Author's Note - Sorry it has taken me so long to update. With the new baby, work, and hopefully starting a band with a friend of mine things have been hectic. I hope not to be so long between updates, but if I am rest assured I will finish the story. Please R&R as always, and I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it.
The Long Road
Chapter 15 - Lost And Found
"Mother Fucker!" Derek said through his gritted teeth as his left leg buckled under him once again, the homemade splint Daniel had hastily made out of strips of cloth and a stick slipping off his right ankle.
Daniel had taken point several yards ahead as he tracked which way the men had taken Karen. For years Derek had thought that Daniel's dedication and enthusiasm to the Boy Scouts was childish and often quite pathetic, until now. Granted the splint wasn't the best, but it did give his ankle some temporary relief.
Alicia kneeled down by Derek's side, gently tightening the cloth strips of the splint as he leaned on the slightly decayed piece of wood Kevin had brought him just after the attack on the outskirts of the fields. Daniel and Alicia had harshly scolded the young boy for wandering even just a few dozen feet away. He gripped the stick firmly and wrung it in his hand as best he could to wear down the decayed bark.
"How are you feeling?" Alicia asked as she lifted herself back up under his arm.
"It hurts like hell," Derek replied.
"You're lucky," Alicia said as they began to lumber behind Daniel once again, "That could have been really bad back there."
"Yea, well," Derek said, "I guess it's a good thing that bitch didn't have her dentures in."
Kevin was walking along side of them, following Derek's every step. Ever since Derek and Daniel had rescued them from the porch, it was almost impossible for Derek to have any space, especially with a sprained ankle.
"Get down!" Daniel said as he went to his knees, holding the rifle down low. Almost instinctively Alicia dropped to the ground, leaving Derek to go slowly down to one knee while extending the other out behind him painfully. Kevin went down on his belly.
"Are those more bad guys?" Kevin asked.
"I don't know," Derek said as he watched Daniel move towards him.
"I don't know if anyone's out there," Daniel said, "But there's a whole bunch of bodies over here."
"Let's go check it out," Derek said as he pulled the .38 from his pants. Daniel had kept a few shells from each weapon they owned in his pocket. Contrary to what Derek had thought about him when everything first began to go down, Daniel had turned out to be very useful. After motioning for Alicia and Kevin to stay where they were at, he hobbled behind Daniel.
The woods they were in were a world apart from the small hiking trails surrounding Franklin. The four of them had to travel the paths and trails going through the dense woodland. Although it wouldn't have been hard for them to take off from the trails at any time, the shrubs and briars coupled with all the trees would have made it hard for them to move around quickly or comfortably, and that is not even considering the fact they might have to take off in a hurry.
The moon had been moving in and out of clouds for quite some time. Every time that it hid itself, they were hard pressed to move on for fear that they might not hear a twig snap or some leaves rustle to signal danger. Luckily the clouds had dispersed for the time being and Derek could make out the trees surrounding them with pretty good detail. Daniel stopped a good ways ahead of him, and Derek looked behind to check on Alicia and Kevin. After surveying the area around them, he nodded in satisfaction and hobbled over to Daniel.
"Holy shit," Derek said, his jaw dropping. A large circle of the woods had been cut and burned away for what appeared to Derek to be a huge funeral pyre. There seemed to be dozens, maybe even hundreds, of bodies piled on top of one another in the circle. Upon closer inspection, Derek had come to the conclusion that they were zombies, but had already been dispatched. Under the seemingly fresh bodies were others, charred and mutilated. Derek suspected that a bed of ashes laid underneath.
"You think it was those guys that took Karen?" Daniel asked.
"You can fucking bet on it," Derek replied, "And if those fucks killed all of the bastards, they must be some mean mother fuckers."
"We still have to find them," Daniel said, looking at Derek sternly.
This kid is fucking crazy. He's going to get us killed. But Livie...
"Yea, I know," Derek said, "But we won't be able to any good. We're just going to get ourselves killed."
"They might have my sister," Daniel said, "I have to make sure."
"You're fucking stupid, Daniel," Derek said, "Even if they do have her, what are you going to do? Maybe kill one or two of them before they blow your ass away? They're armed, Daniel, armed to the fucking teeth."
"Listen," Daniel said, "She is all I have left. I'm not leaving her."
"I'm not either," Derek said having made up his mind, "I'm just wondering if you know what we're up against."
With that, Derek waved for the other two to come on. While he didn't know exactly what to expect, he was determined to find Livie.
Again they trekked their way through the woods. Soon after, they began to come upon more corpses strewn about the trail. These had not been burned, and the extent of their injuries was gruesome. While it wasn't uncommon for one of the undead to have chunks of flesh or limbs missing, it was apparent that these corpses had been decimated. Limbs had been severed and were laying right next to the bodies, some having no limbs at all. Perhaps the most sickening thing of all was the naked women. Derek couldn't determine whether most of them had been living or undead when they had been killed, but they had obviously been assaulted.
Quietly they moved on. It was becoming hard for Derek to move with Alicia putting all her strength against him on one side and Kevin almost latching on to his leg on the other. The pain was beginning to become unbearable now, causing him to grind his teeth together. Alicia had done a good job of making sure that the splint stayed in place, but that didn't matter. Regardless of how much he used her and the stick, he still had to either drag his foot across the ground or exert the extra energy needed to keep it elevated.
If we don't get to where we're going soon I'm going to fucking kill someone.
Just then, a huge structure became visible through the trees. Daniel moved quicker now, almost running, and he made it to the edge of another clearing. Derek grimaced as Alicia hurried him along to meet up with Daniel who was now laying prone on the ground, scanning the terrain with his rifle.
Derek slowly laid down next to him and looked across the field. A few hundred yards away was a massive house. It looked to be at least two if not three stories tall. Various parts of the outer walls seemed to be built out of different materials. The first story was undoubtedly built out of normal lumber, but patches of what seemed to be plywood littered above. He counted four windows on the second story and three on the first, each one with the lights on.
About fifty yards to the left of the house was a large barn, looming ominously against the moonlight. It looked much the same as any other barn in any other rural community in the U.S. The large boards on the sides, turned gray by the passage of time, almost radiated the area around them as they reflected the light of the house. Derek didn't know how everything was going to play out, but he knew what the first step would be.
"We need to make it to that barn," Derek said.
"Do you think this is where they went?" Daniel asked, lowering his face from the rifle.
"What do you think?" Derek retorted, "You're the one that knows how to run people down through the woods in the middle of the night."
"True," Daniel said, "From what I could tell this is the way that they headed. But do you think it's the right house?"
"We've been out here for hours," Derek said, "And this is the first house we have seen. I would say it's a pretty safe bet. First things first, though, we need to make it to that barn."
"What if there's zombies in it?" Daniel asked.
"I'd guess we're pretty well safe," Derek replied, "Those fuckers probably killed most of 'em off from the looks of things. If not, we'll just have to take it as it comes."
Daniel nodded to him and turned back to the house, apparently planning some sort of route. Derek turned to Alicia and Kevin, putting his finger over his mouth as he waved them towards him. Kevin began to run headlong, but Alicia grabbed his arm and led him along slowly, keeping their heads low. When they made it to Derek, Alicia squatted down beside of him, her facial expression eerily serene.
"We're going to go check out that barn," Derek said as he pulled the .38 out of his pants and handed it to Alicia, "Take this. If any of those dead fucks or crazy hillbillies get anywhere near you, open up on their asses."
"But," Daniel added quickly as he gave Derek disapproving look, "Don't use it unless you have to, or we'll have to deal with both of them."
"What the fuck ever," Derek said, "We're going now, so you two stay low and keep your eyes and ears open."
With that Derek turned away from them and focused his attention back on the house. Leaves rustled as Alicia and Kevin moved into the bushes, trying to find better concealment.
"Stay close to the tree line," Derek said, "That's the only way I see us getting there without being seen. We'll crawl army style and fuck these bastards up."
"Sounds like a good plan to me," Daniel said as he began to crawl behind the trees to their left, "Let's go."
"Hold on," Derek said, pulling his stick up beside him, "I'm going first, we don't have time for you to fuck around and get us lost."
Daniel looked at him critically and raised his eyebrow, as if he had taken offense to this yet at the same time found it comical. Of course Derek didn't doubt Daniel's ability to find his way though the woods; he had already proven that by getting them as far as he had. In truth, Derek didn't want Daniel to be ahead of him in case something happened. With his bad ankle, he knew it wouldn't take Daniel long to get ahead of him. Derek had already seen several people torn apart by those creatures and he refused to watch Daniel face the same fate.
"You're stupid," Daniel said matter-of-factly, "We both know that I can move faster than you, and with that stick and your ankle you would be dead if some of those zombies came upon you, much less if some of those guys saw you and came outside. You stay behind me."
"Now you listen here you little..." Derek began, but before he could finish his sentence Daniel had already crawled several feet away from him.
"Dammit," Derek said under his breath as followed Daniel as best as he could. Daniel was moving fast, making it hard for Derek to keep up with him. Derek started to call out for him to slow down, but they had come too close to the house for them to risk it, so Derek moved as quickly as he could, holding the stick as he kicked off with his good foot and pulled with his elbows. The pain was excruciating. It seemed with every inch he moved, the sharper the pain shooting up his leg became.
Derek began to grunt heavily as they neared the barn. Sweat was rolling off his flushed face despite the cool night breeze. A few yards away from the barn, a sickening smell caught his nose. It smelled almost like the bitter-sweet smell of the rotting corpses on the trail, but something else overpowered his senses. It was the smell of gasoline, and looking over to his left, he saw another large pile of bodies, but this time they were all intact for the most part with the exception of their charred skin. As he pondered as to why they would burn the corpses of the already-dead zombies, a noise caught his attention.
He turned his head frantically from side to side while trying to maintain some sort of concealment. Once he was satisfied that there wasn't an immediate threat close to him, he glanced back up at Daniel. Daniel was motioning for him to keep his head low, then pointed off into the woods.
Derek turned his head, and what he saw made his heart jump. Through the dimly lit forest he could see a group of people moving slowly towards the house. At first there didn't seem to be too many of them, but the shuffling of feet and the snapping of twigs gave betrayed the fact that there were many more making their way behind the others. There was perhaps three hundred yards separating them from Derek and Daniel. Derek began to move, slowly now, towards Daniel once again, then he caught something out of the corner of his eye.
Looking back behind him he could see Alicia moving a near-crying Kevin along the tree line going at a right angle from where they had started, towards the right side of the house. Derek started to call to them, but he didn't want to risk alerting the undead to their position. Alicia had taken the initiative to get as far away from them as she possibly could, and if she got caught Derek figured that any fate she received was out of his hands now. Hopefully whatever predicament she would manage to get herself and Kevin into would be one that they could get out of themselves. Derek didn't see himself going to save them a second time, especially with a bad ankle.
Finally Derek had made it to the side of the barn. Even more carefully now he crawled around the side of it, casting a glance back at the oncoming horde. There didn't seem to be any of the quicker zombies in the throng, so they had for the most part meandered just a few dozen feet from where they had been when he spotted them. Sighing heavily, he entered the barn.
Daniel was posted up in the corner nearest the door, his .22 scanning the room. He had gotten there a good couple of minutes before Derek, and Derek was sure that he had already made sure the area was clear. Derek used the wall for leverage as he rose to his feet, leaning heavily on the stick.
"This is fucking bullshit," Derek said as he looked over a work bench near them for anything that might be useful.
"I just can't believe this is happening," Daniel said, sounding almost as if tears of frustration were about to pour from his eyes at any minute, "All I want is my sister. Why can't anything work out?"
"Because we're right in the middle of some pretty fucked up shit," Derek said, picking up a hatchet and a well-sized pipe wrench he had found. Placing the hatchet in his pants in place of the gun and awkwardly holding the pipe wrench in the same hand as the stick, he felt somewhat more prepared than he had been. He could also made out, just barely, an extension ladder on the opposite side of the wall.
"These fucks must be the ones that took Karen and killed Nick," Derek said.
"We don't know that," Daniel replied, "Look, do you think it might be better to tell them the zombies are here? We don't have hardly any ammo, and..."
"You've lost your damn mind," Derek said, "You tracked them here yourself. And even if they aren't the people we're after, I am pretty sure we're in the hollow the sheriff was talking about. We don't have much time, we have to act now."
"How?" Daniel said, visibly shaking now as the adrenaline level began to lower itself, "You think we can just bust in there with a few rounds and a wrench and kill them all?"
"Yes," Derek said as he smiled, "That's exactly what we're going to do. We're going in through the second story, though. Grab that ladder."
"You're... you're fucking insane!" Daniel said, "What if Livie isn't even in there? What if she got away and is already somewhere safe?"
"What if," Derek replied, "we're stuck out here with a bunch of crazy bastards looking to kill us and a small army of dead heads wanting to eat out our intestines?"
"At best we'll be trapped inside of that house with maybe a few guns," Daniel said, "And if worse comes to worse we'll all be dead!"
"Dammit," Derek said, limping over to the ladder, "Do you have any better ideas?"
Daniel stood there silently for a second, then looked down at the ground. Derek couldn't stand it when he did that; it was almost as if it was his defense mechanism. Whenever someone said something in any way confrontational, he would duck his head and just go silent.
Great. Why is he choosing now to spaz out on me?
"Well," Derek said as he leaned against the wall of the barn and grabbed the ladder in one hand, "I'm going. We don't have the time for this. When you're done crying like a baby you can come help, unless the zombies get to you first."
"Fuck you," Daniel said as walked down to the end of the ladder closest to the door and picked up on it. The commotion made by the paint cans falling off the other end made Derek a little irritated.
"Be a little more quiet, dumbass!" He scolded Daniel.
Daniel tried to jerk the ladder and run at first, but luckily he stopped himself before Derek dropped it. Once they got to the door, Daniel gave either side a quick glance and led the ladder and Derek towards the house.
Inside one of the windows on the first story Derek, for a split second, saw some of the worst living conditions he had ever seen. It was a small room, which had more than likely at one time been a bathroom judging from the black-stained toilet and the once-white tub. Now the tub and even the toilet seemed to serve as storage, while two small cots lined either side of the room. All manners of trash and garbage were littered around the floor.
Derek cursed silently as Daniel jerked the ladder from his grasp and walked it up until it was straight up into the air. Derek hobbled over to it and helped him lay it gently onto the side of the building, right next to one of the windows. Derek let the stick drop to the ground as Daniel began to climb when a voice startled him.
"Derek," Kevin said as he peered around the corner of the house with tears in his eyes, "More of those dead people are coming!"
"We saw them." Derek whispered to him, then it donned on him that him and Alicia were not in the safest place they could be. "What the fuck are you doing here? Where's Alicia?!"
"She's around the front of the house," the little boy said through his sobs, "watching the mean men get into their trucks." It took a second to register.
Trucks. They're leaving in trucks. Dammit.
"Was Karen with them?" Derek asked, lifting his sore ankle onto the second rung of the ladder to ease some of the weight on it.
"No, I don't think so," Kevin said.
"Alright," Derek said, relieved, "That's good. Go tell Alicia that you two need to find somewhere safe."
With that, Derek began the climb up the ladder. With Alicia and Kevin around, he didn't think it would be too long before they made their presence known and attracted the attention of either the zombies or the residents of the house. In his current condition, he knew he wouldn't be able to watch over them. As far as he was concerned, they would just have to fend for themselves.
Daniel was already halfway up the ladder, and the Derek grimaced in pain as he pulled himself up the ladder, his bad ankle occasionally grazing the side of the ladder the wrong way or him inadvertently putting too much pressure on it due to the splint. Derek was only a quarter of the way up the ladder when a shot, followed by the sound of breaking glass startled him.
When he looked up, he had to turn his head and swing to the side quickly to avoid the small pieces of glass as the fell to the ground below; luckily, most of them had more than likely been blown into the room. When he turned back, he watched as Daniel fired another shot just before grabbing one of the shutters and leaping inside.
"That stupid fuck!" Derek said as he raced up the ladder, trying his best to block out the pain as he heard more shots.
Now that the window no longer stood between the room and the night air, the screams of both men and women could be heard. It took him a little under a minute to reach the window, and once the tears had cleared from his eyes he peered into the room.
A nude woman was huddled up in the floor next to a man, blood flowing out onto the floor; her piercing cries drowning out everything else in the room. Derek realized it was Karen, and his face began flushed with anger when he realized what had probably happened to her. Derek threw the pipe wrench into the window and grasped both sides of it as he pulled himself inside, looking frantically for Livie. His heart sank when he saw her; her restraints being cut away by Daniel. Apparently he had picked a knife from one of the three dead men laying in the floor. Derek let out a sigh of relief when he noted that she was still fully clothed.
Derek leaned up against the wall once he had gotten inside, glancing over it with his eyes. In the corner he saw a shotgun; an old-style single shot. There was also a long-barreled revolver on one of the couches side tables. Had the situation not been so dire, he probably would have laughed when he noticed that it was probably an exact replica of the gun Clint Eastwood made famous.
The sound of the ladder banging against the wall caught his ear. Quickly, he pulled the hatchet from his belt and pressed his body against the wall as hard as he could. Derek raised the hatchet above his head, ready to strike. Had Kevin not turned his face up towards Derek when he entered, Derek would have probably chopped his head off.
"Kevin! What..." Derek started when the wall splintered in front of his face, a loud shot booming through the room. He grabbed Kevin by the collar of the shirt as he fell backwards. Alicia's shriek could be heard outside the window as Derek and Kevin hit the floor. The two of them fell behind a couch, and another scream caused Derek to raise the hatchet, pushing Kevin off of him as he did so.
The scrawny woman, probably naked herself under the tattered afghan cover she had over her, cried heavily as Derek looked at her. She was sick maybe, judging from her weight and the paleness of her face, but Derek had to take the opportunity to gawk for a second at her exposed leg and upper thigh as the woman tried to wriggle away from him.
"Fuck!" Derek yelled as he pulled Kevin over to his left side, careful to keep him far enough away from the screaming woman so he could defend him from her if need be. Briefly, he poked his head out from behind the couch and looked towards the door. A man with a rather nasty looking mullet was standing in the door, brandishing what Derek surmised from the sound of the shot as a .45. Livie had ducked into the corner as Daniel stood in front of her, ready to defend her to the death. Derek could only guess he was out of bullets. In the split second before he lowered his head Chuck, who was bloodied and battered, pressed up against the wall next to the door holding a small lamp above his head.
Two more shots found their way into the wall next to Derek, one piercing through the couch. As soon as he heard the crash of glass, he stood as best as he could on one leg and hurled the hatchet at the man. Another sharp pain shot up his leg and he buckled to the floor, landing in plain sight of the attacker. With the look of a deer in the headlights, Derek looked up. The man was cursing quietly, his gun falling to the floor. The hatchet had found it's mark in his abdomen.
Derek felt incredibly stupid when he remembered the revolver on the side table. Before the man had time to react, he snatched it up and fired blindly into the doorway. While he didn't know if there was a safety on the revolver or not, the gun exploded, threatening to rupture his eardrums. Once the kick of the gun had subsided and he was able to bring it down once again, he fired another shot, but it blasted through the wall as the man slumped down against the wall. Blood oozed from a gunshot wound to his chest.
"I knew you would come!" Livie said as she bolted from her spot on the ground and wrapped her arms tightly around Daniel. Derek smiled, then looked back over to the woman. Her face was a dark shade of red. At first, Derek thought that she was embarrassed, but that idea soon lapsed.
"You bastard!" she said, gritting her teeth, "You mother fucking bastard! You killed them!"
Derek was puzzled. As far as he was concerned, he and Daniel had just saved her life. However, as the adrenaline pumped through his veins to fight off the exhaustion, he lashed out at her.
"Listen here you stupid bitch," he said as he pointed the gun at her, "I've had about enough shit for the night, and don't think I won't blast your fucking brains out here and now if you try to start some more shit!"
Chuck moved towards him, more than likely in hopes of getting Derek to lower his weapon, but a voice from the window caught his ear.
"Derek, no!" Alicia screamed as she fell through the window. With a speed Derek didn't know she possessed, she jumped to her feet and ran beside him and grabbed his arm. Tears streamed from her eyes as she looked down on the woman.
"Mom?" she said though her sobs. Footsteps pounded up stairs somewhere through the house as the moans of the undead began to rise in the night air.