Hounded | Book 3 | Hounded 3 Read online

  HOUNDED

  PART 3

  by

  Ellie Douglas

  AWARDS HOUNDED HAS WON

  Copyright © 2016, 2021 by Ellie Douglas.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places, and persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  If you haven’t read it yet, here is

  Hounded Part One’s link: Hounded 1

  And

  Hounded Part Two’s link: Hounded 2

  Cover design by Michelle Douglas,

  https://www.authorellie.com/covers

  Edited by Gerhard Dennis

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1: THE TRUTH IS OUT

  CHAPTER 2: ON THE ROAD

  CHAPTER 3: BELLAMY EMBARKS ON A MISSION

  CHAPTER 4: FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM

  CHAPTER 5: ETHAN RETURNS

  CHAPTER 6: THE ACCIDENT

  CHAPTER 7: FLESH AND BLOOD

  CHAPTER 8: THE DISCOVERY

  CHAPTER 9: REUNION AND LOSS

  CHAPTER 10: FAITH

  CHAPTER 11: NOT FORGOTTEN

  CHAPTER 12: TYRINGHAM

  CHAPTER 13: FAMILY IS EVERYTHING

  CHAPTER 14: GEORGE

  CHAPTER 15: TIME TO GO!

  CHAPTER 16: THE UNDEAD ARE NOT THE ONLY ENEMY

  CHAPTER 17: CLARKE AND HIS TROOPS

  CHAPTER 18: ON THE ROAD AGAIN

  CHAPTER 19: CAMP-O-LOT

  CHAPTER 20: KEENE, NEW HAMPSHIRE

  CHAPTER 21: RUNNING

  CHAPTER 22: SPRINGFIELD

  CHAPTER 23: ANKTI

  CHAPTER 24: NEW HAVEN

  CHAPTER 25: NEW YORK

  CHAPTER 26: SUFFERING

  CHAPTER 27: ON THE MOVE

  CHAPTER 28: A QUICK FEAST

  CHAPTER 29: INTO THE DARKNESS

  CHAPTER 30: RYKER

  CHAPTER 31: UNDERGROUND

  CHAPTER 32: BAD CHOICES

  CHAPTER 33: SECURITY

  CHAPTER 34: NEW LIFE

  CHAPTER 35: SURVIVORS

  CHAPTER 36: RUN LIKE THE WIND

  CHAPTER 37: CAT AND MOUSE

  CHAPTER 38: LIBERTY ISLAND

  CHAPTER 39: AFTER DARK…BLOOD SPILLS

  CHAPTER 40: DOWNTOWN

  CHAPTER 41: MASON

  CHAPTER 42: LIFE AND DEATH

  CHAPTER 43: PLANS

  CHAPTER 44: DEPLOYED

  CHAPTER 45: SANCTUARY

  CHAPTER 1

  THE TRUTH IS OUT

  “Jesus, Shadow, what the hell are you screaming about? You’re scaring Ronan half to death.” Julie scoffed while trying to soothe Ronan.

  Shadow was unable to catch her breath. She just kept screaming over and over.

  “The zombies, they’re here!”

  “More zombie dogs downstairs?” Pete snarled at her.

  “No! Fucking people! Listen to me! The old man, he’s now a walking thing, a zombie!”

  “Wait, are you saying that now we have people zombies?” Julie frantically asked, hoping it wasn’t the case.

  “Yes! It’s the old woman’s husband, the one we took downstairs. He’s walking around with his flesh all eaten out or whatever. He’s now a white-eyed, pus-filled, fucking zombie!”

  Pete left the room with a great need to see for himself. He made his way slowly down the stairs. Not yet halfway to the third floor, he saw Truman making his unearthly strides up the stairs.

  Unable to take his eyes off Truman, Pete watched him. He walked more like a scarecrow than a man, his head lopsided and lolling like he had a broken neck. A trail of phlegm and that familiar guttural snarl escaped from his lips.

  Pete felt his heart drop to his feet as he stood frozen in fear. Truman’s arms extended as he walked like a reanimated Frankenstein monster, he gained purchase on Pete’s shirt. He pulled Pete off his feet so unexpectedly that he whacked his head on the railing as the old man pulled him down four steps.

  Truman launched himself on top of Pete and began gnawing on his neck, ripping the flesh and tendons effortlessly and splattering torrents of blood like a shower of hot ash. Then Truman’s face suddenly shot up like a rabbit out of a hole. His face was mottled and covered in scabs, boils, and flaking, peeling flesh. His most ghoulish aspect was his hunger lust, just like that of the dogs. He aggressively buried his teeth inside Pete’s cheek, pulled back quickly, and ripped it off as if he were eating a juicy peach.

  No amount of pushing or pulling could set Pete free. He was locked in Truman’s jaws. His vision blurred as his hands clawed at Truman’s chest. More teeth gnashed into his face, ripping off part of his nose. Blood ran down in gory rapids and filled his gaping mouth, which could no longer scream.

  Truman grew more berserk and quickly escalated to total savagery. The taste of Pete’s blood sent him into a hyena-like frenzy, biting everywhere seemingly all at once. Pete’s face looked like it had been chopped up by a lawn mower. Truman worked his way down, then up again, pulling veins and arteries out of Pete’s throat and drawing them outward and stretching them until they snapped clean away from Pete’s gaping wounds.

  It was hard to see any skin as Pete’s warm red blood flowed over him and the banister. Truman feasted viciously. He tore a chunk from Pete’s chest, shirt and all, and Pete’s body went tumbling farther down the stairs to the next landing.

  His body lay crumpled, his head twisted abnormally to the side where his neck had snapped and his eyes wide open in the final grimace he bore.

  Truman awkwardly went down the stairs and perched over Pete’s dead carcass like a vulture over fresh carrion. He feasted feverishly, grunting and moaning incoherently as he buried his head inside Pete’s chest and pulled out bits of heart. Snapping his head upward, his no-eyes gazed hungrily up at Julie.

  She’d been standing a mere fifteen feet away, looking down horrified and unable to help Pete. Turning, she shrilly screamed as she fled back to the fifth floor while frantically searching for something to barricade the stairwell door. Finding a water cooler, she dragged it with her as she ran in. She pushed the door closed, flipped the lock, and shoved the cooler against it. It would have to do, she thought as her head exploded with a migraine. Her brain surged as her stomach bubbled acidic broths, bathing her throat in hot, bitter-tasting fluid.

  “Shadow, I don’t suppose you know how long Mrs. Barton’s husband was infected with SD-16?” Julie managed to ask between gulps of air while looking around the room.

  “I don’t fucking recall, why?” Shadow huddled trembling on the floor beside Spike’s bed and gazed up at the others with large, wide eyes.

  “Please try to. It’s important.”

  “Where’s Pete?” Kara asked.

  Julie didn’t want to be the one to tell her, but there was no one else, so she’d have to do it. She looked straight into Kara’s eyes and shook her head.

  “He’s gone, isn’t he?” Kara said. Julie could only nod.

  “I think she said he’d been sick for nearly four months,” Shadow said. “He was one of the first and the longest. Yes, that’s right. He contracted SD-16 before anyone else, and back then, they didn’t know what it was until a month later when others started getting it, so four months. Why?”

  “We have only four months? Fuck.”

  It was the second time Shadow h
ad heard Julie swear, and nothing good had come of it the first time.

  “Julie, just tell us. What the hell is going on?” Kara said while holding Ronan tightly.

  Julie stood, blankly staring at Tiffany. Then the tears erupted, temporarily putting her into a semi-catatonic state. She finally screamed herself out of it.

  “They are already dead!” she screamed while pointing at every patient in the room.

  “But they will all wake up!” She wailed so hard that Ronan had to put his little hands to his ears.

  “What are you talking about?” Shadow asked insistently.

  “Our loved ones are infected. They’re dying, and everyone who dies, turns. We don’t just have zombie dogs. We now have human zombies!” She sobbed so hard, her cheeks developed a rash that burned her like scalding water. “Those blisters, those pus-filled pockets of dying skin that we saw on our loved ones are the same as the ones we saw on Mrs. Barton and her husband, and the same as the shit on the dogs. And Mrs. Barton wasn’t infected. She died of a fucking overdose, so whoever dies is going to turn into a zombie and tear us apart for food. Fuck! That means we’re all dead, too!”

  Julie cupped her face, swaying back and forth. Ronan hugged his mother, who stared blankly at her comatose daughter. Shadow just stood breathing and not moving a single muscle other than her heart, which beat loud and fast.

  “You’re wrong, Julie!” she suddenly exclaimed. “You’re wrong! I remember Mrs. Barton saying she accidently scratched her arm with Truman’s nails when she was cleaning him up and the sore never healed. I think those that have been scratched or bitten by the SD-16 patients will turn, but those that haven’t – you know, like if you die from a fucking heart attack – you won’t get turned into a zombie.” Shadow insisted as she rubbed at her eyes, freeing them of the tears that had almost come through.

  “Ethan’s coming back for us, right?” Kara asked in a panic.

  “Jesus, Shadow, I hope you’re right,” Julie said. “We have no way of knowing, unless we kill someone who isn’t infected, wasn’t bitten or scratched. Yeah, like totally, we have no way of knowing. Are you prepared to test your theory out and kill someone?” She was almost hyperventilating as she spoke. Her breathing sounded like a heaving ball of chewed gum.

  “He said he was. I can only pray he makes it.” Shadow said, answering Kara and ignoring Julie. She cringed at the thought of everything happening so fast around them.

  “We can’t take them with us.” Julie said, pointing to the infected.

  “Maybe it’s best if we say our goodbyes now and head downstairs to wait somewhere for Ethan,” Kara suggested.

  “What if they don’t turn?” Shadow held Spike’s hand, not wanting to give up on him.

  “You see the sores, right?” Julie said. “You saw Truman and his wife. Do the math. This isn’t rocket science. We have only a few weeks until they turn, which going by Truman is only four months tops from start to finish.”

  “But… That means we can have a few weeks with them before they turn. Why can’t we stay here with them?” Kara asked in confusion as wetness spilled onto her reddening cheeks.

  “Because we don’t really know for sure. What’ll we do if it happens sooner? I don’t want to leave my girl, but I have to say goodbye to her now. If she changes while we’re asleep, we’re all going to die. What if Spike changes, or even your daughter Summa? We are all food to them. That’s all we are, food!”

  “Who are those two over there?” Kara asked, pointing to the beds in question.

  “That’s Rebecca, Ethan’s wife, and Robert, who is Jessica’s brother. Jessica is dead.” Julie coldly replied. She started gathering up the food, shoveling it into the duffel bags Ethan had left behind.

  “How the hell can you just walk away, Julie? Tell me, how?” Shadow growled as she sobbed at the same time, making her speech hard to understand.

  “Don’t do this to me, Shadow. This isn’t easy. That’s my daughter. She’s only fifteen years old. Don’t you dare assume this is easy. It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my entire damn life!” Julie had gotten right up into Shadow’s space, almost nose to nose, her entire body tensing as she practically screamed at Shadow.

  Shadow didn’t know what to say, and neither did Kara. They both stood like Medusa had just turned them into stone, expressionless beings with no thoughts other than primordial survival. It kicked in then for Julie, too, and her compulsive fear of dying advanced it. It was taking a little longer to kick in for the others.

  “Where the hell are we supposed to wait when we get downstairs?” Shadow finally asked after a lingering few minutes of silence.

  “The reception office. It’s got glass windows, so we can see out while we keep safe,” Julie decisively suggested.

  “If we see more of those Truman things, as much as it’ll shake the shit right out of me, it’ll also convince me that you’re right.” Shadow said as she grabbed her stuff. Her eyes fell on Spike’s body, and her lips quivered as she silently said goodbye.

  Kara gave Summa an enormous hug, and told her she loved her and would see her in Heaven. She picked up Ronan, who leaned in to kiss his sister goodbye. He was too frightened to talk, which suited Shadow, who was easily irritated by him.

  “Stop!” Julie commanded as she trembled just outside the door.

  “Why?” Kara wondered with her voice wavering.

  “We can’t go down the stairs. That thing is in the stairwell, and we have no weapons.”

  “Jesus, most, if not all, have left this hospital floor already, so we have plenty of empty rooms now to haul our asses into.” Shadow gestured with her hand for them to follow her.

  “It’s all very well to have a secure room, but we won’t see or hear when Ethan arrives, and how will he get up those stairs?” Kara asked as she began hiccupping.

  Shadow darted out of their new room, and quickly returned with paper and a permanent marker that she’d grabbed off the nurse’s desk. “We’ll leave Ethan a note. He’ll be able to manage himself up those stairs. I’ve seen him in action,” she said as she wrote out the message. She taped it to the door, locked the door, and then fell onto one of the empty beds.

  “Now we just sit and wait?” Kara asked.

  “Yeah, not much else we can do. At least this room has its own bathroom.” Shadow turned over and shut her eyes. Reality was festering inside her and surfacing at its own pace. Given some time, she’d come to terms with losing Spike. But for now, she didn’t want to think about it.

  Getting off the bed, she told them she was heading out for a smoke. She didn’t care anymore that they knew she smoked weed. She needed it and that was that. She took herself to the nearest unoccupied room, closed and locked the door, and hopped onto one of the beds. Folding her legs under her bum, she rolled a joint and took long drags until she began to relax.

  Julie started pacing the room. Her short pixie-cut hair clung to her neck as she perspired. Her heart pounded harder and harder, causing an ache she’d not experienced before. Longing for Calloway and Timothy, her thoughts flickered between seeing them dead and seeing them alive.

  Kara tried to make small talk with her, but Julie wasn’t capable of it at that moment. Her turmoil was only just starting. Kara picked up Ronan and gave him some crackers and a glass of water, Afterward, he took a long nap.

  Shadow knocked on the door, startling the hell out of Julie, who had switched off completely. The banging brought her back to the present.

  She called out. On hearing Shadow’s voice, she unlocked the door and let her in. Neither spoke. Shadow lay on a bed counting the holes in the ceiling panels while Julie paced the floor.

  CHAPTER 2

  ON THE ROAD

  Calloway had fallen asleep in the Black Widow. Timothy was watching a movie as Oliver took Highway 47. They passed by many zombie dogs, whose number seemed to have grown exponentially, thought Oliver. As he drove along, his mind wavered in and out of his past. With each human road kill he w
itnessed, with the abundant number of dogs feasting upon their flesh, he was pulled into a past memory.

  He was ten and had just discovered his first road kill, an opossum. He remembered picking up a stick, poking it, and turning it over, then running as fast as he could back home after seeing all the maggots and getting a whiff of that smell. Oh, that vile, rotting, death odor! Another memory took over, from when he was sixteen and had ducked behind the bleachers at school for his first smoke.

  He couldn’t understand why his memories were bogging him down so. He rubbed his forehead, blinked hard, and followed some action on the shoulder of the road.

  A cluster of people was clambering out of a van, desperately trying to find another working car – or so Oliver thought at first. He stared in disbelief and had to look multiple times to confirm he wasn’t seeing things. In an awkward rush, three humans with what appeared to be broken arms, growling and biting at the air, gave chase.

  One of the running women tripped and fell. She was unable to get up in time. A human zombie pulled her head up to its mouth, bit her nose and lips off in one bite, and wrenched them away from her face like pulling gum off the pavement. The other two soon grabbed at her fallen body. Each of them bit harder and faster, greedy for her flesh. Her screams blasted Oliver’s ears like a hurricane. He hadn’t been watching where he was going and slammed into an abandoned car.

  “Shit!” Calloway said as he rubbed at his knee, which had banged into the dash.

  Oliver just pointed. Calloway couldn’t believe his eyes. “That can’t be right!”

  “Afraid it is. We’re more fucked now than ever!” Oliver said as he backed up enough to go forward again. He quickly picked up speed, leaving behind what they saw.

  “What’s going on, Dad?” Timothy asked.

  “Nothing, son, go back to watching the movie. We just hit a car.”

  “Don’t lie, I heard Oliver. So, what gives?”

  Oliver looked at Calloway, his eyes empty yet filled with alertness.