Chapter Seven
It was dark when Henry and Stevie came back empty handed. Pulling up to the house the first thing she noticed was the Pinto was gone. "Something's wrong. "she said as she jumped from the truck before it came to a complete stop.
Henry was worried too and yelled to her, "Stevie wait!"
The house was quiet and dark. Stevie clicked on the flashlight she had in her pocket and scanned the downstairs. Henry was right behind her and had his gun out. They started up the stairs and in the hallway, they heard Kurt's voice. "Go away." He said flatly.
Stevie scanned the flashlight down the hall and landed on a body lying crumpled a few feet ahead of them. I was Becky. She was facing them, her eyes open and vacant. There was blood on her dress and a single gunshot wound in the center of her forehead. Ashley was on the ground next to her with the end of a knife protruding from her eye socket.
"What happened?" Henry asked.
Stevie interrupted "Where is my baby! "
Henry made it to Ashley's room first and found Kurt sitting next to his brother's body. Kurt pointed the gun at Henry. His voice was cold when he spoke, "Get the fuck out."
Henry could see the way Kyle was beginning to animate. "Okay…" Henry held his hands up. We'll go just tell us where the others are." Stevie pushed against Henry desperately she tried to get into the room. Kyle cocked the hammer of the gun. Henry shoved Stevie through the door and down the hallway as a bullet ripped into the wall behind where Henry had been standing. Once outside they heard two shots. Henry looked up to the second story of the house. Kurt must have put his brother down and then killed himself.
Stevie was holding onto Henry's shirt with both hands balled into fists. She was trying to speak but fear twisted her mouth in pain and strangled her voice. He gripped her by the forearms and dragged her towards the truck. "They're not there! They got away." He pulled her against his chest and buried his face in her hair. "The car is gone…we'll find them. I swear…we will."
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Earlier that evening
Regina held Davy on her lap while Jose drove and Maddie sat in the back. The girl had gone quiet since they fled the house. Nervously Regina looked at Jose. To a stranger, he looked calm as he carefully made his way towards the town, but Regina knew him too well. She watched as his eyes narrowed and his grip on the steering wheel tightened. "What is it?" She asked in Spanish so Maddie wouldn't understand. Jose didn't speak. instead his eyes darted to the dashboard and Regina saw the tank was near empty.
The town came into view and Regina read the name of the street, Main Street. Every town had a Main Street and normally this is where you wanted to be for the things you needed. However, the way life was now, everyone checked Main Street first. She was about to tell Jose to turn onto one of the side roads when the engine began knocking and the car sputtered to a stop. Jose tried restarting it, but there was no use, they were out of gas. A wave of fear washed over her making her check to see if her door was locked. "Maddie…"
At the sound of her name Maddie knelt on the seat and looked out the back window. "Why did we stop? We've got to find my Dad. He's out here, I know he is."
Regina prayed that Maddie was right. "Come up here child." She made a grabbing gesture with her hands like she was reaching for the girl. Maddie climbed over the center console and sat on the edge of Regina's seat. Regina pulled her close to her and wrapped an arm around her like a mother hen protecting her chick. "Si. He'll be back." she whispered reassuringly.
Jose nervously looked out each window before deciding it was safe enough to get out of the car. "Don't get out. I'll go to that one down there." He pointed to a car they had passed. "And the two over there."
"No, not those…those are too far!" Regina protested. "Let me help you?"
Jose gave Regina a quick kiss on the cheek and he patted both of the girls on the head. "Don't worry, Pichancita."
He exited the car silently. Regina watched him jog down the road towards the car. He held a gas can and hose in his left hand and a nine mil in his right. Jose was good with a gun. He wasn't always but Henry had taught him well. Regina muttered, "Blessed Mary mother of God please protect my Jose."
Minutes ticked by as Jose worked on the car. He shook his head because he only got a couple of ounces of gas from it. Regina was the first to spot the walkers as they rounded the side of a house a few feet from where Jose was bent over the gas can. She bolted from the car and started running. "Jose! Jose!" He fired two shots and then was swallowed up in the mass of walkers.
Xxx
Fort five minutes into their trip Daryl and Aaron came to a popup town centered around a cement plant. They were familiar with it and planned to blow right through it. It had already been searched thoroughly, but the sight of a car loaded up with supplies, caught Daryl's attention. Twenty-five feet ahead of the abandoned car was a group of walkers huddled over a body. A couple of the walkers seemed to debate whether to leave their meal for the sound of the bike. He pulled in behind the car and cut the engine. Aaron parked behind him.
Daryl held two fingers up in front of his eyes and made a look gesture towards the car. He yanked the crossbow off the bike. The movement caught the attention of the already curious walkers. One swayed as it got to its feet and the other rose quickly. Daryl moved out into the street. "Haus ain't been dead long, he's quick." Daryl fired his bow, the arrow sliced through the walker's head. A woman scream came from behind the houses. He ducked involuntarily when he heard the scream. And Aaron nearly jumped a foot off the ground. Most of the dead headed towards the scream.
Daryl reloaded the crossbow and pointed to the right for Aaron to get the female walker staggering towards them. His knife easily sunk into her skull. Daryl fired again taking down another male. They handled three more, but behind those, others were being pulled in from the screams.
Daryl motioned for Aaron to get back to the car. A scream came again and this time Daryl got a better lead on the direction. There was a gap between houses where maybe at one time a house had sat on the lot. Now it was just tall grass. He could tell someone had run through it recently. Something pink on the gravel caught his attention, a single toddler sized shoe lay forgotten on the ground. It wasn't dirty or covered with debris. He thought of Judith and what it meant if she had no one to make sure she was safe. Instantly he decided he had to go help. The woman screamed again and Daryl started running through the grass.
"Daryl?" Aaron called to him.
"Take the bridge to the cement mill and head down the service road. I'll come out on the other side!" He disappeared before he could finish the sentence.
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Arron threw the car into reverse and spun the wheel sharp making the car spin a hundred eighty degrees. He gunned the engine while putting it into gear. His tires skidded and the car fishtailed on the loose gravel. Roughly fifty feet or more, at the end of town, was Shaffer Lane. He hung a right onto it and roared towards a single lane bridge which led to the back end of Shaffer Cement Company. He hoped Daryl would be there by the time he drove down the unpaved road.
.
At the end of the lot and behind the row of houses there was a shallow line of trees. Daryl tossed a look back over his shoulder. The walkers had followed him into the lot. He zigzagged around the trees until he broke through into a wide strip of dusty land on the edge of the cement mill property. Daryl saw her immediately. She was a woman in her fifties at best and she was struggling to run with a toddler and a little girl. Walkers trailed behind her as she hurried the older girl along. The toddler wailed. The crying caught the attention of a larger group of dead that were roaming the grounds of the mill. Other walkers came through the trees ahead of them and from behind. The avenues of escape narrowed by the second.
She stopped running long enough to put the little girl down on the ground. For a second Daryl thought she was going to leave the children behind. She didn't though. She pulled the older child behind her and he watched as that girl covered the baby's ears. Puzzled he ran towards them only to realize in horror that the woman pulled a gun from her shirt. It was a small handgun the kind that would fit neatly into a purse and apparently in the cleavage of an old woman. He screamed "Don't!" but she pulled the trigger anyway. She missed the walker and he saw the dirt spray in the air a few feet behind it. The older child looked at Daryl. Frantically he screamed, "Run, this way!" The woman kept firing the gun but didn't hit anything she aimed at. He reached her just as she emptied the chamber. "What the fu…run…run to that car!"
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Aaron was driving on the service road. Dust created a thick cloud behind him. He hoped there wasn't a sea of walkers filing onto the road behind him. He could see Daryl up above him on an embankment with a runoff gully below it. He was plunging his knife into a walker and kicking at another. A woman ran towards the car with two children. It suddenly made sense to him why Daryl risked his life like this. The car skidded to a halt and Aaron scrambled out of it. He took aim and fired.
Aaron cleared enough of a path for them to get ahead of the group. Daryl's lungs burned from running. The woman was struggling. She had stopped running and was bent over to catch her breath. She spoke in breathless pants. "I…can't…go…save them."
He scooped up the smallest child and shoved the older one, almost knocking her to the ground. He grabbed a fist full of the back of her shirt to keep her on her feet. He yelled over his shoulder "Don't fucking quit!"
At the top of the embankment he stopped when he heard the woman scream once more. This time it wasn't panic that caused her screams, she had been bit. Walkers surrounded her and for a brief moment he lost sight of her and then he saw the agony on her face as they pulled her to the ground. Daryl shielded the girls. "Don't look!" he demanded.
Aaron felt the air being sucked from his lungs. He could feel bile rising to the back of his throat. The older woman threw herself to the walkers. She sacrificed herself to give Daryl and the children a chance to get away yet it still seemed horribly wrong. He had to force himself to look away and when he did he saw the older child scooting down the bank on her backside. Daryl was yelling something to her when the ground gave way and he and the toddler fell.
They hadn't had rain in weeks and the runoff creek was dry. Daryl felt his ankle pop the second it jammed against one of the rocks. The child's face was turning bright red and then purple. He worried she was dying until she took a deep breath and wailed.
Maddie was on her feet and running but she stopped and look behind her when Davy cried. The other man was frantically calling for her to come to the car. When he saw his friend fall, he yelled his name. She didn't have time to say anything before the man at the car was lifting her up and putting her in the backseat. Maddie tried to fight him but he closed the door and ran off to help. Maddie sat stunned as she waited for them to bring Davy to the car. The man said the name Daryl. She heard Stevie talking about Daryl and Maddie hated him. She sat silently vowing to never tell them who she was or how to find Stevie and her daddy.
