THE VALUE OF JADE (Mace of the Apocalypse #2) Read online

  “Thank you. I agree.” She turned to Shawn. “So, why are you going? I don’t see you with a ball and chain wrapped around your ankle.”

  Shawn chuckled again. “This group has become my family. I never would have dreamed of traveling that far myself, but we know there is a community set up and waiting for us. Besides, I got nowhere else to go.” His faced slowly grew slack as he reflected on his life. The car grew silent as Yvette and Jim waited for him to continue. Shawn said quietly, “I had a wife and two kids. I raised those kids to stay away from drugs and gangs. Even though we were in the projects they had a bright future.” Shaking his head, he added, “I got nobody anymore.” Realizing the mood he had cast in the car, he tried to lighten it up. He forced a smile. “You think them Kansas farm girls are ready for a brother?”

  Yvette laughed sympathetically. “Where have you been? This is the 21st Century, you know.” She winked and added, “Plus, the dating pool isn’t what it used to be.”

  “This doesn’t look good,” Mace said out loud as they pulled up to a large pileup on the freeway. They’d only traveled about thirty miles on an abandoned yet vehicle-littered Hwy 101. Slowly snaking through wreckage had taken over two hours. “That metal looks like it’s fused together. A gas tank must have set it off.”

  He opened the car door and looked back at Jade before exiting. “We’ll never get around it. We’re going to have to double back.” It looked like a large firestorm had swept through the twenty or so cars that were now melded together.

  Mace scanned the area quickly as he walked up to the trailing Ford 4 x 4 that Shawn was pulling to a stop. Shawn rolled down the window, nodding already in agreement. Jim, who had initially been part of the teenage gang they had destroyed before switching sides, sat in the passenger seat. Yvette, Jim’s girlfriend, sat in the middle. Mace could hear Yvette sigh at the sight of the wreckage.

  “We’re going to have to turn back. There’s no way around it.”

  “That last exit was less than a quarter mile. It shouldn’t cost us too much time. I just hate getting back on city streets.”

  “I know. Let’s just take it slow and try not to create much of a presence.”

  Mace turned towards the other vehicles in the caravan and whirled his finger, signaling a turn around, and they all started making three-point turns. Paul Turchett, the last trailing vehicle, stopped their progress. He jumped out of his car and walked quickly towards Mace’s vehicle, aggravation showing as Mace, who hadn’t seen him, climbed back in the SUV. “You sure we can’t get through this shit?” he said, moving past him to look closer at the wreckage. “What a damn waste of time to have to turn back.”

  Mace rolled down the window and stared in disbelief.

  Paul walked up to the burned out husk of melted rubble and started pushing on it to check for weaknesses. Everyone turned off their vehicles and watched. Nothing budged in the rubble. It was a solid mass of twisted metal. He walked around the perimeter, looking closely at the wreckage, and then disappeared out of view.

  A second later he returned, walking briskly, a pasty white. “Let’s go,” he said to Mace, who was now exiting his car again. “We won’t get past it.” As he walked by Mace, Mace called out to him. “What did you see?”

  “Nothing. It just won’t work,” he said out of the side of his mouth as he trotted back to his car.

  Mace, curious, poked his head around the wreckage in the direction Paul had disappeared. “Holy shit.”

  Slowly dragging half its body towards them from the direction Paul had come was a severely charred corpse, cut off at the waist with pieces of burnt clothing stuck to its skin. Blistered entrails slithered behind like dried strands of Italian noodles. It stopped when it saw him and hissed, its hairless head and face grotesquely burnt, mouth withered, toothless and open.

  Mace felt pity. He popped open the trunk of the SUV and pulled out a tire iron. It reached for him slowly as he moved towards it, its skin black, cracking, and splitting open from the effort. A quick bash and the skull caved like mush. It was over. He couldn’t just leave it that way.

  He turned to walk back to the car and heard a shuffling sound that made his skin crawl. It wasn’t the only one. Pivoting around quickly, he felt his heart drop as several more came squeezing out from under the wreckage, crawling slowly towards him, suffering the same horrible disfigurement. He put his head down for a second before bringing the tire iron back up. He couldn’t understand how they could all be severed at the waist.

  They must have all turned before the inferno, he thought, and then got caught in the same condensed location in the middle of the firestorm. The only way out was to squeeze underneath the molten wreckage, tearing themselves apart in the process.

  He really didn’t want to know. Every one of them was a victim, just the same.

  They slowly slithered around him, surrounding him, reaching up for him, expressions of rage and agony etched across their charred faces. Four quick bashes put an end to the ugliness. Inside his head he prayed for strength. The world had gone batshit crazy.

  He got back in the SUV and Jade had an opened mouth look that needed no explanation.

  “Let’s not talk about that one,” he said.

  Chelsea, who had been sheltered by Lisa of the whole experience in the back seat, quipped, “You know, you need to quit leaving when everybody else is stuck in here. It makes me have to pee more. I’ve got a little bladder you know.” Lisa shut her eyes and smiled tightly, forcing herself not to weep at her daughter’s beautiful innocence. It was the hope for a better place that kept her moving on.

  “Sorry Chelsea,” Mace said, looking at her in the rear view mirror. “I thought we had talked about you being a big girl. We can’t always just stop for you.”

  “I AM a big girl!" Chelsea declared. “I’m just stuck in a little girl’s body.”

  Mace couldn’t help but chuckle at that one.

  Once off the freeway and back on city streets they moved slowly and quietly, not wanting to draw any attention to themselves. There was a pall to the air as the lifeless surroundings crept like dark shadows into their hearts. Life seemed barren, and hopelessness was a battle that had to be overcome.

  Dwelling on the past was too painful. The present was an abomination they couldn’t accept. The future held all the cards, and they were all in on the bet. It was all or nothing: Win or lose. No one planned on folding.

  Mace rolled to a stop when he saw an infected barrel across the street a hundred yards ahead, destination unknown. Most of the infected had become much slower, as the intense effects of the initial infection wore down and their brains and bodies succumbed to the death within. By the speed of the crossing it was obvious there were fresh victims about.

  Mace lifted the Walkie Talkie next to him and said quietly, “Keep your eyes out.”

  He moved forward slowly, inching the SUV, not wanting to draw any attention. Another infected ran wildly across the street, closer this time, and Mace stopped completely. “Shit.”

  It didn’t take long for the pattern to continue. Within two minutes seven more infected darted around the street, shrieking in madness, oblivious to their presence. The last one was so close they could see the twisted facial features and blood red eyes. The clothes and overall condition suggested it had very recently turned.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling,” Mace whispered, unmoving. “We’ve stumbled across something that’s happening right now.”

  The street housed a large condo complex on the right, and a mass of infected began intermittently charging out from between different entry ways, until at least thirty had blown by them in a fresh rage, shrieking loudly as they searched for something to destroy.

  “Don’t move. Don’t even breathe,” Mace whispered mechanically. The last infected exploded by their car, a long and tortured scream blowing by them and trailing behind until it grew quiet. The street was still. The seconds seem to stretch into hours. No one made a sound.

  As Mace was ab
out to inch the SUV forward once again, slower moving zombies began staggering out into the street ahead of them. Few in numbers at first, they kept coming. Appearing from between townhomes all around them, they staggered towards them in different stages of decay. They filled the street and moved as a solid mass, their eyes trained on the ground, avoiding the light as much as possible.

  Lisa pulled Chelsea hard to her breast as they moved closer, her heart pounding in Chelsea’s little ear as she whispered, “Stay very, very, very quiet.” Buster whimpered in the back of the SUV, gnawing on a paw with fervor, and Lisa slowly moved a hand to gently rub his head and try to keep him calm. If he got excited it could lead to death for all of them.

  The infected bumped into their car, surrounding them, brushing by them on all sides. Hungry to spread death, they slowly shambled past, utterly grotesque in appearance, not noticing them, eyes still downturned.

  Hundreds had now followed behind them and they kept coming, the street and air filled with their dreadful noises.

  Every member of every car was petrified with fear.

  Shawn held his gun tight against his leg, cocked, praying that he wouldn’t have to use it as they began brushing up against his truck. His breath was so shallow his chest barely moved. He stared straight at the steering wheel, eyes barely open: Just enough to see movement. Yvette pressed her face down against Jim’s chest, breathing fast and shallow, eyes wide open and ears tuned intently for any sound. Jim stared straight ahead, eyes unmoving, beads of sweat dripping down his face.

  The horde moved past their vehicle, surrounding Hannah’s car, where she and Jacqueline were laying down across the front seat, holding each other, crippled by fear. They passed by the next three vehicles, moaning in horror, raging within at the nightmare of their existence. When the mass had finally reached the last vehicle, the Turchett’s, the entire street was overflowing with the undead.

  “Stay the fuck down and don’t move!” Paul whispered loudly, as they all squirmed down in their seats to hide.

  “Oh God!” cried Melissa too loudly as a decomposing face pressed hard against the back seat window, dead eyes locking onto hers. It had an open cavity where its nose had been, and the top of its head had been scalped off. Dried blood caked its entire face. It opened its mouth and rancid teeth showed bits of flesh and stringy remnants of its last meal. It pulled weakly at the door handle as it shrieked noiselessly, its throat ripped open and visible, and it continued to fix on Melissa.

  “It’s going to get me!” Melissa yelled in a panic, pushing herself against the opposite door, trying to turn and hide against the backseat floor.

  “Shut the fuck up and don’t move,” Paul whispered harshly from the front seat, head pressed against the steering wheel with eyes firmly closed. “Don’t say another fucking word!”

  Another infected noticed the commotion and moved slowly towards the car. Its face clumsily slammed against the driver’s side passenger window, red eyes darting slowly around in search of life inside, its face smearing across the glass. Noreen whimpered in fear, keeping her eyes shut tight, as more moved towards their car, drawn by the movement of the others, and the ones behind did the same in turn.

  When Melissa looked up again she let out a blood curdling scream as a wall of dead faces now glared at her from every window, their faces twisting at the full realization of what was inside. Pushing or pulling against the car, the car starting rocking slowly back and forth. “Oh My God! They’re going to get us!” The moans grew in volume as they struggled violently to get inside.

  Melissa began twisting around, staring at the madness and frenzy in their faces, their eyes now bulging in sick longing, and Paul and Noreen began screaming themselves at the horror of their predicament.

  The last of the slow infected had just moved past Mace’s car when the screaming reached its highest point. He turned quickly to Jade, making as little movement as possible. “You’re going to have to take over as driver. I’m going to distract them. Wait here. I’ll be back.”

  “What are you going to do?" Jade whispered quietly.

  “Take a few out, get them to follow me, and then plant the boom box.”

  They had thought of a few diversionary tactics before they had left on their journey. They had found an old boom box in an abandoned house and during a discussion, it was suggested that music might work as a distraction if they ever needed one. The boom box was fully charged with batteries, loaded with a CD and ready to go. It was time to find out if it would work.

  Jade bit her lip as she pondered the plan, but before she could respond Mace had already picked up the Walkie Talkie on the console between them and whispered, “I’m going to create a distraction. Everyone stay silent and still.”

  Each car was equipped with a police-grade Walkie Talkie, all on the same frequency.

  He closed his eyes and said a quick prayer of affirmation before slipping out the door and shutting it as quietly as possible. He winked at Jade through the window and she fell breathless for a second. A moment later the back of the SUV opened a foot, and Mace’s hand reached inside and grabbed the boom box, closing it quietly a second later.

  He walked swiftly away from the vehicle, saying softly to himself, “You are my strength. Your power grows within me.” Father McCann had been his moral center and he struggled with his loss. After his death Mace spent more time in prayer, not wanting to lose himself in his old patterns of anger or bitterness. Father McCann’s words on prayer still resonated deeply. “You are an heir to the Kingdom, Mace.” he had said. “Your life is a gift. Claim it, be yourself, and live without fear.”

  Moving closer to the condos, Mace raised his weapon, pointing it at the back of the head of one of the trailing zombies. He fired and the shot crackled throughout the neighborhood. The creature dropped. The others began turning in unison at the noise.

  “Over here, you freaks!” he said evenly but loudly. He waved the pistol in his right hand over his head. “C’mon, let’s get a move on!” The handle to the boom box was clutched firmly in his left.

  He felt his heartbeat increase as the swarm began moving slowly towards him, their shrieks and moans filling the air. He backed up slowly as an infected appeared behind him from in-between one of the townhomes, followed closely by another. They were less than twenty feet away. He didn’t notice them. Jade moved into high gear at the sight.

  “You’re gonna have to get in the driver’s seat, Lisa. He can’t do this alone,” she said without taking her eyes of the threat. Without waiting for an answer she was out the door, lifting her handgun at the two creeping up behind Mace. Two loud pops and they were down. He turned to look behind him at the dropped threat and then gave an uneasy smile at Jade.

  “Thanks, baby.”

  He fired a shot into the forehead of one of the approaching infected, and it whipped back into the trailing horde. They clumsily maneuvered around it as it crumpled to the ground and then sped up a little, propelled by their sick desire for living flesh.

  “Watch my back,” he said as he continued to move backwards swiftly. Jade pulled up next to him, almost leaning against him, checking all sides. “This is completely crazy, you know that? Totally friggin’ insane.”

  Mace kept his eyes trained on the approaching infected. “It’s all or nothing, right? We either all get through this or we all die trying. I thought that was the decision.”

  “We’ve got a baby on the way and I’m not ready to surrender our lives so easily. This seems suicidal. Let’s just draw them away and be done with this.” The slow infected never tired or slowed down once they had a fix on fresh victims.

  They maneuvered between the narrow condo walkways, with Jade watching their rear while Mace kept an eye on the hundreds of approaching walking dead. Their mouths remained open and grimaced as their whole beings filled with blood-lust, eyes bulging, fixed and intense.

  “If we see any fresh ones we’re fucked,” Jade said, nervously, scanning their surroundings as they walked along
a fence line dividing two properties.

  “Way to think positive,” Mace said as he kept his eyes peeled on the approaching threat. “Let’s speed up a little, plant the boom box, and double back.”

  All of a sudden a blur appeared from the corner of an entryway behind them and Jade raised her weapon swiftly.

  “Don’t shoot!” a man screamed, holding his hands over his head, trying to stop and dropping to a knee, placing one hand on the ground for balance while keeping the other up in surrender. He looked at the multitude of advancing freaks and his mouth dropped.

  “Holy Shit,” he said in shock.

  Mace shot a quick glance at him and then turned his attention back to the threat. “You should come with us,” he said, looking straight ahead, his gun arm straight and balanced. “We’ve got a caravan waiting. We’re creating a diversion.”

  The guy started backing up. “No way,” he said shakily. “I have to find my girl. We stumbled on a nest by accident. We got separated.” Mace pictured the fresh victims tearing by.

  “How many of you were there?” he said loudly over the moaning horde.

  “Forty four. We were looking for provisions. They surprised us at the rec center. They were all crammed inside. We opened the door and they just spilled out.”

  They could hear a prolonged shriek from the rear of the cluster. Jade’s head pivoted towards the sound. “That one sounds fresh,” she said, alarmed. “We gotta move!”

  She turned back and the man was gone. “Shit.”

  Mace pointed towards the next street up ahead. It was lined with single story homes, most with porches, and six or seven infected moving clumsily in their direction. “Let’s plant this thing on one of the roofs and get the hell out of here.”

  Back at the caravan, over twenty slow infected still manically tried to get inside the Turchett’s car, banging on the windows and moaning in defiant rage. Melissa whimpered incessantly, her voice drained and unable to bring forth any more screams: Her face a collage of tears and snot. The rest of the infected had all followed Mace and Jade back through the condo complex.