Dead Horizon Ch. 04

-- The City in Turmoil --

Throughout the remainder of the late evening, after Celeste and Dominic had gotten Zane in bed and asleep for the night, the four younger adults sat around the living room. Celeste currently had position of the remote and was flipping through the channels stopping on a breaking new report.

"I'm standing live at Morse road, after a deadly four car accident occurred only minutes earlier. Witnesses report there were two cars, appeared to be street racing, when the driver of the Monte Carlo lost control and smashed head on against another vehicle, sending two in critical condition to..." Through the lens of the camera, anyone watching the news report at that time could see the road was still blocked off as paramedics and police worked to clean up the mess. Still it didn't catch Celeste's attention, and she was back to channel surfing again.

"... after several calls, Mayor Steven Reynolds as issued a state of emergency as the riots continue to grow out of hand. Immediate evacuation is required. If you are capable to leave the city it is ahhhhh..." the reporter screamed into the camera. "Johnnn! hhhhe..."

What the four of them saw next was horrifying and had nearly turned their stomachs. As the cameraman stood where he was, continuing to roll the live footage still frozen with fear. The reporter continued to scream and even called the cameraman's name a few more times, begging for help, as one of the infected --a nearly half naked, very dirty looking, female-- had bit in against the slightly older woman's neck. The blood slowly began to flow freely down the front and side of her shoulder, as the infected female pulled away leaving a large gaping hole in its place, the reporter tried to pull away from her attacker, though the infected lady wasn't having it. Dirty, bony fingers reached for her victim, grabbing a hold of the report's shirt and as she fell backwards along with the infected female, who landed on top of her, before biting once again and this time taking a large junk out of the reporters cheek and part of her nose.

The cameraman, now beginning to panic, swung the camera from side to side as more of the infected began to swarm the area. Finally he got his feet to move and began running, still carrying the camera with him until it became to much weight and was soon tumbling to the ground. Still, it was too late for the man the reporter had called John, as he was soon caught on camera as well, being overwhelmed by the infected, the camera continued to roll the footage even as John's screams and pleas fell on deaf ears. His screams were soon being gargled on as he began choking on his own blood as a horde of the infected fell upon him, ripping, tearing and biting at any part of the male. For Stacie it was like deja vu and what she had seen leaving the city only hours ago.

Unable to stomach much more, Celeste was soon handing the remote off to her brother and headed down the hallway to the room she and Dominic were sharing while they stayed. Wasn't too long after Celeste's departure that Stacie was doing the same thing, heading around the corner into her own shared room with Kaleb, leaving the two boys to watch the live action horror film alone. Kaleb was soon following both his sister and Stacie down the short hallway, turning the corner into the bedroom with Stacie. Unlike his sister however, his night wasn't complete, he still had things to attend to. After all here it was the middle of the night and he had yet to hear anything from Blake and that bothered him.

"Going somewhere?" Stacie asked curious, sitting on the bed as Kaleb came in and began going through the black and blue tackle box, pulling out both knifes, his mini mag-lite and the binoculars.

"Yeah. I haven't heard from Blake since we left the city and since he left me a tail, I'm going hunting." He replied as he strapped the all silver survival knife against his left thigh.

"I'm not letting you go alone. I'm coming with you!" Stacie blurted out sounding a little more forceful then she had meant to as Dominic was just rounding the corner.

"Who's not going where alone?" Dominic asked, now standing in the doorway of the bedroom. Dominic was the complete opposite of Kaleb. A little huskier in his build, by a good sixty pounds, he looked every bit of a solid two-hundred pounds. He kept, what would have been a blonde mop, buzzed short making it easier to manage, mainly cause there was no work involved with combing.

"It's easier if I go on my own." He said, more so directed toward Stacie, now strapping his boot knife around the outer calf of his right leg. "Blake left me a tail to follow and since I haven't heard anything from him since we all left the city, I'm going to go look for Blake and Tara." He replied once again, casting those hazel-browns toward Dominic.

"Well then. I know better then to try and talk you into waiting until morning, you know, when there's more light, so I agree with her. You aren't leaving out of here by yourself. Besides, we don't know exactly -what- is happening." Dominic quickly replied agreeing with Stacie.

Kaleb gave a bit of an annoyed sigh as he rolled his eyes. He really couldn't believe he was even going through this conversation, let alone with Dominic. Really? Dominic was worried about him having no light. "What -is- happening is pretty simple if you ask me. Hell ran out of room and so I'm stuck here." He finally remarked with a slightly twisted smirk before turning his attention back upon the tackle box in front of him. Sadly, Kaleb knew he was fighting a battle he wasn't going to win, neither of them were going to let him leave on his own and so rather then sit and waste time fighting, he simply gave in and pulled the two walkies from the tackle box and handed one to Stacie.

"Fine, but you're staying here." Kaleb said handing Stacie one of the two walkie-talkies and a charger. "I'll keep the other one on me, Dom will manage the CB from inside the truck." He finally said as he pulled the binoculars from the box and shut the lid. Standing back up, he grabbed his new crossbow, shoved the extra bolts into the Styrofoam quiver and slung the strap over his shoulders before turning and facing Dominic. "You ready?"

Was he ready? In all honesty, no. But still he would have rather been the one to go with Kaleb over Stacie. It wasn't that he doubted her skills in any way, but the truth of the matter was, he didn't know her nor her skills. So was he doubting them? Maybe a little. After all, they had just watched a live news report of two people being violently attacked and 'eaten' which was a little more disturbing then watching it made up by Hollywood. "Yeah, I'm ready. Are we taking the explorer or the ram?" Dominic finally asked as he stepped out of the way.

"You're driving! We're taking the truck. Besides I have a motorcycle to still get if we can get back into the city." Kaleb replied as he led the way through the house and out toward the breezeway.

Stacie was following closely behind the two of them as they headed through the living room, around the corner into the kitchen and finally passed through the backdoor into the breezeway. She stood inside the breezeway as they loaded into the silver Dodge Ram and after a moment, pulled out of the driveway and down the road. Once they were out of sight she pressed the button down on the side of the walkie-talkie and spoke into it, before heading back inside the house.

"Please be careful you two." Stacie's softer vocals had come over the speakers of both the CB within the truck, along with the walkie that was currently resting against Kaleb's hip.

Soon Dominic was pulling out of sight of the house and onto state route sixty-two. Dominic was still having mixed thoughts on heading back toward the city so soon after such a hostile news report, his 'what if' anxiety beginning to play at the back of his mind. Kaleb was one that learned from the internet, much like he did, Kaleb just seemed to study different topics off the world-wide web. Dominic was finally giving a quick glance toward Kaleb who had pulled the map, that Blake had given him earlier, out of his pocket and was reading over the directions that were drawn out on it, noticing the way his lips were beginning to curl into a smile. "What?"

"Blake's tail. It's nearly all back roads after you get off state route 33 near Canal Winchester." Kaleb replied as he refolded the map.

Again, Kaleb had managed to find another way to make this a very unpleasant trip. Still Dominic had to do his best to keep his thoughts positive. "So ... how are we doing this? Are we following their point from I-270 and 33 east? Or are we staying near the outskirts and catching their path a little later on?"

"We're picking their trail up at I-270 and 33 east. I'm pretty sure I can say they got away from the main part of the city, but I can't say how far out however and so we're picking up their trail as close to the beginning as possible." Kaleb replied again as he shoved his hand into his pocket and pulling out his cigarettes and lighter. Pulling two from the pack, he lit them both before handing one off to Dominic and finally rolling down his window.

Dominic might not have liked the idea of heading so close into the city, but he knew it as the smartest decision. Taking the cigarette from Kaleb once it was offered over to him, he was soon rolling his own window down, letting the smoke at least have somewhere to go. The drive was pretty smooth sailing as they continued through Johnstown and even along the 161 highway, but as they merged onto the I-270 outer-belt, things became much different. Noticing, almost immediately, that many of the exits leading into the inner city had been blocked off with barricades. As they continued driving down 270, they heard the sound of jet engines and as the two of them looked a little further off in the distance, they soon saw the three jets flying toward -- what they could only assume -- downtown and began dropping napalm bombs on the city.

"Guess my bike will have to wait a little longer." Kaleb said jokingly as he flipped the ash of the cigarette out the window.

Dominic couldn't help but allow a smirk to form over his lips. 'Leave it to Kaleb to find something to laugh about.' He thought to himself as he continued down I-270, finally reaching the exit for US 33 east. The two of them continued driving down highway 33, coming across a 15 mile stretch of construction. At first things appeared to be pretty normal, that was until they slowly crept along the construction and zone and saw a black Mitsubishi Galant planted nose first against the steel guard off to their left, looking as though they were getting ready to take the Diley Rd exit. With no sort of traffic on their tail -- or anywhere else for that matter -- Dom was pulling the full size pickup off to the side, allowing Kaleb to climb from his seat.

By the license plate on the back, Kaleb had recognized the vehicle almost immediately to belong to Tara and Blake. No sooner than Dominic had stopped the pickup, Kaleb was rushing out of the passenger side and over toward the Mitsubishi to better assess the damage. By just the skid marks and the direction of the tires, Kaleb could tell that Tara had tried her best to avoid hitting -something- as she swerved into the steel barricade. Through the driver's side window, Kaleb was able to see the two fairly large, dark green, duffle bags sitting in the backseat along with the baby seat. Opening the back car door behind the driver's side, he pulled out the two duffle bags, the baby seat and headed back over to the truck setting them inside the back.

"There's a children's hospital just up the road. I'm going to stick back a little bit and see if I can figure out what may have caused Tara to pull into the barrier." Kaleb said looking at Dominic as he clipped the walkie against his hip, using his belt and finally grabbed his crossbow. "Go check and see if they're there."

Kaleb wasn't giving him any chance to argue, as he shut the door to the truck and wondered back over toward the accident site. With Kaleb's mind already made up, Dominic was pulling back onto the road, taking the Diley Rd exit and headed over the overpass toward the direction of the hospital. Kaleb, staying back as he said, pulled his palm size mag-lite from his pocket and after clicking the LED light on, began searching the car over in hopes of finding some sort of answer. Coming up empty around the car, Kaleb could feel his stress level beginning to rise. Still he refused to let the simple thought of something worse had happened play in his mind. Taking a moment or two so he could breathe and better sort through his thoughts, he began to slowly follow the tire marks back to their starting point.

Kaleb couldn't help noticing how quiet it was around him, not even the chirping of crickets could be heard and that bothered him. Keeping the flashlight low, which meant moving in a slow crouch, the sudden desperate groan was heard from somewhere off in the distance. Not wanting to lift the flashlight -- in fear of it attracting even more -- he looked up and noticed that coming out of the tree line were a few shadowy figures, slowly stumbling his way.

'Fuck! The flashlight must have attracted them.' He thought to himself as he looked back over his shoulder. He was in no mood to -wrestle- with any one of the figures heading his way. Grabbing the walkie from his hip he pressed the button down on the side, just as a single shot was heard and watched one of the dark figures fall. Another shot fired and again Kaleb watched a second figure fall, it was now clear who was taking shots and using the infected as moving targets. Kaleb was finally lifting the mini flashlight up so he could widen his view, noticing the male figure that had already taken two of the infected down, looked to be an armed officer.

Quickly clicking the flashlight off he shoved it back into his pocket. Pulling one of the crossbow bolts from the Styrofoam quiver, he placed it against the cord and after lifting the crossbow up and began looking for his shot carefully. Once again the officer fired his pistol and left another body motionless. Kaleb happened to see the one that the officer had missed however, quickly timing his shot he lined the trigger's pull of his crossbow in time to send the bolt whizzing through the air. Bulls-eye! Still peering through the eye of the scope, he watched the bolt sink through the temple of the infected male.

Watching it through a scope had nothing on actually seeing it. As the officer had been worried about the one off to his left, he had been unaware of how close the male had gotten. He heard the bolt as he blew, only a few inches, pass his ear. Being startled the officer had turned around just in time to watch the darker skinned male, who was already suffering from the very slow decaying process, lean forward just as that green feather tipped bolt was sticking out the right side of his head. Taking that as a stroke of luck, he began running toward the direction where he had last seen the soft glow of a flashlight.

Kaleb was quickly reloading the crossbow as the officer began running closer toward his direction. Grabbing the walkie once again, he pushed the button down and spoke in to it. "Dom, have you found Blake or Tara?"

"Yeah, they're loading in the truck now." Dominic's voice was soon coming back over the walkie.

"Alright good, I'm in hot pursuit heading your direction, I have an officer soon to be with me and a lot of unwanted company as well." Kaleb replied into the mic as he stood up.

"I'll shorten the distance then, I'll be headed your way." Dominic replied once again.

Clipping the walkie back against his belt on his hip he and the officer, once he had caught up, began running back toward the Pickerington area. The gunshots had caused more of the infected to began flocking around and soon what had been only a small handful, of no more than maybe a couple dozen, it had quickly turned into a greater fifty or so. They were soon seeing the pickup truck pulling back onto the highway on the other side of the road.

"That's our ride!" Kaleb said loud enough for the officer to hear him as he quickly picked up his pace. For being a smoker, Kaleb was still able to pull a decent amount of distance while running. Finally reaching the truck, Kaleb was quickly climbing into the bed of the truck, before both he and Blake were helping the officer in and soon they were pulling off, leaving the horror behind them.

"Thank you." The officer said, shaking Kaleb's hand once they had him safely in the back of the truck. "My name's Brandon. Officer Brandon Stokes. That was a pretty good shot." He finished as he released Kaleb's hand.

On the ride back toward the country Kaleb had noticed that not only had they picked up a new police officer to their little group, but they had also picked up a roughly middle-age female doctor from the local Children's hospital.

"So any way you could maybe shine a little more light on what exactly is happening?" Blake was asking, turning his attention toward the officer.

"As far as I know and have been told, a new street drug has been running rampant through much of the city. Some of the known side-effects have included strange cannibalistic behaviors, an in-coherency to surroundings and an almost immortal ability to remain 'alive'. If you can call what they become 'living'." The officer told the two sitting in the bed of the truck with him.

"That is not one hundred percent accurate sir." The middle-aged female doctor was cutting in, after sliding open the slightly smaller truck window.

"Well, if that isn't accurate, then some sort of insight would certainly be nice at this point. I mean I'm sure I can speak for everyone here at the moment, when I say, we're confused." The officer replied once again, this time directing his attention toward the young doctor.

"It is an outbreak that is spread through infection." The doctor began, now looking at the three male's in the bed of the truck. "Many would like to believe that it is, in fact, viral. But no one knows for certain. What I do know is, a former colleague of mine had recently come to Columbus with information involving this new disease."

"What happened to you colleague?" Blake finally asked.

"Deceased." She said sounding almost heart broken. "Along with several others taken by the disease."

"What information did he have?" Brandon was now cutting in and asking.

"As of this time, there is no known cure. That what's happening is because the planet can no longer sustain itself. Once the infection takes you, you come back as one of those walking corpses. Severe head drama is the only known way of preventing or ending the torment. " She finally finished before turning back around in the seat.

From inside the truck, Dominic was skimming over the many channels of the CB. What was he looking for? He didn't know for certain, just scanning the CB in search of answers. And then he got it, not exactly what he was wanting, but through the static he could hear voices, panicked voices. "That's a negative soldier, there is no support coming by air or ground, you'll have to find your own evac. We're sorry." A voice replied on the other end of the mic just as Dominic had managed to clear the static. In the background they could hear the shouts and screams of others, along with the repeatable gunfire before the mic went silent.

By the early morning, Dominic was pulling the sliver pickup into the driveway, parking beside Kaleb's Explorer once again. Stacie must have been sitting up watching from the window, because no sooner had they pulled into the driveway, was she coming through the breezeway and making her way outside toward the truck.