{"id":440,"date":"2017-12-03T14:49:06","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T19:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.astoundingoutpost.com\/?p=440"},"modified":"2017-12-03T14:49:06","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T19:49:06","slug":"hellbound-express-chapter-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/2017\/12\/03\/hellbound-express-chapter-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellbound Express Chapter 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

For your reading pleasure, here is fourth installment of Mel Odom\u2019s Hellbound Express. If you haven\u2019t yet read the first two chapters, here (chapter 1<\/a>, chapter 2<\/a>, chapter 3<\/a>, and chapter 4<\/a>) are the links for them. Enjoy<\/p>\n

Chapter 5
\nBy Mel Odom<\/p>\n

\nGant ignored Northland Pioneer College and the Falcon Restaurant & Lounge. Scavengers would have hit those places hard and picked them clean.
\nHe wasn\u2019t certain how long the living residents of Winslow might have held out against the virus and the dead. Some places had held up for a time, but eventually metropolitan areas died. If Yeomra didn\u2019t get them, if they didn\u2019t get infected, then hopelessness, fear, famine, or thirst did.<\/p>\n

It had taken time for survivors to know what they were up against and how best to guard themselves against those dangers. Outbreak and infection had racked up the most kills in the second wave. People had tried too hard to save other people. Survivors had learned to police themselves, to stay in small groups so they could move fast and live off the land, and no one wanted to trust a stranger.
\nStrangers brought potential outbreaks, and too often they were raiders who only wanted to get inside a group and get into position to take everything their would-be saviors had.<\/p>\n

Gant had learned that lesson in Afghanistan. He\u2019d learned it again after surviving the initial attrition Yeomra caused. He still bore scars from an attack by three teenaged kids who had taken his supplies, food, and water, then left him for dead.
\nThe people who had thirsted to death bothered Gant the most. He passed an SUV that held a man whose features had ballooned up and turned black from thirst. He wore an Arizona State sweatshirt. His thick, black tongue protruded from his mouth.
\nBeside him, a corpse in a bright yellow blouse flecked with dried blood leaned against the passenger door. She\u2019d been shot in the back of the head and the bullet had passed through the passenger window. Dried blood and other matter smeared the starred bullet hole.<\/p>\n

As Gant drove by, the dead thing behind the wheel turned its head and moaned at him. It closed its jaws hungrily and its teeth severed its tongue, dropped and disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of them in the cars,\u201d Jenni said when she pulled up alongside Gant. They turned together and rode north on North Williamson Street. \u201cThat\u2019s a good sign, yeah?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe.\u201d In other cities they\u2019d scavenged, the dead had been cleared out by people who\u2019d survived the virus. Mostly, though, there\u2019d been no escape. Someone died and the virus flared up again.
\n\u201cThe trucks aren\u2019t going to be able to drive down these streets,\u201d Jenni said.
\nGant watched the street and threaded through the cars, which were packed too tightly to allow the big Fords to drive through.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have to drive down the streets,\u201d Gant said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we brought off-road vehicles. We\u2019ll just scout up the houses, see if there\u2019s anything worth having.\u201d
\nThe trucks waited a half-mile outside town. The other motorcycle team followed behind Gant and Jenni. As planned, they\u2019d come in five minutes afterward and go north on North Berry Avenue.<\/p>\n

Their recon the day before had settled on a twelve-block square of residences between Williamson and Berry on the east and west, and Maple and Mulberry to the north and south. The area was away from Winslow Junior High School to the east and Winslow Public Library to the north. Both of those places would have been hotbeds for survivors in the early days of the virus, and they\u2019d have been active sites for scavengers searching for supplies.<\/p>\n

The residential area would be quieter, hopefully, and was far enough away to be a little isolated. Also, the streets there ran in straight lines, leaving the view clear except for the trees, bushes, and overgrown yards. Dead or living, potential threats would stand out for blocks along the streets.
\nThe dead that remained inside the houses were the greatest threat. The scouts entered those premises searching for food, medicine, shoes, and clothing.
\nReaching the corner of Williamson and Maple, Gant brought the motorcycle to a halt and put out a leg to keep balanced. He slipped the transmission into neutral, released the clutch and brake, and took his helmet off to scan the neighborhood. The motorcycle engines throbbed in his ears.<\/p>\n

Modest brick and wood houses, many of them with front yards behind picket fences and straight wire fences, line the street. Sidewalks led up to generous porches and trees stood in overgrown yards.<\/p>\n

It reminded Gant of the neighborhood where he\u2019d grown up in Tyler. He put those feelings away before they could take root. He had a job to do.
\nFour living dead, three men and one woman, shambled from behind the houses to his left. Gant relaxed a little. At least they were adults. He hated dealing with dead children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell?\u201d Jenni asked. \u201cWe doing this?\u201d<\/p>\n

The dead closed in almost at a run. The way they stutter-stepped sometimes, it was easy to forget how quickly they could move.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d Gant pulled his helmet back on, pulled the chinstrap tight, killed the motorcycle engine, and threw his leg over. He left his pistols in the double shoulder rig, didn\u2019t touch the cut down double-barreled shotguns holstered along his thighs, and pulled the ASP tactical baton from his right boot and the Browning Black Label Shock N\u2019Awe Tomahawk from his left boot.<\/p>\n

As a kid, Gant had played videogames where avatars carried multiple weapons. As a Marine, he\u2019d carried an assault rifle, a 9mm pistol, and the tomahawk in lieu of a fighting knife. In war, he\u2019d believed in staying stripped down to those weapons.
\nBut out here in apocryphal lands, he carried everything he could because he never knew what would be needed.<\/p>\n

Jenni shook out her own ASP to its full twenty-two inch length as Gant did.<\/p>\n

\u201cReady?\u201d Gant asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gant stepped into the confrontation as he bladed his body and reduced his profile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For your reading pleasure, here is fourth installment of Mel Odom\u2019s Hellbound Express. If you haven\u2019t yet read the first two chapters, here (chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, and chapter 4) are the links for them. Enjoy Chapter 5 By Mel Odom Gant ignored Northland Pioneer College and the Falcon Restaurant & Lounge. Scavengers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[22,37,57,85,99,104],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astounding-stories","category-hell-bound-express","tag-brian-kean","tag-george-romero","tag-mel-odom","tag-the-rising","tag-zombie-novels","tag-zombies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}