Free Wormwood Dawn (Episode V) by Edward Crae

gonna be a cop in Indy. That didn’t work out too well, though. All this shit started right before I was gonna ship off to the academy.”
    “So, do we have to hide our drugs?” Drew joked.
    Cliff chuckled. “Nope,” he said with a smile. “As long as you share them.”
    “Oh, shit,” Drew whispered, stopping the Hummer.
    Around the corner, just on the other side of the bus, there was a huge pile of corpses in the road. There were dozens of bodies, all twisted and rotting, clumped together like a giant game of dead Twister. The smell was unbelievable, and there looked to be no way around it. The only way through was to just drive right over them.
    Drew stepped on the gas, his face scrunched up in disgust as they mounted Hamburger Hill. The squishing, cracking sounds of flesh and bone were audible even through the closed windows. The Hummer managed it, though, only pausing when the driver’s side tire got stuck in a slick swamp of glopping gore and spun for a few seconds.
    Finally, they felt pavement again, seeing that the way was still fairly clear. The cars were spaced a little wider on this side, and it looked like they could make it through.
    That is, until the tall, gangly form of something alive appeared in the headlights.
    “Jesus Christ,” Drew said, stopping with a slight squeal of the tires.
    The pale, withered creature stood in the center of the road, swaying slightly. Its face was turned down, and its arms hung limply at its sides. It was naked, filthy, and rotting, with strips of flesh hanging from its strangely firm and sinewy body.
    “What the fuck is that?” Dan whispered, his heart thumping.
    Though bathed in the headlights, the creature seemed oblivious to their presence. Only the slightest movement could be seen, as if it were sniffing the air. Its head slowly turned from side to side, and its fingers curled in anticipation. Maybe they could slip past it.
    Or maybe they could just run it down.
    Drew gunned it. Dan braced himself on the dashboard, gritting his teeth as they rapidly approached. There was a thump as they slammed into the creature, then a crash when the Hummer collided with a car behind it. They were thrown forward with the impact, and the creature’s stunned face turned up as it was wedged between the two vehicles.
    The creature’s mouth opened wide, revealing a dripping row of crooked and knife-like teeth. Its eyes were fiery red, and its spindly claws scratched against the hood as it tried to climb loose. Dan could hear the strange, bellowing cough that came from its maw. The hideous thing seemed to stare right at him. He had to stop it.
    “Give me that crossbow,” he said.
    Drew handed it to him, keeping his foot firmly on the brake. Dan pulled back the string, locking it in place and loaded up an arrow. He climbed up through the sunroof, aiming at the creature’s angry face. A snake-like tongue began to wiggle its way out, bringing with it a few mouthfuls of glop.
    Dan shot it right between the eyes.
    The arrow went right through, breaking the window of the car behind it. The creature convulsed for a moment before slowly slumping onto the hood. Dan climbed back in, setting the crossbow back onto Drew’s lap.
    “I’m not retrieving that arrow,” Drew said.
    “Me neither.”
    “Damn,” Cliff said, leaning up to examine the creature. “I’ve never seen one of those before.”
    Drew put the Hummer in reverse, backing away and going around the right of the smashed car. They stopped to look at the creature as it slowly flopped onto the pavement, its innards leaking out and spilling like a slow-motion rain storm. To Dan, the creature resembled the Robert-thing, only lacking the huge maw and the four tentacles on its back. Still, it was frightening and bizarre.
    “Something new, I guess,” he said. “Maybe the preacher was wrong about that part after all. The mutants aren’t dying, they’re just changing.”
    Drew shook his head, turning back to the road and