“Next left,” he said.

  The bike slowed to turn into the Slater family’s street, picked up a little speed then slowed again as they neared his house, stopping behind one of two cars that hadn’t moved from the start of the crisis.

  He jumped off the bike, pulled the garden gate open and rushed towards the front door, all the time expecting Liz to come running the other way but instead he hit up against it, and to his disappointment and fear it swung open, not being fully closed or locked.

  “Liz!”

  His boot crunched some glass and he realised the picture frames weren’t the only items lying on the hallway floor. He shouted her name again then moved to the living room entrance. The curtains were closed, and a table with some books that was near the wall were on the carpet. A cool breeze caught his attention and he ran into the dining room. The drapes hung from a few hooks, a gaping hole obvious where the large glass panels of the patio door should have been. He whipped around, moving back out into the hallway, where Ember was standing. Ignoring her he leaned into the kitchen, seeing some of the cupboards open then ran up the stairs, shouting his wife’s name as he went. He looked in the main bedroom, with its open drawers and clothes thrown across the sheets, then Tai’s room and finally the spare room. Some of its boxes were open, their contents spilled.

  The house was empty. He slowly came down the stairs. “She’s not here…” His mind returned to the cryptic text message. “Why not tell me she had to leave…”

  “Did she leave a note?” Ember leaned back out, looking along the road. There was movement just visible through leaves and branches of front gardens.

  Joe walked back into the dining room, scanning every surface for just such a sign of hope.

  “Hey…” Ember was looking at the car parked half on the curb in front of the house. “That your car?”

  He carried on looking. “If it’s silver, then yeah.”

  “Because I think there’s something under the wiper…”

  Joe turned, pushed past Ember and ran down the path, stopping abruptly when he saw a young girl standing in the doorway of the house opposite. Keeping his eye on her, he leaned across the bonnet and pulled the damp piece of paper free, then tried to make sense of the smudged ink.

  ‘Acr… flat…’ Was all he could make out.

  He looked up at the girl who was now at the end of the pathway, almost at the pavement. She was clearly not one of the dead. Ember moved in behind him.

  “You the husband of Liz?” shouted the girl.

  “Yeah.” Joe walked forward, then stopped on seeing the things to his left, some hundred yards away. He took a few more steps towards the girl. “You know her?” The girl’s expression was that of a statue, not what he wanted. He wanted to be able to read her face and find out what she knew before she told him. He wanted to know if his wife was dead or not.

  The girl nodded towards the house behind her. “You need to see something inside.”

  Ember was now standing in the street behind them both. “The things are coming, Joe.”

  He walked onto the path, following the girl. “I know. I won’t be long.” The hallway of the property was full of shadow, and the deeper he moved inside the further despair reached across his thoughts. He would not find the body of his wife inside this stranger’s home. That was not going to happen.

  They were inside a flat, at the back of the long ground floor room. The curtains were pulled back, illuminating what had taken place, but none of that registered for him as a pool of stiff crimson liquid sat on the floor and across the chairs, a small table and bookshelves.

  The smell confirmed what it was, and he wanted to be sick. He rushed forward, pushed the patio door open and let the cool air take some of the nausea from him. Something moved at the bottom of the garden, amongst trees and a shed. One of the dead. A young woman. He didn’t care.

  “I…”

  Joe looked back at the girl standing inside. “Who are you?”

  “Jewel. I was here last night. Your wife was staying in the flat above—”

  Joe ran back inside, into the hallway.

  “She’s not there!” shouted Jewel. He stopped halfway up the stairs, and looked back down at the girl. She continued. “She stayed with him. He said—”

  “Him? Who’s ‘him?’”

  “I think his name was James.” The girl looked briefly away. “I didn’t like him. Got the wrong kind of vibe from him. Know what I mean?” She looked back into the flat. “I don’t know what happened here, but…. I dunno. I think he had a thing for your wife…”

  Joe walked down the stairs, panic in his eyes, making Jewel take a step back. Her words were actually making him feel worse, for they made no sense. “Where? Where did he go!”

  “I don’t know! He had a van parked in the alley out back, and it’s gone. That’s why I came back. I thought I could take it for myself… and…”

  “And?”

  She looked away. “Liz… she seemed a nice woman. I wanted to check up on her.”

  Ember was in the doorway behind them. “Joe? We got maybe a minute before those things are on us. And there’s more building up behind them.”

  “Ok!” He walked and sat on the bottom step, rubbing his hand across his face, trying to figure out a plan, but the smell of the blood kept blocking his attempt to do so.

  “Look,” said Jewel. “Like I say. I think he liked her. I know that’s a lot of blood. But it could be anyone’s. If he killed her. Why would he just up and leave? Why take the van?”

  “Maybe he thought I would return. I would find out.” Joe pushed the words out through gritted teeth, his throat tightening, his eyes becoming sore.

  “But there’s no way you would know to look here.”

  Joe held up the scrap of paper.

  “So what? He could have just said one of the things got her. Why leave…” She emphasised the word ‘leave.’

  Joe looked up at the teenager. She had a point. It wasn’t much but it was something and that was better than the alternative, which he couldn’t accept. “I got no way of…” He looked at Ember, impatiently waiting on the path then got up and walked to the open front door. “The cameras?”

  She looked back at him. “What?”

  “The traffic cameras?”

  “Yes! What about them? Joe, if you’re coming back with me, we have to go now!”

  Joe looked back at Jewel. “Thank you.” She nodded and he moved back outside. “Shit,” he said on seeing the large group of bodies, awkwardly shuffling towards them. “Yeah, yeah, let’s go.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  LIZ

  Muffled engine noises. The smell of oil. Liz’s body shuddered then jolted, the sudden slowdown making her rock back against something solid. A toolbox perhaps. She knew she was in a vehicle and it was moving, but that’s all she knew, as her eyes were bound, as were her wrists and ankles, both of which were burning from the coarse rope binding them.

  From the moment he threatened to do to her, what he had just done to the poor Latvian girl, Liz had to fight not to throw up and collapse in a heap of sobbing. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. That ‘straw’ being abducted by a murderer. A multiple one at that. The cleaved face of another girl kept sliding into Liz’s thoughts, along with Tia, Joe and her mother and with their images came another wave of nausea, followed by an overwhelming sense of loss. At the fringes of her mind was the voice of despair. Whispering it was all pointless. Joe would never find Tia or her. She would never see the people she loved again, and she would die at the hands of a madman, in the midst of the world ending.

  For now, it was a voice she could quell. There would be no giving up if she still breathed. She would see Tia again. And her husband and mother. As for the world. That would have to fix itself.

  The engine was roaring again. The vehicle was accelerating.

  She slid left then right, each time feeling other things fall on her. Was she inside a van?

  Without knowing if his eyes were directly on her, she brought her feet in, shifted her weight a little then slowly pushed them back out… She hit up against more obstructions. Doing the same in the opposite direction confirmed she was confined within a narrow space, with things on both sides and behind her head. It was too big of an area to be a car, even an SUV, so she had to be in the back of a van. That meant he probably couldn’t see her.

  She fought a little against the binding on her wrists, which were behind her back, and despite the pain started to feel as if there was a little give between her frayed skin and the rope. Back and forth she moved her hands, increasing the gap, making the rope loose until she pulled her left hand free.

  She waited for a reaction. There was none. Just the same constant droning of the engine and the occasional bump through the floor.

  Her fingers felt carpet, the kind you lay in the back of a van, then kept—

  She retracted her hand into her stomach so quickly she almost winded herself. Not wanting to, but having no choice she raised her hand to her nose and through the rag covering her face, smelt the metallic substance which was covering her fingertips.

  A cascade of thoughts ran through her mind, leaving her with one horrifying conclusion. He had brought Alise’s body with them. And it was laying just inches away. She had been crashing into it each time the van turned.

  She wanted to gag, the revulsion becoming too much. Set free what little food there was inside but she also knew she had to fight the impulse. She had a rag in her mouth and any retching could result in her choking on her own vomit.

  But she felt so sick…

  To avert drowning in her own bodily fluids she started to ask herself questions.

  ‘Why did he bring the body?’

  ‘Why did he not kill me?’ Although she had an answer to that particular line of enquiry which she did not want to face.

  ‘Where were they going?’

  And finally. How was she going to kill him?

  Continued in book two.

  Thank you for reading Deadfall, book one in the Infernal Contagion series, I hope you enjoyed it. Book two will be coming soon, in October.

  If you would like news on my latest releases, special offers or a free book, you can sign up to my mailing list on my website at www.philmaxeyauthor.com .

  Thank you again.

  Phil.

  *****

  About the Author

  Phil Maxey is an author who resides in the UK. Formally a game developer he now spends his time putting his love of sci-fi and the paranormal into words.

  *****

  Acknowledgements

  Book cover design by www.starbookcovers.com.

 

 

  Phil Maxey, Deadfall: A Zombie Apocalypse Thriller

 

 

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