I looked into the back seat to see Coal sleeping contently. Her sleek black body was curled up with her tail wrapped around her legs, the end flipping up with some form of unknown glee. “Alright, let’s go play guard dog.”
“There’s more,” she said before I could open the passenger door. “James is sick. Zach said that he’s been coughing up blood for a while now.”
“Then why have we stopped? We need to get to Kansas City, now!” I urged.
She shook her head, “We won’t get there quickly at all without any gas. I was terrified that we were going to run out on the way here, that’s how low the tanks ar. Both Zach and our car had our gas lights on. I thought that we might have to walk the rest of the way.
“Alright, well let’s get on guard duty before Zach takes matters into his own hands,” I said, grabbing the bat. My head was still pounding, as if it was trying to break out of my skull. My nose was clogged again, not allowing me to breathe easily which was super fun (not). I got out of the car and managed to stretch out the soreness from my muscles as I walked over to Zach.
“How’s he doing?” I asked, tilting my head towards the passenger seat of Zach’s car where James sat.
“I’m fine, thanks,” he said, putting the gas nozzle into the car. “James has been having a coughing fit for some time now. He’s been hunched over for most of the ride. Thought he might throw up.” Zach looked over to the gas meter, making sure that the pump was working. “Honestly though, it looks like his mouth is on its period.”
“That’s wonderful. Thanks for the image,” I said patting him on the shoulder. “Just make sure that you fill the cars with gas, please,” I added, not wanting to sound like an ass.
I saw Chelsea circling the gas station, looking in all directions for any sign of trouble. There was not much to look at though. It was pretty much wide open for the most part. The highway exit was practically on top of the gas station. Barren trees filled the back of the convenience store which was a glorified hut with windows. The sky looked like it was ready to open up and drown us in its sorrows.
I began to make my rounds of the gas station when that distinct sound rang off again. I whipped my head around to see Chelsea smashing a contaminated head in, forcing it to the ground where she finished it off.
“One more,” I heard Zach call, pointing to a contaminated coming out of the mini-mart. My bat struck it down in one quick swoop, splattering its insides all over the chilled pavement.
Suddenly a roaring came from behind the mart, the same roaring from yesterday. “What is that?” Zach asked, fear thick in his voice.
“I think that we should get in the cars, now,” I replied, but there was no time.
A giant heaping shadow leapt over the top of the mini-mart and landed on the pavement, shaking the ground beneath it. It was a contaminated, as the eyes showed, but much, much larger. It stood about twelve feet tall with arms thicker than my waist and legs twice that size. It stood bow legged with sprawling feet, missing three of its toes. For the most part, the huge contaminated was stark naked with nothing but a paisley bed sheet covering its mid-section like a togs.
Zach fired off his handgun almost immediately at the contaminated, but that only pissed it off. The monster roared at Zach and began its approach. Zach immediately grabbed a shotgun out of the car and fired while back peddling. There was birdshot pre-loaded into the gun shown by the numerous pebble sized holes in the bed sheet covering. He was moving slowly across the pavement of the gas station, slowly backing into the roadway.
Each shot fired made the monster flinch, but it did not deter the beast. It raised its arm and allowed that to take the blunt of the shotgun’s force, only being slowed down a small bit.
The contaminated was right on top of Zach when more gunshots were fired. I turned to see Chelsea shooting its back, unloading the entire clip of her small handgun on the contaminated. Chelsea released the empty magazine and put in a new one. She began to fire off the entire clip again, unloading as fast as she could into the contaminated.
Unfortunately, the small rounds of the twenty-two did not seem to be doing much to the contaminated’s back. The skin of this beast was thick and calloused. No blood was dripping out of the monster, showing that the small rounds of ammunition were merely itching its back and not causing any major damage.
“Zach!” I yelled, trying to grab his attention while the contaminated was distracted by Chelsea. “Do you have slugs on you?”
He reached into his pocket pulling out two shells, “Two shots!” Zach continued to back pedal away from the contaminated. The huge contaminated was practically on top of him now, the arm of the beast thrusting out in a swiping motion but only hitting air.
“Fuck its knees up!” I yelled as I made my way around the beast. I heard a loud roar and looked over to see the contaminated grabbing a large barrel, why there was a random barrel sitting in
