Out Of The Fire Read online

  He came out of the game trail a little faster than he’d hoped and slid across the gravel, the chopper passing overhead once more. At least, he wondered if it was the same chopper. It was impossible to tell for sure at night. Hatcher spun the rear end of the ATV around and accelerated hard up the road, determined to close the distance between himself and his friends.

  “Wait up!” Candy yelled above the growl of the engine. “He keeps slipping.”

  “What’s his major malfunction?” Mitch snapped as he slid his ATV to a halt next to hers. “I’m about ready to leave his ass.”

  Candy shot him a dirty look. “Oh, I dunno. Maybe the fact I doped him up so we could set his arm?” she shot back in a snarky tone. “Ease up, will ya?”

  “We ain’t got all night.” Mitch revved the engine to his ride. “These things be crawling all over the place,” he said as his eyes scanned the surrounding woods.

  “Well, if they come, they come, but I need to make sure he’s secure.” She twisted open a water bottle and splashed water on Fisher’s face, snapping him back awake.

  “Wazzat?” he started. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I’m just so sleepy.”

  “I know,” she soothed. “It’s that shot I gave you.” She slapped at his face gently to wake him. “But I need you to stay with me.”

  Dwayne nodded. “I’m trying,” he said softly. “It’s just so hard…” His head nodded.

  Mitch unstraddled his ATV and muttered, “This is for your own good.” He walked up beside Fisher and slapped him silly. Fisher’s eyes bolted open. “You awake now?”

  “Yeah. I’m awake.”

  “Good. Stay that way!” Mitch stepped back to the ATV and hopped on it, the springs groaning with his weight. “Don’t be babying him. He’s a grown-assed man.”

  Candy’s eyes narrowed on him as she got back on the ATV. “Just hang on,” she called over her shoulder.

  “That’s what I’m trying to do,” Fisher called back, the pain in his arm throbbing and keeping him more alert.

  Mitch rolled out, and Candy fell in behind him. They continued on their path and their headlights soon fell on a Y in the road. Candy rolled up beside Mitch as he slowed down. “Which way do we go?”

  Mitch sighed as he shook his head. “I’m not sure,” he said. “I’m thinking that, if we go right, it will take us up and over by the overflow where they sent all the cars to park for the concert. They had these shuttles bringing people back and forth from there.” He saw her giving him a confused look and he smiled. “These big-assed golf carts. Holds about ten people.” He pointed left. “But I think if we go that way, it will take us down through the campgrounds.”

  “So, which do we take? Do we check out the campers and see if any of them need help, or do we go with the parked cars and hope that maybe the road is empty?”

  Mitch shrugged. “I think the campground way is probably a bit shorter, but if anybody down there is hyped up crazy, we could be looking at a very short trip.”

  “Well, we could…,” Candy trailed off. “Somebody’s coming,” she said, pointing up the road.

  Mitch had his sidearm drawn and pointed up the road before she finished speaking. Candy rolled her ATV to the side to illuminate the road. “They’re waving their arms.”

  “Could still be messed up.” Mitch took a bead with his front sight on the lead figure. They waited until the figures got closer and began slowing down. They were shuffling forward, feet dragging, still trying to wave their arms.

  “Mitch, they look like kids,” Candy said as she started to get off her ATV.

  “Don’t let them get close,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “If they’re infected, your goose is cooked.”

  “Help us,” a weak voice called out, just before collapsing on the road in front of them.

  “Show me your eyes!” Mitch yelled.

  The girl on the ground could barely lift her head, but she raised her arm, her finger pointing up. “Did she just flip me off?” Mitch asked, disbelievingly.

  “I think that was a ‘wait a minute’ sign,” Candy said, a caustic smirk crossing her face.

  The second figure staggered up behind her and stepped into the light. “They’re not far behind us,” he croaked through dry lips. “Help, please,” he said as he staggered forward, his lanky limbs barely able to carry him any farther.

  “Let me see your eyes!” Mitch reiterated.

  The boy fell to the ground in front of them and stared into the light. “We’re not zombies,” he croaked, his throat dry. “But they’re right behind us.”

  “Zombies?” Mitch said. “They be crazy sons of bitches, but I dunno if I be calling them zombies,” he whispered to Candy, who was already jogging to the two small kids.

  “Come on.” She trotted over to lift the kids to their feet. “If they’re right behind you, we need to get you out of here.”

  “Where the hell we going to put them?”

  “You have a rack in the front and room on the seat,” Candy said as she helped the two kids back to the ATVs.

  “Oh, hell no. This thing barely carries me.”

  “Fine. Then you take Fisher and I’ll take the kids.” She shot him an evil stare.

  Mitch glanced at Fisher who was sleeping sitting up again. “Aww…fine. Give ’em to me.”

  “Be nice,” Candy whispered. “They’re kids, and they’re obviously exhausted.”

  She helped Buck onto the front rack. “Can you hold on to this?”

  “Ma’am, if it means not having to run anymore, I’ll hold on to anything.” He gave her a tired smile.

  “Great.” Candy winked at him. She got Skeeter on the back and placed her hands on the rear rack. “Just hold on here.” Skeeter nodded and gripped the rack with white knuckles.

  “Can we go now?” Mitch asked sarcastically.

  “Oh, I thought we’d wait ’til the zombies got here and introduce you to them,” she said as she straddled her ATV again and elbowed Fisher in the ribs, waking him again.

  “Everyone’s a comedian,” Mitch fired back as they pulled forward.

  He thought driving the ATV was a pain in the neck before, but the added weight over the front end made steering it almost as big a pain in the ass as driving his previous ATV with the bent rims. The steering was dead and non-responsive, and the added weight made taking corners quickly a thing of the past.

  The two took off as quickly as they could, Buck informing them that turning right would be a big mistake.

  Left it was then.

  Mitch gunned the ATV during the straightaways and had to slow considerably for curves and corners, but it beat the hell out of walking. As they crested a small hill, Buck pointed off in the distance,

  “More lights!” he shouted above the engine.

  “How many?” Candy asked.

  “Just one,” Mitch said. “Looks like another ATV.”

  Candy slowed a bit and looked at Mitch. “You think it may be another ranger?”

  Mitch shrugged. “Most likely if it’s out here.”

  The pair accelerated again and tried to meet up with the oncoming light. Mitch wasn’t surprised to find Hatcher’s ugly mug show up in his headlight.

  “Looks like you picked up a few strays,” Hatcher noted as he pulled alongside Mitch, his relief obvious that the pair were unharmed.

  “More than a couple,” Mitch said. He poked Buck with his finger. “You. Off. Go ride with him.”

  Buck shot him a dirty look, but slid off the front rack of the four-wheeler, a longing look cast over his shoulder at Skeeter before he slipped onto the back of the other ATV.

  “I see you found Fish.” Hatcher nodded toward the man who was now leaning against Candy, a line of drool working its way down her shoulder. “Is he bit?”

  “Are you kidding?” Mitch chuckled. “If he was, I’d have already put a bullet in him. No, this redheaded, freckle-faced freak just got his arm broke by Miss Big Ti…er…I mean, um.” He glanced at Candy, then back at H
atcher. “He got his arm broke by one of the crazy people,” Mitch said smiling. “Nasty woman with no clothes on.”

  Buck spun his attention around when Mitch said that. “Hey, did she have blonde-colored hair? Green eyes?”

  Mitch stared at the kid a moment like he was crazy. “Kid, she had red eyes, just like all the other crazy muthas out here tonight.”

  Buck felt like slapping himself in the forehead for that one. Of course she did. “I mean, did she have blonde hair? Thong underwear on?”

  “Kid, she was naked as the day she was born,” Mitch shot back. “And don’t you be getting no ideas, neither.”

  Buck shot him a hateful look and pointed at him, “What color was her hair, dammit?”

  Mitch leaned back at the outburst and gave Buck a surprised look. “I couldn’t really tell ya, kid. It was all dirty, leaves and twigs and shit in it.” He started to chew the kid out for the attitude until he saw the range of emotions crossing his features. “She mean something to you?”

  Buck’s shoulders slumped as he stared off into nothingness. He gave a slight shake of his head, realizing that even if he could find her, there was little to nothing that could probably be done for her.

  Skeeter watched the exchange from behind Mitch and leaned forward, whispering beside him, “That’s his mom.”

  Mitch turned to her. “You sure about that? There’s a lot of women out in these woods tonight that are acting all crazy.”

  Skeeter nodded in his shadow. “If she was nude and had large breasts and blonde hair, then yeah. That’s the description of the woman we’ve been searching for all night.”

  Mitch nodded slightly. “If I’d had my way, I’d have put her down earlier. She killed at least one of my men,” he replied quietly. “I feel for the kid, but that crazy lady is bad news.”

  Candy turned toward Hatcher. “Were you able to reach any of the other rangers? Maybe the sheriff’s office?”

  Hatcher sighed and shook his head. “Yeah, uh, about that,” he said slowly.

  “Oh, I do not like that sound of that,” Mitch groaned. “Please don’t tell me we’re on our own out here.”

  “No, we are definitely not on our own out here,” Hatcher informed him. “Worse.”

  Mitch gave Hatcher a dirty look. “What do you mean, ‘worse’? How can we be worse off than being on our own?”

  Hatcher inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. Then he told them the tale of Yellowstone’s military invasion.

  “What Army mans?” Bill asked as the trio hit the paved road and he turned toward the main highway. “Did you see something in the woods that looked like an Army man?”

  Jake shook his head. “No,” came his simple reply.

  “Then why would you say something like that?” Bill asked, at ease now, but trying to make conversation and get the boy’s mind off his catatonic grandfather in the backseat.

  “Because they’re at the park now.” Jason stared out the window absently.

  “Oh, they are?” Bill smiled and patted the kid’s shoulder. “And what are the Army mans doing at the park, son?”

  Jason fiddled with something in his lap and shook his head. “They’re going to kill all the zombie mans.”

  Bill’s foot came up reflexively from the gas pedal and he turned to stare at him. “What did you say?” His mind not sure that it registered correctly.

  “The Army mans are there to kill the zombie mans,” Jason repeated. “They’ll probably kill the other people, too.”

  “How can you know something like that?” Bill asked. “You couldn’t know something like that,” he stated as he turned his eyes back to the road and hit the gas again.

  Richard leaned up from the rear seat. “We might want to avoid all of the roads that have park entrances, Bill.”

  “He can’t know that,” Bill repeated, staring at Richard through the rearview mirror. “Can he?”

  Richard sighed and shook his head. “Jason is…special,” he answered. “Sometimes he’ll say something out of the blue that makes no sense, then a day or so later, things come to pass, and you realize, what he says did make sense.”

  “Like what?” The hair on the back of his neck standing up at the idea.

  “I dunno, Bill. Just…things,” Richard said as he flopped back into the seat.

  “Like what?” Bill asked again.

  “Like, one time he said something about a train going boom. Then the next day, the Santa Fe derailed. Big chemical spill. Had to evacuate a town.”

  “Okay, well, that’s just coincidence,” Bill said, swallowing the lump in his throat.

  “There have been others,” Richard said, sighing and staring out the window.

  “Like what?” Bill asked again.

  “Like I can’t think right now, okay?” Richard spat. “My mind is in other places.” Bill shot him a quick glance at the sudden outburst, then turned back to the road. “Just avoid the park if Jason says we need to. Trust me on this one.”

  Bill felt a sudden chill and turned the heater up a little. He glanced down at the little boy sitting next to him and couldn’t figure out what it was about the kid that suddenly gave him the heebie-jeebies, but he felt like somebody had just walked across his grave.

  “Anything else we should know about?” He faked a smile.

  “Just watch the road,” Jake said as he pulled his seatbelt on and made sure it was tight.

  Bill noted the action and pulled his own seatbelt on. He glanced up in the rearview and nodded to Richard. “Put your seatbelt on.” Richard nodded slowly and went through the motions. Bill continued to watch the road for the next couple of miles, but Jason’s warning kept replaying in his mind. He leaned toward the boy and whispered, “That was sort of vague, don’t you think? Care to share a few details?”

  “What’s ‘vague’ mean?” Jake asked, big blue eyes boring into him.

  “It means you didn’t give me much to go on. I could use a little more meat on the bone, son. Give me something with a bit more detail to it. Give me specifics,” Bill urged. “Like what exactly am I supposed to be on the lookout for?”

  Jason nodded at him. “Zombies.”

  Bill turned a glance to the kid who was still fiddling with something in his hands. “Zombies?”

  He turned his attention back to the road just as the headlights shone on two figures running toward them in the road. Bill cut the wheel hard to the right while trying to slam on the brakes. The car hit one of them nearly head on and the Jeep slid around, hitting the other running figure with the rear door before sliding into the ditch and rolling the little SUV onto the driver’s side.

  The Jeep slid into the ditch, burying its nose into the soft soil and driving the side of the vehicle into the berm of dirt that made the downhill side of the ditch. Once the vehicle stopped moving, Jason looked out the windshield and saw dirt and grass on Bill’s side and stars on his side. Something wasn’t right, and he wished that grownups would learn to listen, instead of questioning everything.

  Bill sat in the muted glow of one headlight shining into the ditch and tried to lift himself up from the driver’s door of the Jeep. He could hear Richard muttering curses softly in the backseat of the Jeep as he unbuckled and fell against his own door. Bill unbuckled his seatbelt and began to open the front roof panels for the second time tonight. As soon as he loosened them, he crawled out into the unwelcomed scent of freshly plowed earth and cut grass.

  “Jason, undo your seatbelt,” he whispered back inside.

  “We should wait here while one person goes to get my car,” Richard said from inside the Jeep.

  “What? Why?”

  “All three of us out on the road?” Richard glared at him. “With a kid? We’d be fodder for those things.”

  “And sitting here in a wrecked Jeep wouldn’t be? Do you really think they’d stay out for long? They’d break out a window and make pretty quick work of whoever was inside.”

  Richard stared at the windows and then looked at Jason who
simply nodded and began crawling out the open roof. He paused and turned back, “Come on, grandpa. We’ll make it,” he whispered.

  Richard nodded and began crawling over the center console to the forward sunroof. “We’d better hurry. It will be sunrise soon, and then we won’t be able to hide anywhere.”

  As if in answer to his statement, one of the figures struck by the Jeep began dragging its twisted body toward them, growling and clacking its teeth. Bill went to the rear of the Jeep and pulled open the twisted rear door. He pulled out the tire tool and met the crawling ghoul as it dragged itself across the road.

  “I’ve had about enough of your kind,” he muttered as he brought the tool down on its head.

  Major Chappell stood by while the people in the white space suits ran their tests and hurriedly moved about the tent. She looked about the busy makeshift lab, but couldn’t discern one person from another. She grabbed the closest of the white-suited people she could find.

  “Excuse me. I’m looking for a Captain Andrews?”

  The white-suited person stared at her a moment as if studying her, then pointed to the other end of the tent. She nodded and marched off. Maggie Chappell had never been one to display fear, and she wasn’t about to start now, but as she walked through the different counters filled with scientific equipment, half-filled beakers of unknown fluids, slides and reagents, she stifled a shudder. Who knew what was growing in those beakers?

  “Captain Andrews?” She approached another white-suited figure.

  The figure turned and gawked at her, then hurriedly grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the tent. “Major!” His voice sounded muffled coming from out of the helmet’s speaker. “You shouldn’t be in there without a HAZMAT suit. You have no idea the things we’re working on in there,” he warned.

  “That’s why I’m here, Captain,” she said authoritatively. “Colonel Vickers would like an update.”