Alone...13

Pheew! I finally completed chapter 13, and let me tell you...13 is an evil number! It took me FOREVER to get this done!

Hope you all enjoy!

Jen

Started on: 7-26-2010 / Finished on: 8-11-2010

Chapter 13

We didn’t stop until Billy started to cry, his legs were getting tired and hurt from all the running. Grant picked him up and we kept going like that for about another half mile. We finally stopped when we reached the city limit sign for Mercer.

“What the hell was that all about? Why did Corey just go on a suicide mission, and with Audrey?” I said all choked up. “I don’t get it. We could have made it if we just took our time.”

“We will never know honey.” Grant replied. “We will never know what was going though his mind.”

Billy just stood there looking back into Mercer. He started to cry again, all I could do was hold him close to try and comfort him. He really liked Corey; even though we only had a short time with them, he was sort of a big brother to him. We started back on our way into Hurley, it was a stretch of wooded area on HWY 51, and it was a long walk. We chatted along the way with Billy; he had seen so much death for a boy his age. While we were talking, we found out more about him.
Billy was from a little town here in Wisconsin, he lived in Kiel. He had been at school when the outbreak hit them full force, his Dad came and got him as soon as they knew what was happening. He remembered that the National Guard in their town was patrolling the streets making sure that no one left their homes at night, and during the day they were escorted around if they had to go to the store or elsewhere, they did not want any infected leaving the town. Schools were closed down because of the G2N3 virus and the hospitals were full of sick and dying people. After about a month of living like that, Billy said that his Mom and Dad fought a lot because of his Dad’s drinking, and one day he left, he just walked out the door and never returned. They both imagined the worst had happened to him. After that his Mom decided to join a caravan of neighbors to head up north, and they ended up in Pembine.

“A lot has happened to me,” He said. “I just want to live a normal life; I wish none of this ever happened.”

“We totally agree with you on that one Billy.” I said. “But, things happen and you have to deal with them as best you can.”

“Well said Becky,” Grant replied, “we will be at the cabin soon, and we will try to be as normal as possible.”

We continued on for what seemed like hours and arrived in Hurley just as the sun was saying its last farewells to the day as it slowly crouched into the horizon. This was the end of HWY 51, and the beginning of HWY 2, which we were going to take further up Wisconsin, further into our new lives together. Hurley was one very unique little town, I remembered hearing about it in movies and documentaries, the Capone Brothers, John Dillenger and Baby Face Nelson, they loved it here because back in the 1920’s Hurley rejected alcohol prohibition laws, it quickly became a hot spot for entertainment for these notorious Chicago mobsters and bank robbers. As we walked up HWY 2 into Hurley, we saw more signs of Ghouls here than anywhere else we went. I guess when all those people were fleeing from the other towns and counties some were bitten and turned as they headed further up north. It made me second guess going up into Cornucopia, if it’s bad here, what about there? I guess we will just have to find out.

Up ahead of us is a hotel that looks safe enough, and by the time we got to it, the sunlight was almost gone. As we approached it, we noticed all the doors were open, and decided it would not be a good idea to stay there, we had to go further up the road to find one that had doors closed, but that still didn’t guarantee it would not be inhabited. The dusk was making it a little hard to see as we walked further up the road, we decided to stay closer to the left side of the road near the buildings, it gave us a little cover, but I also was wary because something could be hiding up ahead in one of the buildings. We put Billy in between us, drew our guns and kept real quiet.

All of a sudden there was an explosion behind us, it was not that close to us but we felt the ground shake from the blast and the heat from the fireball that shot up into the sky. We all jumped and looked back with fear. It lit up the sky with an erie greenish-orange glow.

“What the hell was that?” Grant shouted.

“Not sure,” I replied, “but we need to get the hell outta here!”

Billy was not a happy camper, but sucked it up and we all took off running. Ghouls were coming out of almost every building we ran past, the blast had drawn them out and they were headed towards the fire. As we ran down the street, we were running right into a heard of them, there was no way around it. Grant and I opened fire on the ones directly in front of us, he had 2 guns blazing and I had one and Billy’s hand, I felt like I was dragging the poor boy, he was trying so hard to keep up with us. All of a sudden I felt him get ripped away from me.

“Grant!” I screamed. “Billy just disappeared in the horde! I am going in after him!”

Grant turned around “Hurry Becky! I can’t hold them off much longer; I’m running out of clips!”

Running into the crowd of Ghouls with my gun doing double time, I yelled for Billy, “Billy! Where are you?” The sound of them moaning was so loud, I hopped he could hear me. “Billy!” I shouted. I was having a panic attack not being able to find him. Then I heard him screaming for me. “Mom...MOM! Help me!” I almost tripped over the bodies I was dropping and I could feel hands grabbing at my back pack, I pulled the release on the belt and let them take it, I grabbed my other gun in my waste band, and continued raining bullets down on their putrid heads. I could still hear Billy shouting and knew he was ok...for the moment. I continued my search for him, and finally found him. He was on the ground curled up into a little ball near a planter by a store front. He was crying. I continued shooting at the foul monsters till I got to him. He looked up at me and his face lit up with a huge smile, I grabbed him and we quickly ran into the store he was hiding in front of.

“Oh my God! Are you ok honey?” I said with relief. “Let me check you over.”

“I’m ok. That was way scary Mom, where’s Dad?” Billy asked.

“He kept going; I told him too, I hope he is ok.” I replied. “He was running faster than us and then you disappeared, I was very worried about you and what could have happened, I can’t even think about it.” I hugged him so tight.

“How are we going to get out of here?” He said.

“Not sure sweetie, not quite sure.” I replied. “I do know one thing that’s for sure; I am running low on ammo.” I shook my head and let out a big sigh.

Billy reached out, took my hand and patted it, “It will be all right Mom, I know it will.” He took his back pack off, unzipped it and took out 6 clips full of ammo. “Dad gave me these to hang onto, just in case. 3 are for your guns, and the others are for his.”

“Just in case?” I said. “You are my hero, little man!” I gave him a big kiss on the forehead.

I took out the spent clips, tossed them into the back pack; put the new ones in and the extras went into my pockets. “Are you ready?”

“Yes Mam! As ready as I will ever be.” He said it with such enthusiasm.

“All right, it’s now or never!” I said. “Stay with me honey, we will be running, I’m not sure how many are still walking towards the fire, let’s hope it’s not too many!”

With both guns at the ready, I shoved the door open and we took off running. Billy kept up with me as we ran through the first small horde of Ghouls, I blazed a path for us as I unloaded bullet after bullet into their heads causing them to explode into a black mist of putrid rotting blood. I tried to keep a watchful eye on Billy and the Ghouls at the same time, I was so worried about him, I didn’t notice the body in front of me. I went flying, hitting the ground hard; I was sprawled out on my stomach. It knocked the wind out of me, and one of my guns from my hand. All I could think about was this is it, I screwed up big time, and I was taking Billy to hell with me. I still had one gun, but the clip was almost empty, I had about 6 rounds left.

“Billy!” I yelled. “Billy get over here!”

Before I could even get the words out of my mouth, he was already running at me full speed. He ran right past me to where the gun had slid on the ground, picked it up, stood behind me and began to unleash all holy hell on the Ghouls that were coming towards me. We both fired until we were out of rounds. I got up and turned around to run when I saw Grant sprinting at us guns smoking. Billy and I took off running in his direction.

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!” I yelled over the gunfire as we ran towards him.

When we met up with Grant, there was no time for hugs and I love yous, we just kept running until the moans were gone. As we reached the HWY 2 junction, it was getting darker out. We needed to find a place to rest and the next town was just a little further to travel to than we wanted to in the dark. We were going to risk tenting it.

I ran up to Grant planted a kiss on his lips and gave him the biggest bear hug I could muster up. “That was a little too close for comfort.” I said. “We almost bought it back there.”

Billy chimed in, “It was kind of scary. I’ve never seen so many of them.” We grabbed him and hugged him close. This time there were no tears from him, he was getting tougher by the minute. “All I could think of was helping Mom. I saw all those Ghouls coming at her, I had to do something.” He said, he sounded so mature for his age.

“You did great Billy,” said Grant, “You stepped in when I wasn’t there to help, that’s very brave of you.”

Billy had the biggest smile on his face. “And...I got to shoot the Ghouls!” he said.

We all had a chuckle, and in that very moment it felt like we were a real family. Setting all fun aside we needed to focus on finding a safe place to camp for the night. We hiked into the woods to see if we could find a place that would provide us with good cover, we found a thick patch of bushes; Grant crawled through the thick brush to the center and cleared out the middle. He put the tent up and Billy and I crawled in. We huddled up together for warmth; the nights were getting a little cooler the further up north we went, you could really tell fall comes sooner up here than down in Milwaukee. Billy fell fast asleep, but Grant and I were still up contemplating our next move.