he said, heading towards the door. Before he had even reached it Jamal stepped forward.

  “I’m in.”

  Nick turned and looked at him. Ryland was next.

  “Let’s give these wankers hell,” he added.

  One by one everyone stepped forward. There was no hesitation. Maybe it was this he was concerned about: Nick didn’t want to be the one to push anyone into a direction, especially one that would endanger their lives. Seeing that he had everyone’s support he smiled.

  “If Tom was alive to hear this, I’m pretty sure he would be a proud man,” he replied. To which Ryland was quick to respond with an impersonation of Tom. Everyone chuckled and for a few seconds we allowed ourselves to laugh. It soon faded as we moved into discussing the plan of action. We had to hit them fast and from multiple directions. We followed Nick outside the train station and he took a stick and outlined a rough layout of the hotel in the dirt. He marked an X in the four areas we would strike. Two would hit from the front, two through the Townhouse Suite, four from the east and west side. We would stagger the attacks, drawing them to the front entrance first while the others entered. We would then engage from the rear.

  “Don’t hesitate. Kill them on sight.”

  I nodded and geared up by filling my pockets with magazines. I added several smoke grenades to the utility belt. It was a strange sight to watch each of them get ready for what might be our last day together. We’d come a long way in a short time. Nick decided who would go with who, and lo-and-behold, who did I get lumbered with? Ryland Barkley. Now if that wasn’t some act of God, or freak of nature, I don’t know what was.

  Ryland smirked at me as he made his way over.

  “Looks like it’s you and me again. Butch and…”

  “Don’t say it,” I said brushing past him.

  “Hey, hold up. I wanted to discuss who’s taking the lead.”

  “Already decided,” I hollered back as we all made our way up to Main Street.

  “Yeah, who?”

  “Well I’m not sure this bulletproof vest is going to hold up so I need someone to take the hits.”

  “What?” He stopped walking. I cast a glance over my shoulder and smiled.

  “Nick, you think there is a chance I could swap with Alexa? I’m having doubts about my battle buddy,” Ryland said.

  We hunched over and dashed across the road heading towards the far corner of the hotel. Each of us broke away into our collective group and moved into position. My eyes scanned the windows. I was sure they would be expecting us. Ryland and I would take the Townhouse Suite. As we climbed up the pipe my pulse raced.

  “Doesn’t this feel like Groundhog Day to you?”

  “Shhh, keep quiet,” I replied. While I appreciated his humor, I was freaking out on the inside. My hands were sweating, and beads were trickling down my back as we climbed. Nick and Brooke would hit the front entrance. Jamal and Lola would head over to the east side while Alexa and Tobias handled the west. I was confident we could do this but I would have been lying to say that I didn’t have my reservations. I know, quite a dichotomy. But that’s how my mind was. One second shifting into… we can do this… and the next thinking we were out of our minds.

  We climbed into the window. Nick had told us to wait until we heard gunshots before we engaged. I lowered myself down to the floor doing my best to remain as silent as possible. We couldn’t hear any voices. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

  Ryland’s boot caught on the ledge and for a brief second he nearly toppled in but I caught him, and he braced himself against me.

  “Sorry, man,” he said in a whisper.

  I said nothing and assisted him.

  Once inside we made our way over to the door and snuck a peek into the corridor, it was empty. The wall was gone which meant that the second we stepped out, we had to be ready to fight.

  “Come on, Nick,” I mumbled.

  I glanced at my watch. The minutes ticked over as we waited for the signal that I thought would never come. At the eruption of gunfire I gestured to Ryland to open the door, and I slipped out hugging the wall with my back as we navigated our way through the maze of corridors. The skinheads had gone nuts inside and ruined the place. Huge holes were in the drywall. A fine layer of dust had settled over the dark red carpets. The smell of piss lingered. Smeared over the walls was a swastika symbol in what I was sure was feces. Tables and chairs had been overturned, doors destroyed and mattresses hauled out into the hallway. As we came around a turn, we could hear them yelling. One man’s voice filling up the corridors, giving everyone orders.

  More gunfire, though this time from the east side. The others were in.

  It was working. They sounded panicked, unprepared, and unsure of where to turn. One of them came running around the corner straight into the bullet I squeezed off. He dropped, and I fired another into his head. Ryland shifted across to the other side of the corridor and unleashed a rapid burst of gunfire tearing up the corner before backing up fast. We ducked into the nearest room and I pulled a smoke grenade, twisted the top and tore off the cap then tossed it out. It bounced off the wall and disappeared out of sight kicking out a large dose of red smoke. Instead of stepping out into what Daniels referred to as the fatal funnel, I extended my hands, turning the gun around the corner and just letting it rip. Behind me I heard Ryland smash a mirror in the bathroom. He emerged and dropped down near my feet, using the mirror to see around the corner. He pulled back and without sayin
g a word threw up two fingers and indicated they were on the same side working their way closer. They were crouched that’s why none of my rounds hit them. He told me to step back while he had a go. He brought the muzzle of the gun level with the bottom of the door and in one smooth motion twisted it out and squeezed the trigger. An explosion of rounds, a few back and then there was silence. I used a shard of the mirror to take a look. Sure enough, one of them was dead. The other had managed to pull back in time.

  I had no idea how many the others had taken out but we had killed two. Six remained including Dominick. We were about to move out when I heard Nick’s voice.

  “Scotty! Come on out. All clear.”

  Ryland tossed me a confused look “All clear?”

  We inched our way out, unsure whether this was some kind of trap. There was no telling what that asshole was up to or to what lengths he would go in order to kill any of us. I made my way down the corridor and cut the corner. Sure enough, there was Nick and Brooke staring at the carnage of four bodies. As I came out my eyes scanned the corridor that fissured away from the lobby. Alexa and Tobias jogged into view from the right along with Jamal and Lola.

  The sense of victory quickly replaced by confusion.

  “Where is he?” I asked.

  “We’ll clear each room but I think he left in the night,” Nick said.

  I frowned. “Leaving behind his men?”

  “Seems so,” Tobias said looking down at the dead and finishing off one man who was still alive. He didn’t wait for him to die before driving a knife through his skull. The look of satisfaction on his face as he sank it in would stay with me. Payback was a bitch.

  Lola didn’t say anything; she hurried towards the front entrance.

  “Lola!” Nick yelled following after her. She wasn’t running but walking at a fast pace.

  “I’m going to get him,” she said heading out front to check the vehicles for keys.

  “He could be anywhere by now.”

  “I don’t care.”

  As he dealt with her I searched around for Finn. Each of us moved quickly searching the rooms and making sure that Dominick wasn’t hiding. It was confirmed when Nick returned saying that one of the trucks was gone. Ten minutes later we reconvened in the lobby. He must have convinced Lola that we’d be leaving as she leaned against a door staring out while loading another magazine into her Glock.

  He nodded. “Have you checked all the rooms?

  “All thirty-one plus the restaurants and offices.”

  “He won’t have got far, Nick. You know as well as I do, a twenty-minute ride in this world can take hours.”

  “But what if he hasn’t left town?” Ryland asked.

  “Why would he stay? He has the doctor, and as Daniels isn’t among the dead, I’m guessing he’s keeping him alive as some form of insurance,” Alexa added.

  “For who?” Tobias asked, scowling.

  “Those who are in Boston? Against us? Who the hell knows,” Alexa answered.

  I walked outside shaking my head then stepped back in again. “No, he left in the night. Think about it. If they had all left together, he knows we would have come after him, but if he could hold us off, that might have bought him some time.”

  “I don’t get it. What’s he hope to achieve by holding on to her?” Alexa asked.

  “I can answer that,” a rough voice cut into the conversation. A side door opened and leaning up against it gripping his side was Finn. Nick dashed down the corridor to where he was and flung an arm over his shoulder.

  “Scotty, get me the doc’s bag.”

  I sprinted out of the hotel and down the street. It was a short run, two minutes down the road to the corner where we’d left our belongings hidden in some bushes. As I came around the corner I glanced at Eli’s dead body. My stomach sank. Before we left, we needed to bury him. We couldn’t leave him there for the birds to peck at his eyes or for the Zs to feast on him. I grabbed up the bag and double-timed it back.

  When I returned, Nick had cleared off the front desk counter and lifted Finn up. When Finn was not sucking in air, he was already bringing Nick up to speed on what had taken place.

  “He left in the night heading for Boston. Not long after the exchange. It was my idea. I went with him, made it to the outskirts of town. I was hoping by drawing him away from the others I could stop him. I tried.” He lifted his hand and Brooke poured water over the wound. He winced, and that’s when we saw it. It wasn’t a knife wound. It was a bite.

  Nick stepped back, all of us did. He was infected.

  “There were too many, I couldn’t keep them off.” He paused for a second to catch his next breath. “Nick. Give me a gun. I’ll do it,” Finn said.

  “No.”

  “I want to be with my wife and child.”

  Nick shook his head.

  “Please.”

  It was one thing to have to stab or shoot someone in the head after they’d turned, another to do it before they had. We looked on, each of us frozen by the thought of making that choice. I’m not sure if I did it because I thought it was the merciful thing to do or simply because I didn’t want anyone else to have the weight of guilt that I already felt. Either way, I stepped forward and handed him my Glock. I’d already taken Eli’s.

  “Thank you, Scott.” He let out a cry and grimaced. “There’s not much time left. Go. He took the green Jeep with the white swastika on the hood. He’s heading east on I-90.”

  I gripped Finn’s shoulder and thanked him. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what horrors he was trying to atone for by helping us and neither did we come to know much about his past other than fragments of what he’d told us. I think there was a reason for that. He was ashamed of it. Ashamed of his brother’s choices, and he didn’t want to go to his grave without doing one thing right.

  “Go!” he repeated.

  We gathered up the rifles Dominick’s men had dropped along with the rest of their ammo before heading out. I lingered by the door for a few more seconds before joining Nick and the others in the truck we’d originally arrived in.

  “We need to bury Eli.”

  “I know, we will.”

  “No, I mean now.”

  Nick gave me one of his hard stares. I knew we were pressed for time and maybe it was because of what the doc had said in my ear before she handed herself over, but Eli deserved better and I was going to make damn sure he got it. Nick fired up the engine and just as his foot was about to hit the gas we heard one single gunshot echo.

  None of us said a word but I think we were feeling the same.

  The finality of it stuck with me. It’s still with me now.

  Every person we met along the way had a story, some were rich and full and required time to understand, others were brief but left an impact.

  I would never forget Eli’s or Finn’s.

  Daniels

  We came upon the abandoned Jeep with the swastika three miles from the outskirts of Lake George. It had taken us close to two hours to reach it — a journey that should have only taken thirty minutes. The sky was clear; the sun was beating down as I hopped out and looked inside the vehicle. Nothing was damaged. There was still fuel in the gas tank. It fired up no problem. That’s what was strange about it. There could have only been two reasons he would have abandoned the Jeep. Either he had figured that Finn would return to alert us where he was heading, or they’d encountered a horde of Zs.

  “They must have gone into town on foot.”

  Nick looked off into the distance. The road was cluttered with vehicles and we’d come across our fair share of the dead but now there were only a few roaming. The stink of rotting flesh and landfill carried on the wind thick and heavy. I jumped back in the vehicle and we took off heading towards the town. However, as we got closer, Nick changed direction.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “If you were on foot and you saw that sign, what would you do? Walk another two miles or head there?”

  H
e pointed towards a sign for Adirondack Camping Village, then jerked the wheel left onto Finkle Road and smashed the accelerator forcing us all back into our seats. The road cut through a swath of trees, winding deeper into a secluded wooded area that was used for campsites. In between the foliage we could make out colorful erected tents, log cabins and several RVs. As we got closer to the head office, there was a large basketball court off to the left. Nick didn’t drive right up to the building. He parked about a hundred yards away, slipping the truck into a rest stop and hiding it behind a group of trees. After getting out, Lola wanted to go with us but Nick wouldn’t let her.

  “You need to stay here.”

  “I’m not a child.”

  “That’s debatable.”

  “Hey, I’m a better shot than all of you.”

  “So you’ll be good at watching over these two then.”

  Jamal chuckled as she gave a sour face and climbed back into the truck while the four of us headed towards the building. There were several vehicles parked out front so if Dominick had been searching for a ride, he had plenty to choose from. To be honest, I didn’t expect to find him there. He’d had at least three hours head start on us. I suspected he would have stolen a truck and headed into town or walked the short distance.

  A bullet whistling past my ear changed my mind.

  “Does anyone see the shooter?” Nick asked. I shook my head.

  We had to assume it was him. There were no demands. No swagger. No bargaining this time around. He honestly thought he stood a chance against the four of us as we fanned out, darting from one tree to the next.

  “You see him?” Ryland asked.

  I peered around the thick trunk and scanned the windows. I couldn’t make out a damn thing. Nick brought his rifle up and fired a couple of shots at the windows, then darted into a new position. He gestured for Ryland and me to head around back while they tackled the front. By the look of it as we circled around, there were three buildings and a large swimming pool covered up with a huge black tarp.

  Several more shots were fired, and we hit the dirt.

  “For someone who’s alone, he’s doing a good job of keeping us at bay. Are you sure there were only twenty skinheads?” Ryland asked.