The Upheaval Read online

  "I'm going to go check out the track," he said.

  "Why?" Carl demanded but he was already rising to his feet.

  "I just have to."

  "Are you having "feelings" now too?" John was tempted to smack Carl for the finger air quotes that he put around the word feelings, but he would have been just as skeptical if the roles had been reversed.

  "You can stay here," he replied.

  "No, a stroll around this place, at night, sounds like a great idea right now or the beginning of a really bad horror movie."

  John ground his teeth together and glared at him. Carl didn't acknowledge the death stare as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "I'm going with you," Riley volunteered.

  "We can't leave Xander here by himself," John said.

  "I'll wake him," Riley said.

  She walked past John and over to where Xander was propped up against the back tire of the truck. She rested her hand on his shoulder. He woke with a start and stared around in confusion as she spoke with him. He wiped at his eyes, glanced around, and rose tiredly to his feet.

  Carl opened the door to the truck to retrieve a flashlight. "Will it be ok to leave the truck?" Xander asked.

  "It should be fine," Carl said but he still grabbed the keys from the ignition. "Are you sure about this?"

  "I can't just sit here right now, that's for sure," John said as he scanned the night again. They'd seen nothing other than some wandering horses since arriving here but he was certain there were answers to be found amongst the shadowed buildings. There were also numerous places to hide but if there was someone out there that was going to try and eat them, they would have already tried to do so.

  Their footsteps were nearly silent as they walked down the paved road in between the rows of barns on this hillside. At the bottom of the road was a hill that went down to an oval track encircled by a white fence. The large grandstand building stood to the right of the track; the gleaming moonlight reflected off of its darkened windows. In the center of the track a handful of horses grazed on the grass while others slept in the field.

  "Where are we going?" Riley asked from beside him.

  "I don't know," John muttered. He just knew that his eyes were open and that a voice had promised him answers. It was absolute insanity, he knew that, and if someone else had said it to him, he might actually have considered tying them up, but he was becoming increasingly certain there were answers to find here.

  Going on instinct and the memory of what they'd seen from the road, he was drawn irresistibly to the left and the other track located there. They walked past a cluster of more barns on their right. The flashlight beam bounced disconcertingly over the pavement. The strain the bobbing light placed on his eyes made his head pound but he continued on.

  Nearing the other track, he started picking up on a strange noise, one he didn't immediately recognize. "Is that hoof beats?" Carl inquired.

  John felt the color leech from his face. Of course there could be hoof beats, there were horses all around them but the mention of hoof beats brought him back to the dream he'd had with his father weeks ago. That dream had also left him rattled and confused upon waking but it hadn't left him with the certainty there were finally answers to be found like this dream had. His step faltered slightly and he froze for a second before hurrying to catch up with the others again.

  "I think they are," Xander answered.

  The barns and buildings on their right began to fade away. John frowned and tilted his head back to look at the clear night sky again. His sore neck protested the movement; he dropped his head down to take in the area around them. The hoof beats echoed in the air as they continued to pound across the ground. The buildings fell away to reveal another oval track at the bottom of a hill. Like the other track, there were horses in the center field of this one but they were running toward the chain link fence on the far side of it. Before they could crash into the fence, the animals all skidded to a halt and spun around to come back toward them. Some of the animals fled across a grassy hill on their right but more than a dozen of them ran across the grassy center of the track.

  He had no idea what had spooked the animals, or what drove them to run from one end of the dirt track to the other but he couldn't shake the hideous belief this strange running was the precursor to the awful mounds they'd seen throughout their travels.

  "What are they doing?" Riley whispered.

  Carl clicked the flashlight off, but strangely, the night around them didn't dim. With the flashlight off, John could see that the strange light of the night wasn't coming from the moon. The illumination came from the area in between the two tracks where a water truck and an assortment of other vehicles were parked in front of a large building. It took him a minute to realize that the building must have been the maintenance area for the racetrack.

  The vehicles and building were oddly lit up but he couldn't see what was causing it. The light encroached upon the track as it moved toward them. The horses had already made it to the other side of the track again and were now fleeing back toward them.

  The only sound the animals made was the pounding of their hooves across the dirt. The horses didn't whinny, they didn't cry. John looked down as the horses stopped at the bottom of the hill beneath them again. Their sides heaved, their nostrils flared, and their eyes rolled in their heads as they pressed together against the grassy hillside.

  "What the…?" Xander's voice trailed off.

  John found his hand inexplicably shaking upon his gun. His dream had promised answers, it had promised beauty, but he couldn't shake the feeling that his subconscious had been lying to him. Perhaps it hadn't been his subconscious talking to him after all; perhaps it really had been something more. Riley had her feelings and maybe he had his voices. His voices might have been coming from demons though.

  He was definitely losing his mind, he decided. He wanted to get out of here, but he found himself unable to move even a centimeter as he waited for the source of that light to reveal itself.

  And then the light moved into view. It felt like the world did a complete one eighty while he stared down at the spectacle before him. He would have pinched himself, he would have asked the others if they were seeing what he was seeing too, but not one part of his body would respond to anything he told it to. What had revealed itself was so completely unbelievable that it shattered everything he thought he'd ever known about the world. It took every belief he'd ever had and threw it out the window. He was scared it also took a part of his mind and completely shredded it of all the sanity that it may have still possessed.

  What revealed itself was so awful that John knew Hell had been unleashed upon earth. Yet, as the voice had promised, there was a strangely captivating beauty about it. He couldn't tear his eyes away as it continued across the field to the horses below them. He was mesmerized by it as the horses began to climb over top of one another in an attempt to escape the creation baring down upon them.

  A part of him wanted to cry, another part understood everything that had happened. Understood every awful event and thing that had been unleashed since the quakes had started on that long ago day at seven twenty-two in the morning. He had his answers. They might not have been the ones he'd been seeking, weren't even the ones he'd been expecting but it all made perfect sense to him now.

  CHAPTER 26

  Mary Ellen,

  She could feel the beat of her heart slamming against her ribs; feel the pulse of her blood in her fingertips as more gunshots rang out from the camp. A scream built in her throat but she fought it back. All she could think about was getting to her daughter; Rochelle's name ran repeatedly through her mind as she forced herself to speeds she'd never considered possible.

  Her foot got caught up on a tree root; she tripped and nearly fell but managed to keep her balance as adrenaline drove her onward. Screams and shouts echoed from the camp as she arrived at the back of the cabin and ran toward the front of it. Donald grabbed hold of her arm, jerking her back before
she could bolt out into the open.

  "What are you doing?" she protested loudly when he pushed her against the side of the cabin.

  "Wait!" he commanded brusquely.

  She didn't want to wait, she jerked on her arm but he didn't release her as he poked his head cautiously around the corner of the building. Al caught up to them and stopped on the other side of her. "He's right," Al huffed. "You could get shot."

  More gunshots rang out; a scream pierced the air. "We have to help them!" she cried.

  She jerked her arm away from him as Donald pulled his head back. "Let's go, but cautiously," Donald advised before ducking out around the building.

  Mary Ellen stayed low behind him and rushed forward. "Coming from behind!" Donald shouted as they ran toward the others.

  Claire stood on the other side of the clearing with Freddie at her side. They barely glanced back at them as they were busy firing at the sick people coming at them from the woods. One look at their flaking skin, tattered clothes, and the flesh of the gray naked one was enough for Mary Ellen to confirm it was the same group from earlier. Her eyes shot toward where Nancy stood by the lake but she didn't see Victor or Rochelle anywhere.

  Thoughts were barely able to form in her mind as she frantically searched for her daughter. Continuing toward the others, she finally spotted Rochelle around the corner of the cabin and to the left of Claire. She fired at one of the sick ones approaching her but another one was coming at her from the side.

  "Rochelle look out!" The words were screamed so forcefully that her throat instantly became raw.

  She fired wildly at the creature stalking her daughter while she continued to run. Bullets slammed into the earth around the one hunting Rochelle, they were all off their mark. She swore her heart stopped as the creature launched at Rochelle and brought her down. Everything around her burst into crisp detail, the world dropped out from under her.

  There had been many times in her life when she'd been afraid, but all of those paled in comparison to watching that thing pounce upon her daughter. Speed she didn't know she had burst from her as a shout of rage tore from her brutalized throat. She raced across the clearing and flung herself onto the back of the monster on top of her daughter.

  The sight of her daughter's blood caused another bellow to escape her. She clawed and beat savagely at the thing under her. The feel of the creature reminded her of a snake laying out to absorb the sun as the heat of its skin burned against her hands. The thing had a temperature high enough to fry its brain, something she was certain had already happened. She'd assumed its skin would feel slimy or even scaly like a snake's. Instead it felt like any other person with dry skin would feel. If that skin was also fiery, festering and infested with maggots in some areas.

  How could they still mostly feel like a person but be so demented and wrong? She wondered as she succeeded in wrapping one arm around its neck and the other around its forehead. She jerked back on its head with far more strength than she'd known she could possess. Her teeth grated together as she continued to pull back, nearly bending the creature over backward before finally succeeding in tearing it away from her daughter.

  It fell on top of her when she sprawled onto her back but she refused to let it go. Its arms and legs flailed as it thrashed about in an attempt to break free of her hold. Mary Ellen struggled to breathe against the weight crushing her into the earth and the elbows jamming into her ribs, but there was no way she was ever going to let it go with Rochelle still so close.

  Donald appeared above her, she tried to focus on him but her vision was going blurry from lack of oxygen and the crushing pressure on her chest. He tried to grab hold of the thing on her but it knocked his hands away and tore into his forearms.

  "Turn your head!" Donald shouted at her when blood began to spill down his arms.

  Mary Ellen turned her head but she could still see it when Donald placed his gun against the thing's temple and pulled the trigger. Even with her head turned, blood splattered on her face and clogged her lashes. Her ears rang from the shot, her eardrum had to have been blown out but it didn't matter right now. Donald placed his foot against the thing's shoulder and grunted as he shoved it off of her.

  She blinked back the blood coating her lashes and wiped her arm across her face to try and clear her vision. It was still a little difficult to see but she pushed herself into a seated position. Air wheezed into her lungs as she searched frantically for Rochelle. Her daughter staggered to her feet near the cabin. Her arms and legs were scratched, she was the color of paste, but she didn't have any other injuries.

  Mary Ellen launched to her feet and ran toward her. Wrapping her arms securely around her, she pulled Rochelle against her chest and hugged her. She would have given anything to just sit and hold her daughter right now but there were still more of those things within the woods.

  "Get in the cabin," she ordered briskly.

  "I can help," Rochelle protested.

  "No, you have to get inside." Mary Ellen brushed the hair back from her face and kissed her forehead. "Go!" she commanded and pushed Rochelle toward the cabin as more gunshots erupted.

  Rochelle took a couple of stumbling steps away before turning and bolting toward the cabin. Mary Ellen spotted Victor standing on the porch; he looked terrified and small as he watched the violence unfolding before him. Mary Ellen spun away and took aim at one of the things standing within the trees. They were like a horde of locusts, everywhere at once and looking to destroy everything they came across.

  One of the sick people in the trees started to come at her, she waited until it was in a more open position before pulling the trigger. She managed to hit it in the arm but it didn't change course as it continued to bear down on her. From beside her, Al planted his feet and pulled the trigger, hitting it in the chest and knocking it back.

  "Don't forget to aim for their chests," he told her in a clipped tone.

  Mary Ellen nodded but when she went to pull the trigger again nothing happened. She cursed loudly and tossed the empty gun aside. Grabbing hold of a thick stick near her foot, she swung it up and caught another one of the sick humans under the chin as it came at her. Its head shot back, teeth exploded out of its mouth but the fact that it would now have to gum her flesh in order to eat her did nothing to deter it from its course.

  A bullet caught it in the head; its head snapped back with so much force that it was knocked onto its ass. Its arms and legs flailed on the ground, strange sounds escaped it before it finally went still. Mary Ellen pulled her knife from its holder at her side when two more emerged from the woods. Even with the weapon in hand, she was becoming increasingly certain they were going to be overrun as Claire tossed aside her rifle and pulled out a handgun. Nancy released a startled cry when one of them knocked her off her feet and pounced.

  "I got her!" Donald shouted and raced across the clearing toward her.

  Mary Ellen gripped the knife tightly in her hand. Another one began to approach her at a leisurely pace that unnerved her far more than if it had just launched at her. Fried fever brain or not, this one was a hunter and it had targeted her for its prey. Her sweaty palms caused her to adjust her hold on her knife as she backed cautiously away from it.

  Al's shoulder pressed against hers, he lifted his gun and shot at another one coming at them from the left, but there was another one directly behind it. Were they multiplying? The insane notion hit her, she knew it wasn't possible but she couldn't shake it. Sweat coated her; her clothes clung to her skin as adrenaline pounded through her. She watched her hunter and waited for it to try to eat her.

  Another shot sounded from behind her, causing her to jump as a bullet caught her hunter in the shoulder. She glanced behind her to see Rochelle standing only ten feet away with a gun in her hand and a determined look on her face. Mary Ellen wanted to be mad at her for putting herself in danger, but it was impossible when she was also so unbelievably proud. She may have been a coward when she'd been with Larry, but she certainly hadn
't raised one.

  Rochelle ran over to her and handed her another gun. "Go back to the cabin," Mary Ellen told her and fired at one that was running toward Freddie. The creature spun around and began to howl when her bullet tore into its side.

  "No," Rochelle replied stubbornly.

  Mary Ellen gave her a stern look but she didn't argue with her, there was no point in it and now wasn't the time. The sick were dropping around them but there were still four of them left and three of them had retreated to the woods. They moved so swiftly through the shadows of the forest that she had a difficult time tracking them through the trees. Claire stepped forward and blessedly silenced the one still screeching on the ground.

  Now there are three, she thought.

  Everyone moved closer together as they tried to track their hunters through the woods. Mary Ellen's eyes slid up to the tops of the trees as movement drew her attention to the branches but she didn't see anything through the leaves. "We have to get them," Donald said.

  "I think they're going to come for us," Mary Ellen whispered.

  She'd barely gotten the words out when the three of them burst out of the woods from numerous directions. Mary Ellen raised the gun and aimed for the chest of the one closest to her. She pulled the trigger but the shot was off and took it in the shoulder. The next one hit it in the thigh. Its movements were hindered but the bullet in its flesh didn't register as it continued forward at a rapid pace. The next shot hit it in the gut; its arms wrapped around its stomach, it doubled over and took a few more steps before its knees hit the ground.

  The other two darted into the woods and vanished within the foliage. Mary Ellen's hands shook as the one she'd shot in the stomach continued to writhe on the ground and emit sounds of pure agony. She despised the sounds of suffering coming from it but she found herself riveted upon the barely recognizable human before her.

  Donald stepped forward and put a bullet through its forehead, finally putting it out of its misery. Mary Ellen stared at it for a minute more before lifting her head to search the woods for the others. Quiet descended over the clearing, a quite that seemed strangely loud after all of the noise. She became acutely aware of the ringing in her ears and the loud breathing of those around her. Her nose filled with the heightened odor of those around her as their terror came off of them in waves.