Free Wormwood Dawn (Episode V) by Edward Crae Page A

continuing on. Dan’s mind flashed back to his fight with Robert back at the parking garage. He remembered the alien nature of the creature, its ability to speak and think like before, and its high tolerance for physical damage. He had emptied an entire magazine of rounds into it, and still it came. It took a small horde of shadowy things—or maybe his own imagination—to destroy it. Even then, he had to splat its brains onto the pavement after chopping it in half with the car.
    But then it was gone…
    Was this new thing another variation of the psycho? Or was it just an evolved form of something else; a shambler maybe, or a shuffler? The human flesh was still there, albeit sluffing off like rotting banana peels.
    “You see that big tower up ahead,” Cliff asked Drew. “That’s where you turn off.”
    “Man,” Dan said, “that’s awfully close to this wreck. How did you not see it on the way through?”
    “The highway is clear in the other lane,” Cliff said. “Besides, I didn’t come this way, remember?”
    “So why go all the way to that little shit town?” Dan asked.
    Cliff sighed, shaking his head. Dan could tell he was stalling, or just trying not to give any details. But Cliff shrugged and spilled it.
    “I didn’t really wanna go back,” he said, finally. “I thought maybe I could find another place to go.”
    Dan nodded. He could understand that. From what Cliff had said earlier about Melanie, he couldn’t really blame the guy.
    “That bad, huh?” he said.
    Cliff grunted. “Yeah,” he said. “But I didn’t want to leave Travis and the others. They’re good people.”
    “Maybe things can be different,” Dan assured him. “After all, Drew and I are some pretty cool dudes.”
    “And we have beer,” Drew added.
    Cliff chuckled, watching out the window as Drew turned off near a large cell tower. The road was gravel, and twisted up into a hilly, forested area. This was, apparently, some kind of private junkyard, or something similar, inconveniently located in Bunfuct, Egypt. What a great place to hide. And with the cell tower nearby, maybe they could get connected if there was some way to power it. Surely, there was someone out there who was trying to get things up and running again. Maybe this Max could make it happen with the right equipment.
    “Keep it slow,” Cliff said. “We don’t want to scare them. I left in a pickup and now we’re rollin’ up in a Hummer.”
    “But we have beer,” Drew said.

Chapter Eight
    They pulled into the gravel parking area at the top of the hill. The fences that surrounded the place were just as Cliff described them. They were at least eight or ten feet tall, double-rowed, and topped with barbed wire that was slanted outward. Around the fences, spread out randomly, were the rusted husks of hundreds of old cars. There was a wide gate, also protected by barbed-wire, and a house-sized building with a flat roof; most of the windows were boarded up.
    Inside the complex were many wooden sheds arranged in a random fashion. They were probably fifteen foot wide and ten foot deep. In their midst, the glow of a small fire projected flickering, orange light on them. Two large men sat by it, warming themselves from the chill. Cliff stood up through the sunroof, directing Drew to approach the gate.
    “Max,” Cliff called. “It’s me, man. Open up.”
    Dan watched another shadowy figure approach the gate from the inside, fiddling with a chain. He slid the gate open, and Drew slowly drove in, stopping near the man who had let them in. Cliff rolled down the window.
    “Cliff,” a younger, portly man said. “I thought we lost you.”
    “I’m good, man,” Cliff said. “These guys found me up in Oolitic. They’re good guys, and they have supplies.”
    Max peeked in the driver’s side window. Drew grinned widely. Dan did too. Max nodded in greeting and stepped back to wave them in.
    “Park anywhere, I guess,” Cliff said.
    Over the growl of the engine, Dan