The Dead Years (Volume 1) Read online

  Mason suddenly realized these things seemed to go down for good if he smashed their heads severely enough. That was the only sign of hope he needed. Instead of battering them in the chest, arms or shoulders, Mason began to narrow his aim on their heads. He also picked up the force with which he swung his new found weapon.

  He was nearly within arm’s reach of his friend when the shouting for help turned to screams of agony. They had gotten ahold of Tom and there was nothing he could do at this point. He cursed at them, although they didn’t even look up.

  He was too late.

  From where Mason stood, he could see them tearing the skin from his abdomen and upper thigh. Tom continued to fight as they tore at him. He punched and kicked them, although he had no chance as these things appeared unfazed by any of the blows he landed.

  They shoved their faces down pulling back scraps of flesh and began devouring Tom. There were only two left, although the damage was apparent. They dug into his belly and shoved the bloody mess into their mouths. The heartbreaking screams began to taper off until they were fully muted as in their last act of violence they began tearing and biting at his face and neck.

  His eyes remained open, although Tom was now gone.

  Mason struggle to understand how it happened so quickly and why he didn’t react fast enough to beat these things off his friend.

  As the two began to struggle over what remained of Tom’s body, Mason raised the kettlebell and swung it down on top of one of them with so much force it instantly went limp. Its skull was split into two jagged pieces and a thick river of blood ran past Mason’s shoe as hundreds of bone fragments littered the area.

  Pieces also ricocheted off the one still hunched over Tom’s lifeless body. It looked over to see what it was just as Mason swung from the side. This one fell back and to the side as its head became dislodged from its body.

  Mason thought it was odd that this thing, from the shoulders down appeared to be a slightly disheveled businessman dressed to impress. The only indicator that something wasn’t quite right here was that its head lay fifteen feet behind it.

  With the brain stem still attached and the obvious trauma that grotesquely marked its face, it looked more like a science experiment gone wrong than something that was once human.

  Mason knelt at the passenger door of his car weeping for what seemed an eternity. Bruised and bloody, he knew what he had just witnessed would change him forever. He had just seen his good friend being murdered by whatever these things were. He wasn’t going to let this happen to anyone else he cared about. He couldn’t.

  Coming out of the fog that trapped him in sorrow for the last few minutes, Mason realized he needed to snap out of it and get to April and Justin before this evil fell upon them. Looking out over the lot he saw a new group of those things headed his way.

  Brushing the fleshy fragments from his clothes, Mason moved back to the other side of the car, tossed the kettlebell in the back seat and shut the door.

  Sliding into the driver’s seat, he put the car in drive and paused for a moment. He needed a clear route back to the house if he were going to make it in time and knew that all of the main streets would probably be a nightmare to get through.

  As he departed the lot, Mason maneuvered around the discarded shards of flesh and the growing crowds at the North end of the lot. Looking in the rearview mirror he noticed the horde turned in his direction in hopes of yet another meal.

  Pulling out onto the street, Mason mentally went through his route back to the house and intended to run down anything that got in his way.

  10

  Looking at him sideways, April wasn’t quite sure what the sporting equipment had to do with them getting out of this gym alive, although she thought the bat would be a good start.

  “Are you going to let me in on this plan of yours or do I have to guess?”

  “Mom, take this hockey stick and glove.”

  “OK?”

  “I am going to use the bat to take as many of those things out as possible and I want you to use the stick to keep them away. If they get too close, push them back with the stick. If possible knock them down; they don’t seem to get back up to fast.”

  She wasn’t quite sure this would work, although they had no other plan and from the sounds of it the crowd outside the door was growing.

  “Justin, how are we going to get the door open?”

  “It doesn’t sound like they are pushing up against it, so we may be able to surprise them and knock over the first few of them.”

  “What this glove for?”

  “That’s in case they get REALLY close. Shove it against their faces; it will take them forever to chew through it.”

  Justin wasn’t sure any of this would work. He was trying to sound confident so his mother would have enough faith in the plan to pull off what she needed to do.

  “Mom?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Is Dad really coming or are you just saying that?”

  “I talked to him just little while ago and he was on his way home.”

  “Our home?”

  “Yep.”

  “Do you think he is OK?”

  “You know your Dad, even if he wasn’t you’d never know.”

  “Alright Mom, let’s go… and please stay by me.”

  “YES SIR.” April said with a smile.

  Justin walked toward the door and depressed the panic bar without pushing the door open just yet.

  He whispered to his mother. “On three push as hard as you can.”

  “One… Two…THREE!”

  As they pushed both sides of the exit door outward they felt some resistance, although not as much as they were expecting and only a few of those things were near the doorway. The majority of them littered the field between them and their home. The fifty yards between the gym and the outer fence wouldn’t normally be anything other than a short jog, although today was a different story.

  The problem was getting to the fence and over it unharmed, once they reached the other side they would be free. It seemed like these things hadn’t figured out how to climb because the street on the other side was clear of all creatures. Justin looked around for the easiest path and decided they needed to go in a straight line since no other ideal route existed.

  Justin took the lead and swung at anything that came near. He noticed that these things could take an incredible amount of pain and still keep coming. Striking them in the legs appeared to work pretty well as it slowed most of them down to a crawl almost instantly.

  The more Justin went on the offensive the less fear he felt. He imagined himself in control and these things only doing what he would allow. As they progressed forward Justin would slide four or five steps ahead, clear the way and come back for April as she made sure that none of them snuck up from behind.

  About the time they reached the midway point, most of the creatures near the field had turned their attention to the two of them and Justin’s arms started to fatigue.

  Pointing in the direction of the growing horde, Justin motioned to April.

  “Mom, we need to get to the fence quick. I can’t keep swinging this all day. Let’s run!”

  Justin waited for his mother to acknowledge his request and as she began to run ahead he followed closely. As they ran April dropped the stick and glove and Justin almost tripped over them. He also dropped the bat and instead picked up the hockey stick, figuring it would be more useful once they reached the gate.

  As he stood again after grabbing the stick and began to run, he caught April quickly. With just a step between them April stepped in a gopher hole and went down hard causing Justin in turn to tumble over her.

  At least ten of those things were closing in on them from the rear as they stood to continue. April grabbed at her ankle and winced in pain. With only fifteen yards to go Justin wrapped his mother’s arm around his shoulder and pulled her alongside him without saying a word.

  Justin had only passed her in height and
weight within the last year and was growing rapidly ever since. He was bigger than most kids three years his senior and had the strength to match. Being carried by her son seemed odd as she thought back to when he was a child and could never have imagined a day when she would have needed him for this. She recently gave in to the fact he would take after his father since his side of the family had all the height.

  With only a few yards to go, they were finally caught by two of those things. Justin shoved April forward toward the fence as he stayed back to fight. He now wished more than anything that he had kept the bat.

  “GET OVER THAT FENCE!” Justin yelled at his mother as he moved from side to side pulling free from the bigger of the two creatures.

  April struggled to climb the six foot chain link fence with only one good leg. Her hands were bloody and she felt as if she didn’t have the strength to get over. She pulled with everything inside her and used her other foot as an anchor.

  Justin saw a softball sized stone lying next to an anthill just to his right. As he broke free once again, he picked up the stone before turning to see April nearing the top of the fence. Justin lifted the stone overhead and brought it down hard on the smaller of the two. Blood shot across his face and ran down his shirt.

  As he turned the stone on the larger one, it lunged at him and knocked him to the ground, landing directly on top of him. Justin fell hard and felt the unforgiving earth beneath him. He pushed away and the thing on top of him growled like a hungry lion about to consume its prey.

  With only eighteen inches separating their faces, Justin instantly became nauseous looking at the shredded, decaying flesh hanging from its mouth and neck. Its eyes were covered with a milky white substance and Justin couldn’t understand how it was able to see.

  It came in again, mouth wide open, straining to get to his neck as he rolled to the side and avoided the creature’s teeth. Justin had never been so terrified and was reacting more out of fear than anything else. He noticed April starting back over the fence toward him.

  “NO!”

  April stopped as Justin managed to slide his way out from under his attacker and grabbed the weapon he dropped moments before. From a seated position he swung but because the stone was wet with blood, it only grazed his target and fell to the ground.

  Enraged, Justin leaped on top of this behemoth and grabbed it by both sides of the head. He slid to the right and brought the creature’s head down numerous times on top of the rock that lie beneath it until the thing stopped struggling and its skull was completely obliterated.

  Justin stood and looked at April. She didn’t say a word and just started to cry. Justin wiped his hands and arms on his pants and walked to the fence.

  He took one final look back and with no other threats anywhere nearby he climbed the fence and helped his mother to the other side.

  April wrapped her arm around Justin’s neck once again as she continued to quietly cry. Heads hung low, they both headed toward the house.

  11

  His plan was almost instantly ruined as Mason looked down the street that was the most direct route home and noticed a jagged line of cars stalled and dozens of those things walking about.

  Slowing the car to a crawl, he saw an opening a hundred yards down on the right that lead to the parking lot of a condominium tract. He thought he would be able to get through there quickly and pick up Ranch Boulevard.

  Normally, the Alpine Trail condos were pretty empty at this time of day since most tenants worked in the city and were gone during the typical nine to five. Mason used this short cut many times when he was late meeting a client at the gym. From what he had seen this morning, if people weren’t around, neither were those creatures… whatever they were.

  After reversing the car just enough to turn down the street, he pushed forward trying to move slowly enough not to create much noise and alert them as they rummaged through the vehicles farther down the road. Before he was halfway to the driveway of the condos they spotted him heading their way.

  It was strange to Mason that some of these things moved fairly quickly and seemed to be almost normal, with the exception of their eyes that were glossed over. They appeared unable to focus on anything. They didn’t even move their eyes. If a noise was made, they would move their entire head in the direction of the sound, almost as if they had a stiff neck.

  The others that moved more slowly looked as if they had literally been hit by a car or something bigger. He thought that whatever was affecting them made them deteriorate rather quickly until they reached a point where they actually looked like death and weren’t able to move much faster than a slow walk.

  Weaving in and out of the slow moving creatures, Mason reached the condo entrance and was greeted by two of them slowly moving toward the front of his car. Without thinking he punched the gas pedal and turned to the left side of the entrance, grazing one of them. The other grabbed onto the rear bumper and was dragged for a minute or so until it eventually slid off.

  The only thing that remained in the parking lot was a few cars still sitting in their little stalls under the overhangs that protected them from the elements. His path was clear all the way to the end of the complex and he only needed to turn right at the end of the drive and then left out onto Ranch Blvd.

  After putting some distance between himself and his attackers, Mason rounded the corner to the right and slammed on the brakes. A man leap over the hood of the car and one of those things following close behind ran straight into the side of Mason’s car knocking the side mirror to the ground.

  Mason looked out the window and watched as it slid across the side of the car and went down hard. Blood now covered half of the front passenger window. He quickly pulled out into the street and tried to catch up to this man who was still running from his attacker, unaware that he was no longer in danger.

  Looking in the rearview mirror, Mason could see the thing that had just abused the side of his car walking out into the middle of the street and heading his way. He needed to get to the man running ahead of him before that thing did, without making a huge production of it.

  As Mason pulled the car alongside the man he was impressed with his stamina. The man nearly jumped out of his shoes as he realized there was something next to him. He looked relieved and slowed to a jog as he looked over his shoulder and noticed that he had put a safe distance between him and his pursuer.

  Mason lowered the passenger window as blood and shards of flesh rolled of the car and a few pieces dropped into the seat next to him.

  “Hey buddy, you need a lift?” Mason said with a smile.

  “That was my Father-In-Law!”

  “What?”

  “That Feeder, it was my father in law.”

  Mason looked confused. “That what?”

  “FEEDER! Where have you been? It’s all over the news, that’s what they’re calling them.”

  “Get in,” Mason said as he pushed the door open.

  The man readily got in the car looking hysterical. He was a middle aged, professional looking gentleman. From the cut of his hair to the dry cleaned shirt he was wearing, Mason figured he was some sort of executive. He trained guys like this all the time. He was obviously in good shape as evidenced by how he hopped over the car and sprinted down the street at a pace that would make any college level track athlete blush.

  As his new passenger closed the door, Mason drove on again.

  “Hey, I’m Mason,” He said as he held out his disgusting hand.

  “REALLY glad to meet you, I’m William.” The passenger looked down at Mason’s bloody offering and shook it all the same.

  “William, you’re telling me that thing chasing you was your father-in-law?”

  “Yes until about fifteen minutes ago.”

  “Huh?”

  “I live close by and my wife sent me over to check on her parents, so I decided to just walk over since they cleared Ranch Boulevard.”

  “Cleared it, who cleared it?”

  �
�The Police, you haven’t been near a computer, have you?”

  “No, I was at work when this all came down a few hours ago and we saw a few news reports and that’s it.”

  “It’s all over the internet, they’re calling them Feeders and they don’t stay dead unless you shoot them in the head or smash their skulls in. They’re saying it has something to do with severing the brain from the rest of the body.”

  Mason was trying to take this all in. “Ok how did your father-in-law end up chasing you?”

  “I walked up to his condo and he was already gone and a Feeder was hunched over him. I smashed its head in with an axe I brought from home and it got stuck. I sat there for a moment trying to figure out what I was going to tell my wife when I got back home and he stood up.”

  “Your father-in-law?”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “What about your mother in law?” Mason asked.

  “I couldn’t find her, she wasn’t there.”

  Mason looked over at William, his head in his hands and was glad he decided to take the shortcut. “You said you live close. Can I drop you at home?”