After Everything Else (Book 3): Creeper Revelation

  Creeper Revelation

  By Brett D. Houser

  Text Copyright ©2014

  Brett D. Houser

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Image Copyright ©2014

  Darren Taylor

  All Rights Reserved

  Introduction

  The world has changed. Corpses walk the roads attacking the few living, spreading the contagion that animates them. Among those living are Sonya, Chase, Marilyn, young people, and Honey, the golden retriever. Chase began calling the corpses creepers, and the name stuck. While Chase and Marilyn are simply trying to stay alive, Sonya has a goal: reach Florida and begin searching for her father. Chase and Marilyn support Sonya in this quest, although none of them are sure there can be any level of success. But it is a reason to keep going.

  Sonya is fifteen years old, an only child from Omaha, Nebraska. Her mother died of cancer five years ago, and she depends on her father for her emotional well-being. Her father drives a truck, and the last place she knew him to be was in Florida. After the outbreak swept the nation, she had started for Florida depending on her own limited abilities. She encountered Chase in St. Louis and realized she could use some help. A loner and an outsider by choice, she is learning to trust others more each day. She provides the group with purpose.

  Chase is seventeen and was raised in a wealthy home in St. Louis where there was no real sense of family. Despite this, he was ready to begin his senior year in high school as quarterback for the football team. His social life was broad but lacked depth. He kept even his closest friends at arm’s length. He was happy to join with Sonya because of his fear of being alone. When they found Marilyn and Honey, he was more willing than Sonya to take them on because he is uncomfortable being alone with his own thoughts. As he grows closer to Sonya and Marilyn, he understands more about himself and what has been missing in his life. He acts as leader, but only through the consent of the others.

  Marilyn is from a solid home and a good family in southeast Missouri, and the loss of that home almost destroyed her. In a state of catatonia when Sonya and Chase found her, she had been protected by Honey. At first, Sonya and Chase thought she would be a burden, but when she recovered, they found that she had a lot of survival skills learned from a life of camping and periodic solitude. She is deeply spiritual, and this has sustained her through much of what has happened. She is in many ways both the most capable and the most vulnerable of the group.

  They joined together and learned the walking corpses, which they call creepers, are not the only danger in the new world.

  When barely beginning their journey they met the Chief in western Kentucky, a survivalist with an agenda to rebuild the fallen nation on his terms. He wanted to build a new world, a better world. He accepted Chase and Marilyn, but Sonya did not meet his ideals so he attempted to get rid of her by using her as bait in a creeper trap he had constructed. Chase and Marilyn came to her rescue, and they all barely escaped with their lives.

  From there they travelled down through Tennessee and into Alabama where they met Bob, a loner in a camp far out in the woods. He directed them to another group of survivors, mostly children, in a church in Eufala. At the church were good people, but the leader was a misguided minister who had been influenced by prolonged contact with the creeper spore. Again they escaped with their lives, taking with them the children but losing valued members of the group at the church, and for a time, Chase. Sonya and Marilyn returned to Bob’s camp with the children, and Chase, sorely wounded, eventually showed up as well. After allowing time for Chase to recover, they resume their quest.

  Every indication they have tells them Florida, one of the most populous states, will be a nightmare, but Sonya is driven by the need to find her father. Chase is driven by the desire to know more about what is going on. Marilyn believes she is being guided by a higher purpose. Despite their different reasons, their experiences will be the same. The dangers they face will affect them all.

  Part One: Worthwhile to Live

  The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

  Aristotle

  Chapter 1 – Chase

  The Florida climate was not kind to creepers. Chase sat in the driver’s seat looking through the windshield at a cluster of creepers blocking a bridge. The corpses had a melted look to them. Skin peeled from sagging muscles, moldy and torn clothes barely covered swollen, discolored legs and arms. The creepers here moved slower, much slower than those through the rest of the journey, but they were worse. They were worse because of their appearance, their smell, and just their sheer number. There were so many more now than there had been just a few days ago. Chase knew this was going to be bad.

  Three days ago when they had left the camp in Alabama, there had been no creepers at all for the first few miles. Then they had started appearing, usually singly, staggering along a back-road or two-lane and lurching at the vehicle as it passed. Marilyn drove most of that first day, while Chase napped in the passenger seat. Sonya sat in the back. She could drive, but Chase felt safer with Marilyn behind the wheel. Sonya didn’t seem to mind. She usually sat idly scratching Honey behind the ears and looking out the windows. Every time Chase had looked, the dog had her eyes half-closed and was lightly panting. Chase had thought then that Honey may have been the one to benefit most from their time at the camp. When he and Sonya had first seen her when they had found Marilyn, the dog’s coat had been matted with burrs. Her coat was shiny and soft from the brushing the kids at the camp had done.

  After the evening meal that first day, Chase took the wheel and drove through the night and into the early morning. Marilyn had the passenger seat lying back as far as it would go. She lay facing him, and in the dim light of the dash he had seen her eyes were closed and her mouth was slightly open. Sonya had stayed up with him until about midnight when she had lain across the seat, pushing Honey onto the floor. Chase drove carefully, cautiously, trying not to disturb his sleeping passengers.

  On the east side of Cairo, Georgia, he stopped because he hadn’t seen a creeper in a while and his eyes were dry. He was pretty sure the last time he had blinked he had kept them closed for almost a full second. No need to pull to the shoulder. Where he came to a stop, the headlights illuminated a driveway on his left and some trees and open areas on his right. A white triangle of a flag told him it was a golf course. He put the Suburban in park, leaned the seat as far back as he could without disturbing Sonya or Honey, and closed his tired eyes. He had no intentions of staying more than a few minutes, so he left the engine idling. Besides, with three people and a dog in a closed space the high humidity outside made the air conditioner a necessity.

  He fell into a half-doze. He was in and out of consciousness for he didn’t know how long when he became aware of two things: the dark wasn’t quite as dark anymore and Honey was whining. He realized he had slept until the sun came up. Honey was whining because she wanted to get out. A few more minutes, he thought. Just a few more minutes. Then the thumping began.

  At first it was soft, irregular. He was so tired, though. Then the thumping grew more regular and from all sides of the vehicle. He opened his eyes fully and sat up. In the predawn light he saw rotted faces pressed against the side windows. He watched as Sonya sat up in the back and stared around, wide eyed. All around them misshapen faces pressed against the windows. At the driver’s side window, inches from his face, the mostly exposed skull of a corpse loomed, the sunken white eyes peer
ing blindly into his own.

  Then Marilyn was up. “Chase!” she said, pointing to the front. He looked. Creepers were four deep around the hood and beyond them he could see more coming. He put the Suburban in gear and floored it. The tires initially caught traction and pushed them forward, but the resistance of the creepers in front slowed them. The Suburban shuddered and strained against the mass, but they were still moving. Then the rear tires hit the first of the bodies that had fallen in their path.

  There was a horrible crunch and forward motion stopped. The tires broke traction and the motor raced. Something (someone, a horrible voice whispered in his head) was under. His heart raced with a fresh shot of adrenaline. He put the Suburban in four wheel drive and tried again. For a horrible moment he thought they wouldn’t move, but then the Suburban lurched forward, knocking creepers to the side and down. The vehicle bounced forward and then was free of the horde, but Chase couldn’t stop. The creepers were still coming, still scrabbling for purchase at the back of the Suburban, still appearing from all sides. He drove.

  He drove through Cairo, creepers coming from everywhere, attacking when he slowed, threatening to close the road ahead of him. He drove recklessly, pushing his driving skills, exceeding them, occasionally bouncing off a stalled car, and always, always, hitting creepers, running over them. They were everywhere. Twice he thought the Suburban would be overwhelmed, stopped by the masses of creepers, but he found a spot he could punch through in the approaching horde both times. Behind them was a sea of creepers, uncountable, the population of the entire town and more trailing the Suburban. Finally, they were through Cairo. He kept going, wanting space between himself and the bad situation he had almost put them in. When the highway divided, he stopped at a crossroads in a convenience store parking lot. After checking around and seeing no creepers, he stepped out on shaky legs. Marilyn and Sonya climbed out on the passenger side and came around to face him.

  “What happened?” Sonya asked.

  “We’ve been living easy up at the camp, and I got careless,” Chase answered. He didn’t tell them how angry he was at himself. He didn’t understand it himself. “I stopped close to a town. But I think they’ve gotten worse, too. They were all over us, and there couldn’t have been that many out there where I was. Could there?”

  They had talked then, that second day of the journey. He had told them they needed to get even further out, back into the sticks as much as possible. No big roads. Sonya and Marilyn nodded. They had good maps, maps that showed the smallest of roads. Even though they felt prepared, even though they had more weapons, more food, more water, the number of creepers in Cairo had almost been overwhelming.

  “I think the Chief may have been right about them spreading out. And in Florida, spreading out mostly means moving north. We haven’t even gotten into Florida yet, but I bet some of these creepers came out of there. And more further south.” He remembered he had looked at them both, wanting them to understand the danger. They had looked back at him steadily.

  “Having weapons doesn’t help us much when there are so many,” Marilyn said. “I could have emptied three clips from the AK and barely made a dent back there.” She touched Chase’s arm. “You did a good job. We got out okay.”

  He shook off her hand. “This time.”

  “Do you guys want to go back to camp?” Sonya asked. “Coming down here is about me, but being down here is about us. I’d go back if you guys insisted. You know I don’t want to, but I don’t want to put you guys in danger, either.”

  “No.” Chase was adamant. “We are going down. To get your father, yes, but to also understand more. I…well, I hate to say it, but I have a gut feeling we will get some answers down there.”

  Marilyn smiled. “Call it a gut feeling if you want, Chase, but I feel the same thing. I just feel that I’m being guided.”

  Chase had shaken his head and forced himself to smile back at her. “Okay. If that’s what you think. But we’re going to have to gear up. First, the Suburban’s been good to us this far, but I think we need more vehicle. Something bigger. But not too big. We’ll be on backroads.”

  “Okay by me,” Sonya had said. “The Suburban’s pretty well done in, anyway. And it stinks.”

  They had risked Thomasville. They went in early in the day, and they went in prepared. All the weapons were loaded, and they had scavenged every last round they could find along the way. No Wal-mart, no sporting goods store went unchecked. The gas cans were full, and Chase considered those weapons as well in the event of an emergency. The reality was almost a letdown. There were plenty of creepers on the outskirts of town, which made for more exciting driving, but once through the outer ring, the number of creepers inside city limits was low. At least creepers that were moving. Thomasville had been hit hard. Based on the information Chase had learned from the Chief, he understood why. Florida had been the beginning of the outbreak. Thomasville would have been the first line of defense to stop the spread.

  The downtown area had once been beautiful, and the buildings not blackened by fire still were, but the streets and all the open places were covered with creeper corpses. Chase remembered thinking a war had been fought here. Scattered among the fallen creepers had been soldiers. They wore gas masks and some kind of protective suits. Chase slowed down to study the bodies. The creepers all had been shot in the head. On close inspection, the soldiers were riddled with bullet wounds, but they hadn’t turned before being killed. They may not have even been bitten. Chase had tried to imagine the chaos, tried to imagine what could have happened here, but he hadn’t been able to.

  Sonya and Marilyn were on edge, watching, looking at everything. He could see their eyes growing larger, their expressions more doubtful. He looked at Honey. The dog was sitting up in the backseat, panting lightly but not showing any sign of distress. Chase had the Suburban down to a crawl, taking everything in, looking at cross streets. Sonya asked, “Chase, what are we doing? What are you looking for?”

  “I’ll know it when I see it.” He maneuvered around a red pick-up in the road and found himself at the town square on a one way street. He ignored the sign and turned left. A building blocked the view of the whole square, but as he rounded the second corner, more of the square became visible. “I’m looking for something big, something with cargo space, something…like that.” He remembered seeing the vehicle they had to have for the first time and his excitement. As a bonus, it had a trailer. It was parked across the street, blocking the road. Corpses littered the ground around it, creepers with head wounds. Spent shells covered the ground. Someone had made a stand here, but there were no soldiers’ bodies remaining. Chase hoped whoever had made the stand got away, but the chances were pretty slim. Odds were the ones who had put down so many creepers here were now staggering around on the outskirts of town with the rest of the population.

  “That should do it,” Sonya said, looking at the vehicle in the road ahead.

  “Humvee. Hummer,” Chase replied. “Just what we need. I remember checking out some YouTube videos about some of the crazy stuff they can do.” He looked at it more closely. “Not near the comfort level we’ve had in the Suburban. But it will get us wherever we need to go.”

  Chase climbed behind the wheel and searched for the ignition key. There wasn’t one. He finally found the switch and tried it. The motor rumbled to life. He looked around the cockpit. That’s the way he thought of it. This was more than just a driver’s seat. He turned the engine off.

  They spent over an hour transferring everything from the Suburban to the Hummer. Sleeping was not going to be near as comfortable. They decided to keep the trailer. The trailer would be the place for non-essentials: camping gear, extra clothes, bulkier food supplies, stuff they liked to have but didn’t need. In the Hummer itself they did the best they could to stow food, water, ammo, and weapons in such a way that there was sleeping space, but it didn’t really work. Whoever was sleeping would have to share space with Honey. If they all tried to sleep at onc
e, two people would be sleeping in their seats. One bonus was extra fuel cans already in the Hummer, and they were full. Chase unscrewed the lid and sniffed. Diesel. That would change at least one of their fuel gathering methods. No more lawn mower gas, no more siphoning in the neighborhoods. He mentioned that to Sonya and Marilyn and Marilyn told him that wasn’t such a bad thing.

  “All we have to do is look for bigger farms. Out where we’re going to be, chances are they’ll have a fuel tank for farm equipment. Usually gravity, too, so no siphoning. If we’re careful, we can use those. And we can get more cans, load up the trailer. Diesel won’t be too hard to find.”

  He found a publication called “Operator’s Manual for Truck, Utility: Up-Armored, Carrier, 4 X 4 M1114” by searching through compartments in the cockpit. After they finished loading, they took a break to eat lunch and he read it, trying to make sure he understood everything it could do. He had been amazed and excited. Still, when they drove away, he had looked back at the Suburban. Battered, worn, and covered in the remains of creepers encountered from St. Louis almost to the Florida line, it had been a temporary home, a refuge. He had tried to tell himself he wasn’t sad for leaving it, that it was just a thing, but it wasn’t true.

  Now, the day after leaving Thomasville in the Hummer, Chase sat at yet another bridge on a small two-lane, staring out at the creepers blocking the way in the early morning light and thinking. In the dim interior behind him, he knew the other two were looking as well. He wondered if they were feeling what he was feeling. He wondered how much longer he would be able to keep this up.

  Three days before there had been tears at leaving the camp and their friends, but there had also been determination. Three days before, they had left, if not optimistic, then at least with some sense of the possibility of success. The first night had almost been their last, but they had learned from it.