Sundown Series (Book 1): Prepared Page 9

  The next day was much the same. Alex was glad she had the resources to at least provide them something throughout the day. They still only left the car while Alex was inside the RV, but Alex had watched. Whitney was a petite girl, with blonde hair like her sister. They usually left the car together, very rarely apart. There was the redheaded man, which was usually sitting in the driver's seat of the car. And there was a brunette man as well, Alex assumed the men were the neighbors Amber spoke of before.

  On the second day, when Amber brought the Tupperware back, Alex waited for her to be halfway to the car, before she stepped out of the RV. Amber froze in her tracks, and didn’t turn.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to go against your rules. I just wanted to return the things that you could use again,” Amber said.

  “It’s alright. Where are you from?” Alex asked.

  “Whitney and I are from Texas. The men are from Los Angeles.”

  “I thought you said the men were your neighbors?” Alex asked.

  “They were, at The Excalibur,” Amber said. “Can I turn around?” Without waiting for an answer, she turned so she could look at Alex while she spoke.

  “You were on The Strip when this started?” Alex asked.

  “Yes. We left there the day we came here and ran into you,” Amber said. “It was horrible in the casino. At first the hotel security had things handled, they made all guests go to their rooms. They served us food the first day we were confined. Then the food stopped.”

  “Stopped?” Alex asked.

  “Yes. We stopped getting the emergency messages on our phones, we stopped getting housekeeping calls, and room service never showed again.”

  “So you were cut off from everything?”

  “We tried the phones after the emergency messages stopped, and of course there was no dial tones. We hadn’t had very good service on our cellphones since getting there but we had absolutely no bars. After a day of this, we decided we had to get out,” Amber explained.

  She continued with her story, telling Alex how they heard screams and running on the day they decided to evacuate. The sounds of chaos made them wait another day, even though they were hungry and had drank all the water they had in the room. When they finally did venture out of the room, it wasn’t into the hall like they planned, but into the adjoining room. Their neighbors, Zach and Melvin, began banging on their door. Amber not realizing the danger had just opened to see if they knew what was going on. They did.

  Zach and Melvin told the girls that there were people eating other people. The four of them decided they needed to evacuate together. Melvin suggested they go to the valet area, they would have keys for vehicles and they could drive out as far as possible. The idea proved successful, and they found the blue sedan they were in now. However, when they tried to leave the city, they were faced with the same blockade issue that Alex had seen.

  “Zach, that’s the guy sitting in the driver’s seat now,” said Amber while motioning to the car. Zach stuck a hand out his open window and waved, indicating they were hearing the conversation in the car. “Zach decided we should drive this direction, thinking maybe we could get around the blockades, and leave town on a smaller highway.”

  “You didn’t get very far. I saw you turn around just down the road,” Alex said.

  “No, we didn’t get far,” Amber got pale as she looked down at the dirt, then back at Alex. “When we tried to get around that curve, the road was full of those monsters. There had to be 100 of them.”

  Alex looked over her shoulder toward the road. She didn’t see anything moving in the desert. So why had they not followed the sedan when they came this way? Line of sight, Alex thought. Once the sedan turned down the dirt road, they were out of sight from the infected around the curve. Even if the infected wandered beyond the curve, the sedan was stopped quickly, and they wouldn’t have seen anything moving.

  “Ok well, have a good night,” Alex said when she turned back. She smiled slightly at Amber, to be friendly, to make her realize she wasn’t a shotgun wielding crazy.

  “You too. Thank you Alex.”

  Amber went back to the car and shut herself in. Alex climbed back into the RV, locked the door and left the shotgun propped against the wall. She may have started feeling a little more comfortable with the four people, that did not mean she trusted them. Alex would always be prepared for the scenario she thought was most unlikely, in any circumstance. These people being murderous fiends wasn’t the most unlikely, but it wasn’t number one on her Alex’s list for them at the moment.

  Alex and the kids settled into bed, and as Alex drifted off, she held Blake’s ring tightly in her hand. She didn’t let the kids see it, because then she would be forced to tell them the truth before she was ready. But touching his ring made her feel closer to him. Sleep held many dreams, most of them were nightmares that Alex could not seem to wake from. She often found herself soaking with sweat and on the edge of the bed away from the children.

  Tonight wasn’t a night like that though. Alex slept soundly and heavily, her body demanding the shutdown to recoup some of the energy lost. Alex slept so deeply that the small bit of light that shone around the window coverings didn’t wake her. She didn’t hear the crackle of the fire the newcomers had started. As dawn broke hours later, the fire had died down, with a smell lingering. It wasn’t the smell that drew the dead, it had been the light in the dark. It called to them like a lighthouse.

  Screaming, Alex awoke again to screaming. She launched herself off the bed, to grab the shotgun immediately. Looking back, she saw both kids’ scared faces looking down at her. She shook her head and made a shushing motion.

  “Stay hidden. Stay quiet,” Alex said.

  Alex checked the windows first, and was instantly sick to her stomach. The desert was crawling with infected. They weren’t paying much attention to the RV, they were drawn to something behind it. Alex followed their trail, and looked out the back window. She saw the dead fire pit, and she cursed the stupidity of the people that were currently trapped in the sedan. She watched closely, and realized there were only three heads in the car. She searched around panicked, and saw Whitney hiding behind a set of rocks 50 feet from the sedan.

  Plans flew through Alex’s mind, she could not leave the girl out there to be eaten. The fact the others were hiding in the car only confirmed her suspicions that the group had no weapons. Alex needed to act, and it was going to have to be fast, before any infected realized she or the children were inside the RV. Pushing her feet into her motorcycle boots, Alex made plans in her head. She would draw as many infected away from Whitney as she could. Then find a way to out maneuver them back to the RV.

  Weapons secured to her body, Alex held the shotgun at the ready. Fire drew their attention, then fire was what they would get. She busted out through the RV door, careful to slam it shut behind her to protect her children. Her appearance drew the attention of the nearest infected. She took the first one down with her knife, to keep it quiet. Running to the back of the RV, she decided to grab one of the gas cans to start a fire quickly. When she got there, she was shocked to find only one can left.

  Before Alex could figure what happened to the other can, Whitney screamed out. She was up on her feet running from two infected that had found her. The blue sedan started up, and Alex saw the other gas can at the back of their car. They had taken her gas. The can Alex held was also almost empty, and she knew it was full when she arrived in the desert. She had a moment of panic, but she had to keep going forward with her plan, as the infected were starting to notice her.

  Running around the front of the RV, Alex beelined off to the left of the road, for a bundle of tumbleweeds. She haphazardly threw gas all over the bushes, and quickly lit a match. As the fire started, the flame was huge with the gasoline as its fuel. This drew an interested crowd, one that Alex did not feel the need to entertain or join. Running around the back of the RV now, Alex had to stop and use the shotgun on three infected that were fo
llowing her. She looked back to where Whitney had been running, but the two infected had turned away for the fire.

  The blue sedan started to tear off down the road, and Whitney cried loudly for it. As Alex watched the drama unfold, more infected came for her. She continued to pump and pull the trigger on her shotgun, taking out as many as she could. When they got too close, she pulled her bowie again and dispatched whom she could. Suddenly the sedan whipped dangerously to one side, and slid to a stop. Alex could hear screaming from the car, and she guessed it was Amber fighting to not leave her sister behind.

  Whitney was sprinting toward the car, being followed closely by a group of infected, that realized she was the meal, not the fire. Alex took out the furthest from her, afraid of accidently hitting Whitney in the process. Pumping the shotgun again, she pulled the trigger to an empty click. Shit, Alex thought. She left the gun near the RV door, and pulled her 9 mm instead. The blue sedan swung around and came barreling back toward Whitney. Alex felt a small bit of relief for the girl.

  As she waited for Whitney to be picked back up, a huge rotting infected woman tackled Alex. They hit the RV and Alex felt her head rebound off the metal. The hit took them both down, and the infected couldn’t sink in her teeth, which saved Alex. The bloody teeth of the woman continued to snap at the air, trying to get to her meal. Alex jammed her arm under the rotten chin, hoping to keep her teeth from catching purchase. As she wrestled to get her knife or gun free of the large gut that laid on her, she could see the sedan screech to a halt 10 feet from her.

  “Whitney get in!” Amber screamed.

  “Amber!” Whitney cried out.

  “What about her?” Amber asked someone in the car.

  “Leave her,” a male voice answered from inside.

  It took Alex a brief moment to realize they decided to leave her, with the infected trying to kill her. With the decision made, the sedan spun another U Turn, and drove away from the RV, and Alex fighting for her life.

  Chapter 10

  “Not everyone is good girl. But until you know otherwise you should never abandon anyone,” Mitch said. Alex had been 14, with a typical teenage attitude, about not caring about anyone or anything. She believed she should just care about herself and her family, and move on with her survival. However, Mitch had insisted she understand how it was important to care for others, and that the human race needed to bond together in crisis.

  As Alex fought for her life, not being able to reach her weapons, overcome and choking on the smell of rotten flesh, her ears registered the spinning tires as the sedan took off. She got into this situation, because she had listened to Mitch, you have to care. But this was not the time to realize whom she shouldn’t have trusted. She would curse Mitch and his ridiculous lessons later.

  Her hand finally found the grip of her 9 mm on her hip. Pulling it up under the infected’s body was harder, as all of her weight was crushing down on top of Alex’s smaller frame. Alex was by no means a tall woman, but her 5,6” body could not contend with the meaty rotting body on top of her. When her arm finally pulled free, Alex switched hands under the infected’s chin and she jammed the muzzle of the weapon as hard as she could. A second later, she pulled the trigger and she was instantly covered in rotten brain matter. Alex fought the urge to throw up for the moment, and rolled the motionless body off her.

  Back on her feet, Alex was momentarily relieved to see that a large amount of the infected had followed the sedan. She grabbed her shotgun and jumped back into the RV, locking the door violently behind her. She crumpled to the floor, and realized she couldn’t hold back the vomit, and half ran and half crawled to the toilet.

  Once her retching was done, she sat back against the small shower. Tears welled in her eyes, and she went to put her hands over her face. Touching her skin, Alex realized she was covered in blood and brains. Fighting the need to purge again Alex threw off all of her clothes and jumped into the shower, not even waiting for the water to warm.

  Less than five minutes later, Alex stepped from the shower shivering, and wrapped in a towel. She quickly grabbed clean sweats, and tied her wet hair into a bun. When she came back into the RV, Henry was standing at the bathroom door waiting for her.

  “Mommy, something is wrong with Billie,” he said.

  Alex’s heart stopped at those words. She ran to the bed and jumped back up next to Billie. She was awake, but not getting out of bed. She looked at Alex, and looked over her skin.

  “I’m ok,” Alex told her. “Henry said something is wrong?”

  “I don’t feel good Mommy,” Billie said. Alex instantly touched her head, and realized she was on fire. Alex jumped down and found the thermometer she had packed and swiped the sensor over Billie’s head. 102.4. Shit, damn, Alex thought to herself. Instantly panicked she began to check Billie’s body for any sort of scratch or bite, though she knew it was impossible for that to have happened. Billie had not been near any infected.

  “Mommy, my throat hurts when I swallow,” Billie said.

  “Like when you got sick before?” Alex asked. Unfortunately, Billie had a bad history with strep throat. The doctor talked about taking her tonsils out if it kept happening. Well what now doctor?

  Billie nodded her answer to Alex’s question, and closed her eyes. Alex brushed her hair from her burning forehead until she breathed deeply in sleep. She touched under her chin and found the very swollen glands. Alex rested her forehead on Billie’s shoulder for a moment, a surge of panic welling in her. They were well prepared, even with sparing some of the supplies to the four people that were there. However, the one thing Alex did not have, was antibiotics.

  Alex lifted her head, anger coming back into her as she realized those people she had fed for three days, had not only attracted a horde to their location, but also had taken all of her gas! The abandoning her, Alex could almost forgive. She understood fear, and she knew it made people do things. But taking the gas, while she slept, it was premeditated. They knew they would leave her without transportation, if she did not have gas in the tank. Thankfully, they didn’t realize her gas tank was 3/4th full. They might have tried to take the RV from her, had they known what she had inside.

  They had to move. Alex knew that immediately. As she exchanged jeans for her sweats, she tried to decide a best course of action. Billie was going to need antibiotics. Alex didn’t want to go through the list of possible outcomes if the strep throat wasn’t treated. No matter what, medication was going to be needed. Getting that meant going back into the city, getting out of the safety of the RV, and entering an unknown building to find the medicine. If it had not already been looted completely.

  Once she was dressed and weapons were secured on her body, she looked out the windows of the RV. There were many infected still milling around the RV. Some seemed to contemplate the vehicle, trying to figure out what was inside, like a prize in a gum machine. Alex rolled down her driver’s side window, grabbed the net covering the front of the RV, and yanked it off. The movement attracted the infecteds’ attention and many started toward the RV. She started the engine quickly, letting it idle as she got Henry and Billie strapped into seats.

  Alex backed the RV up away from the dirt pile, moving slowly. She did not want to damage the RV too much by running down infected bodies. The thudding sounds along the body of the RV told her that they were pretty surrounded, even if she couldn’t see it in the mirrors. Suddenly a face appeared in the window on the children’s side of the RV. Henry screamed, which scared Billie awake. The first thing she saw was a face in the window, skin hanging from where something had eaten part of its face. Billie screamed and then hit the window, which did nothing but provoke the infected more.

  Speeding up the RV, Alex got far enough away from the dirt mound, to throw the RV into drive, and move forward. The movement lost the infected from the front window, and brought the attention of many of the horde their way. Alex did not wait for them to make their move, instead she put the pedal down, and lurched down the b
umpy dirt path. The children moved to the back of the RV, no longer wanting to see the infected that were around. Alex watched them huddle together on the couch, Henry hugging his sister tightly to him, as she laid her head on the armrest.

  The main road was empty of any vehicles, or infected, for now. Alex looked right and left, trying to make a decision. The most direct route to Montana was back to the city, and finding a way onto the main freeway. But if this plague was moving as fast as it seemed, the main roads were going to be congested with cars, infected and other people. She looked toward the desert on the other side. Making up her mind, she decided going the long way would be a better bet.

  The RV curved away from Las Vegas, heading toward the next town of Pahrump. The RV rumbling down the road gave Alex a sense of safety, but she also realized she needed to solve their extra fuel problem as well. She couldn’t help but mentally kick herself for not suspecting Amber and her group of stealing from her. A part of her also knew, sadly, they wouldn’t make it much further in this environment.

  The road to Pahrump was not nearly as congested as Alex would have expected. She maneuvered the RV around one military barricade, which clearly did not stop anything from coming that direction. Even that far from the city there were smoldering cars, which Alex suspected was from larger weapons used by the military. She found herself wondering if the military waited for them to be infected before killing them, or were the cars full of people trying to escape. They pulled into the smaller town, devastation showing on every corner. Infected wandered parking lots, and onto the street. Bodies of the truly dead lay in vehicles, and on the ground.