The Redemption Trilogy

by A. J. Sikes

  “What the fuck, man? What the absolute—”

  “Keep it down. They could be anywhere and they’ll hear you.” Rex motioned with the gun for Jed to start moving. “We have to go. We have to find some place safe.”

  Jed took a step back and froze in place. The ruins of New York surrounded them, with wrecked cars, shattered buildings, and mountains of debris filling the once proud streets. Jed felt his own pride covered in filth as well. Meg had gone down the open manhole between him and Rex. She’d fallen into the sewer, with the monsters.

  He’d tried to help. His protective suit snagged on a car hood, and he’d fallen over a body as he spun to the side to get free. He was almost at the manhole when Rex had shoved him away and pulled the gun.

  Rex had pushed the manhole cover back in place while Jed stared at him in shock.

  “We can’t leave her down there!”

  “Keep it down,” Rex said. His eyes twitched left and right behind the visor of his CBRN hood. Jed felt the closeness of his own mask and suit, constricting and tugging no matter how he stood or tried to hold himself. Every inch of his body screamed to be let out of the damn body condom, but if he got a speck of tainted blood on him…

  Jed still had his axe from the fire station. He could probably knock the gun out of Rex’s hand—

  Meg’s scream from the sewer split the air. Rex shook his head like he had a bee under his hood. He stepped backwards, dropped the gun, and took off running. Jed watched him go and thought about picking up the gun. Then he saw it didn’t even have a magazine in it.

  Motherfucker played me.

  Meg was still screaming from the sewer, calling for help, but a loud hiss and shriek spun Jed around. He came face to face with two of the creatures sitting on top of a car. Their sickly pale white flesh glistened, even in the weak sunlight. Spit drooled from their open gaping mouths as they flicked ropy tongues around their lips. Veins bulged from their flesh in dark lines that looked like rivulets of oil.

  Jed backed away, holding his axe in front of him. The monsters paced side to side, and then sprang forward. He caught the first one with a chop through its face, dropping it to the pavement where it landed and thrashed at the wound with its clawed hands.

  The second one landed awkwardly beside Jed. It held one arm at its side, like the shoulder was out of joint. Jed reared back to swing the axe as the monster whipped its good arm at his legs. Its claws tore a gash in Jed’s CBRN suit, but missed his flesh beneath. He tripped on his own feet and fell backwards, still holding the axe in front of his chest. The monster shrieked and sprang forward, crashing on top of him.

  He drove the axe head into its bad shoulder. The thing screamed and jerked away, sliding off of him. Jed rolled onto his hip, bringing the axe down again and again until the monster was dead.

  The other one had tried to slink away, holding its hand over the slice Jed put through its face. He went toward it as it tried to squeeze under a car. With a solid swing, Jed ended the beast. He staggered back, yanking the axe free. The weight of having survived for two weeks in the hell of what used to be New York pushed on Jed’s shoulders. The city seemed to breathe around him, like the streets and ruined buildings were all calling him to just lie down and die.

  Can’t. Not yet. I got something to do still.

  Jed went back to the manhole and stared at it. He couldn’t hear any screams. He went down hard on one knee, using the axe handle for support. The CBRN gloves made his hands feel like flippers as he gripped the axe and tried to lever the manhole up using the blade.

  The manhole lifted away from the pavement and clattered back down. Meg’s voice trailed up from below, in a weak cry for help. Jed ripped his gloves off, no longer caring about anything but getting Meg out of there. He worked the axe head into the crack around the manhole, cursing as the blade slipped. He jammed it back in and called to Meg as he struggled to raise the cover.

  “I’m coming, Meg. I’m sorry. Gonna get you out. I’m—”

  The cover bucked once under his hands, then again, pushed from below this time. Jed shifted on his feet so he was ready to stand. The cover flew upward and flipped onto the street with a clang!

  Thick, bloodied lips and spiked teeth filled Jed’s vision. He spun away from the manhole, feeling the axe torn from his hands. He looked back to see one of the monsters throwing his last and only weapon across the street. Jed lurched to his feet and fled, running with all his might away from the hungry shrieks and scraping claws on the asphalt. The fabric of his CBRN suit tugged and pulled, but he pumped his legs as fast as he could and heaved in a breath with every step. He could still hear them. They’d catch him. He knew this was the end. He’d tried to go back for Meg, but it just wasn’t meant to be, and maybe Jed wasn’t meant to be anymore either. But he just couldn’t take the easy way out and let the monsters dog-pile him from behind. He had to keep running.

  He flashed a glance over his shoulder. Four of them followed, leaping from cars to the pavement, scrabbling along the streets and sidewalks.

  Flying as fast as his feet would carry him, Jed whipped past wrecked cars and leaped over bodies lying in pools of dark, dry blood. He spun to the side as a wiry monstrous figure emerged from another manhole directly ahead. Claw marks shredded its arms and a bite mark stained the pale white skin of its chest.

  Are they eating each other?

  The monster reached an arm out, like it wanted to stop him, but he easily dodged around it. He stumbled off to the sidewalk and stared at the thin creature standing in the middle of the street. A second later it disappeared from sight as two of the monsters chasing him landed on top of the thin one. The whole mass of sickly white flesh dropped back down the manhole to the sound of howls and screams. The remaining two monsters hovered nearby, flicking their tongues and twitching their heads back and forth, looking at Jed and looking down the hole.

  Without missing a beat, Jed sped around a corner and down the sidewalk.

  The dead lay in his path like a blanket of gore covering New York City’s streets. He jumped some of the bodies, then tripped and fell face first into a pile of the corpses. Most of them were monsters, but some had been human still when they’d died. Remembering how he, Meg, and Rex had survived in the fire station, Jed quickly pulled a body on top of himself and curled his legs up so he was in a fetal position, tucked into a tangle of death.

  If it weren’t for the hood he wore, he’d have spilled his guts from the stink all around him. It still got in a little bit, and he had to hold his chest and throat tight to keep from heaving. He angled his neck so he could see behind him, back to the last corner he’d rounded.

  If this is my time, I gotta at least see it coming.

  At the corner, one of the beasts squatted on top of another small pile of bodies. Its greasy white skin made Jed think of a toy he’d played with as a kid. Some action figure with crazy muscles, all pale glossy plastic. But Jed knew the thing at the corner was no toy.

  It moved like it had spotted him, whipping its head around from where it had been looking at a nearby building. The sucker mouth popped open, and it let out a hiss as it scrabbled forward, coming over the corpses and shattered glass littering the sidewalk. Thick webs of saliva spread across its lips and it flicked its tongue at the air, like a snake tasting a scent. Jed cowered in his hiding place, praying the thing hadn’t really seen him. It wasn’t looking at him, just at the pile of bodies he was hiding in. His legs hummed with a need to flex and kick, but he forced himself to stay still as the monster crawled forward. Its joints clicked, and it roved its gaze back and forth along the sidewalk as it came.

  Jed squeezed his eyes shut. In a heartbeat, he realized the thing might see him pinching his face up, so he quickly relaxed his cheeks and just kept his eyes closed. If it was his time, it was his time, and now he knew he’d rather not see it coming.

  There was nothing he could do about it anyway.

  A clawed hand came down on his right thigh. Jed swallowed a whimper of te
rror and held his stomach tight. He couldn’t risk pissing himself now. The thing would smell it and then it’d be all over.

  Another clawed hand grabbed Jed’s shoulder.

  This is it. It has to be it. This is the end, Momma. I’m sorry I didn’t do better by you.

  The weight on his leg and shoulder stayed where it was, pushing Jed down into the mound of death he’d chosen as his last resting place. Then he felt the monster’s weight lift. A second later, the thing had moved over the pile of bodies. He felt it crawl down the other side of the pile, driving the corpses tighter against his hiding spot. Then it was gone. The clicking of its joints faded from Jed’s hearing.

  He stayed there for a while, waiting, praying it was safe. Finally, he opened his eyes and saw the sidewalk stretching out in front of him. Bodies, dried blood, and broken glass still covered everything Jed could see, but the monster was nowhere in sight.

  Jed risked flexing his legs. They’d almost gone numb from being tucked and bent under him. His feet were stiff, and his arms ached from holding himself still against the concrete.

  Meg would probably give anything to feel this good. But now she’s under the street. She’s down there. Dying.

  Because you left her. Because you ran away.

  The woman who had rescued him on the street in front of her fire station was now just another corpse in a city that might as well be a morgue. She’d helped him survive the past two weeks. After the Air Force dropped those chemical bombs, she agreed with Jed’s idea that they should go looking for more survivors. Fucking Rex was scared shitless, said they should stay put. Maybe they’d all still be alive if they’d done like he said. Most of the monsters were dead now.

  But not all of them. Some of them made it by hiding in the sewers, or by being strong enough. And you let them get Meg.

  Jed held in a sob. Meg had been the closest thing to a true partner he’d ever had, someone to look out for you and watch your back while you watch theirs. Rex was about as ate up as a guy could be. Nothing but muscles under his shirt, but he was a cowardly lion if Jed had ever met one. Fucking candy-ass—

  Rex. He may have been a wash out, but so were you once. His name was Rex.

  And her name was Meg.

  With a scream, Jed shoved the body off him and lurched to his feet. If the monsters were nearby, they’d see him and they could take him down. He knew he didn’t deserve much better. Reeling where he stood, he took in the empty, dead street around him. The ruins and corpses were like something out of a movie Jed couldn’t stop watching. Screaming again, he threw a punch at the air and dared death to come for him.

  — 2 —

  Staff Sergeant Alexandra Gallegos put down the twenty-pound barbells and rolled her shoulders, feeling the ache all the way to her toes. The workout helped because she knew it from before the world ended. She’d done the same reps three times a week back before everything went to hell. She’d run at least three miles every other day, and even though she couldn’t do that now, the weightlifting and calisthenics made up for it. And it wasn’t like she lacked opportunities for cardio. Every time she patrolled the perimeter downstairs, she got in a half dozen sprints at least.

  Working her body and mind together had kept her strong and ready to answer the call of duty when she was needed.

  Now, exercise kept Alexandra Gallegos sane.

  And the sucker faces couldn’t take it away.

  Unless they find us. But if that day comes, then it’s just my time, I guess.

  She had survived for the past two days. She would survive for a few more. Maybe even a week or a month.

  The Marines under her command, PFC Kenneth Reeve and Private Anik Mahton, were holding up their end of the bargain just fine. Reeve was top guard, on the roof of their hide in the ruins of a bus depot on Lexington Avenue. Mahton had watch over the street in an office on the third floor. He was probably hoping he’d see one of the monsters so he could sketch it and add another picture to his art gallery down there. She’d relieve him soon. He’d hang the drawing next to the others. Then he’d be racking out, waking up, working out, and taking his turn on guard.

  Same old, same old. As long as they don’t find us. But damn if this is gonna last. You can’t put a Marine in a cage and expect him not to bite his way through the bars.

  ***

  Jed screamed until he was hoarse and waited for the hit that never came. Finally, he took a step away from the pile of bodies and staggered down the sidewalk. Every step put him deeper into the destruction, forcing him to bear witness to the ruin of humanity brought about by humanity itself.

  It had to be something the government did. Or some other government. Maybe the Russians finally figured out some kind of biological weapon that turned people into demons and they let it loose in America.

  Maybe it’s just our time to be done. God’s had enough of people acting like he doesn’t exist, so he’s finally giving us the finger.

  The splintered towers of New York City loomed all around him, casting broken, jagged shadows against the streets, like great black teeth in a mouth that threatened to swallow Jed whole.

  The street was quiet and empty. Weak sunlight glinted off shards of glass, making Jed think he’d somehow stepped into a magical land for moment. Then he saw the dead again. Bodies decorated every surface, twisted into writhing poses. The dead monsters’ clawed hands were bent at the wrists, making them all look like spiders that had been poisoned. Here and there a human body caught Jed’s eye. He could tell they’d been human when they died because there wasn’t much of them left. The monsters ate what they killed.

  But some of the dead people were still pretty much whole, except for a few bite marks or deep cuts. Some of them even had gunshot wounds. Jed paused to check the body of one woman who’d been killed in her car. She’d been shot in the chest and hung limply in her seat belt, half slumped across the front seat. A neat round hole marked the windshield in front of where she’d have been sitting. The doors of the car were open like wings that would never fly. Jed edged around the open passenger door and checked out the back seat.

  The seat belt had been sliced through with a knife or something sharp. The one up in the front was the same: sliced neat and clean.

  “What the—?”

  He stepped away from the car, shaking with a new kind of fear, something he’d never felt before and nothing like the raw animal terror he’d known these past few weeks.

  If someone is kidnapping people…

  He reeled at the thought and what it might mean. But he also felt a new strength flowing through him. He couldn’t save Meg in the sewer, but maybe he could still help someone else. The monsters weren’t smart enough to use knives or guns, at least not that he’d seen. And he doubted they’d just kidnap someone instead of eating them on the spot.

  New York had another kind of enemy in it now, and it was one Jed could beat.

  With his heart pounding, he continued heading north into Harlem. Central Park was a couple blocks to the west. If he had to, he could probably find a place to hide there, at least until he got hold of a weapon. He thought about that as he moved through the city. If he could stomach the idea of looting the bodies of fallen soldiers, he could arm himself pretty good.

  Gotta do right by the dead, though. Can’t just take their gear and leave ’em lying there.

  The street cleared up a bit the farther he got into Harlem. It seemed like most of the action had been on the Upper East side. Or maybe that was the only part of Manhattan that Jed had seen since the world ended two weeks back.

  The fuck do I know about what’s going on? A whole lotta nothin’.

  Jed stopped in the middle of the street and turned in a circle. Cars had been driven into storefronts and office lobbies, like the drivers were trying to avoid something here in the roadway. The drivers hadn’t got very far. Bodies were lying half in and half out of their seats in most of the vehicles in the area. The back seats and passenger seats were all empty, and some o
f the seat belts were sliced up just like in the first car he’d checked.

  But these were civilians, just people who had probably been trying to get away. And they’d been shot. Every one of the drivers had been taken out with a round to the head or the heart, and sometimes both.

  And the blood doesn’t look that old. This happened last night, or early this morning.

  The rattle of small-arms fire snapped Jed’s attention away from the dead people in the cars. He whipped his head left and right. The CBRN suit pulled against his shoulders, preventing him from getting a clear look at his surroundings.

  Swinging around where he stood, he scanned the shattered buildings. Gunshots popped again from a few blocks away. It was hard to tell with the CBRN gear muffling everything from sight to sound to touch. He crouched by the nearest car’s front grill.

  The gunfire sounded again, this time from back the way Jed had come running. He looked over the hood of the car and automatically locked his eyes onto the dead person inside.

  “The fuck is happening? Why’d they kill you?”

  Great, now I’m talking to dead people. What’s next for Jed Welch?

  Jed lifted a hand like he’d wipe the sweat from his face, and he had to laugh when he felt it bump impotently against the suit’s hood.

  At least I can still laugh at my own stupid ass.

  He thought about heading back toward Queens, but he’d seen enough of his old neighborhood on the trip into Manhattan. That was the hot zone everyone had run away from.

  “We were supposed to be safe here,” Jed said to himself, huddling by the car’s grill and no longer laughing. The clouds had come back and cast deeper shadows around the area.

  The monsters like the shadows.

  More small-arms fire rattled nearby. Jed darted his head left and right, up and down, trying to spot where the shots might be coming from. Then a scream echoed through the dead streets, followed by the howls and animal shrieks of the monsters on the hunt.