by Tai Goodman
"I don't know how we got outta that," Tyler told Phoenix, lighting the fire on the rooftop. The two remained inside of the militarized zone. "But my real question is, how come you got bit but you didn't turn into one of those freaks?"
"I don't even wanna know how."
"Are you gonna stay like that for the rest of your life?"
"Depends. I'm on the way to the Biological Human Resource Center downtown. But with the people on the streets trying to eat each other, that's gonna be a little slow. Maybe they can find a way to get rid of everything. Ridden with Nazis or not. Speaking of Nazis, you a freedom fighter, son?"
"Whaddya mean?"
"You hate Nazis?"
"Sure, I guess. Some of my friends were taken by them, never saw them to this day."
Phoenix poked the fire with a twig, and put a dead crow on the fire. "Aww... Jeez, we're not eating that, are we?"
"We gotta. Nothing else to eat except for it."
The feathers burned in the fire. Tyler looked over to the right and noticed a silenced sniper rifle laid up against the ridge of the building. He walked over to it and picked it up, feeling the weight and wood of the rifle's body. "Don't waste the ammo on that thing."
"I ain't."
Tyler looked through the scope with one eye. The scope was zoomed in a little bit. And then he noticed a man in a hooded outfit on a belltower. He had a sledgehammer in both of his hands, then slammed it into the bell's siding. DIIING!
Phoenix instantly stood up, frightened by that sound. "What the hell was that?"
Tyler pointed in the direction of the belltower. "There's someone up there, just rang that bell."
Phoenix reached his hand out for the sniper rifle, and received it one-handedly. Looking through the magnifying lens, he saw someone sitting on the ledge. Shamblers were surrounding the tower. "Alright. I think that guy just bought us a little time. So listen up. We're gonna leave this asshole of a mess, and we're gonna take a right up *there*, and then go down the road. You'll know what the center is when you see it."
Tyler nodded as him and Phoenix climbed off of the building. Nazis on stilts were walking around the belltower, popping off a few shamblers with their firearms, drawing attention. "Shit, we gotta go, NOW! They're drawing them away!"
Phoenix pulled out his motorcycle and said, "Get on!"
Tyler placed his bottom down on the back of the motorcycle, and both sped off through barricades and tanktraps. The motorcycle shifted right through the small fog, and then the two traveled toward a pair of metal doors.
"Shit."
Phoenix and Tyler crashed through the doors and out in the middle of the street. Still on the motorcycle, they continued to the right. The stilt Nazi spotted the two riding away. "HALLO! Komm zurück und hilf mir!"
Phoenix stopped in the middle of his journey for a few seconds. "Gimme the rifle for a second."
"What? Why?"
Phoenix snatched it instead, and with one hand, he aimed it at the Nazi's knee. PEW! The bullet pierced the man's knee. "AAHAHA!" he cried, falling over on his stilts and hitting the ground with a thud. Shamblers then began to encompass his location. "NEIN! NEIN!!!! Geht weg! HILFT MIR JEMAND! BITTE!"
Then the screaming was silenced. "That'll shut you up." Phoenix continued before the shamblers could close in on him. He was approaching a dead body on the road, carved up by teeth marks and emptied of all of its internal organs. "Can't stop now, Phoenix." The motorcycle bolted over the head, splashing blood all over the chassis of the choppercycle. "Did you just-"
"I can't hear a thing you're saying, Tyler!"
Phoenix was then thrown off of his motorcycle by a pale, skinny being with long claws. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?"
Tyler and the motorcycle both dropped over and hit the ground. "AGH! MY LEG!"
Phoenix stayed put while under the restraint of the creature. "Wendigo. Heard of this thing before in scary stories. Never knew how right them people were."
The wendigo screamed in Phoenix's face, covering his face in saliva and spit. "TYLER!" Phoenix pleaded for help. Tyler held the rifle with both hands, flicking the scope button with his thumb and magnifying the scope. The sight outline alligned with the wendigo's head. "Bullseye!"
POW! From Phoenix's side of the fight, the wendigo's right eyeball flew out of its eye socket in pieces. The light body fell on top of Phoenix, which he removed eventually. Phoenix headed back over to Tyler, who was grasping his leg, bleeding. "This thing's got my leg!"
Shamblers were closing in. "I don't think we can ride through. Hold on a second! And only use your gun if you gotta!" Phoenix tugged his meat cleaver out of the loop of his belt.
Phoenix was then grappled by another shambler. It was a woman with veiny, scraped and yellow teeth. With a swing, Phoenix separated the top half of her head from the jawline of her skull. Then another one waltzed over to Phoenix, hacking and coughing. Bloated pimples and boils were around its neck. "Disgusting." Phoenix slit the man's throat, having puss drip all over Phoenix's boots. "You got my fucking boots all wet- YOU DONE FUCKED UP NOW." Phoenix kicked the shambler so hard, his foot pierced through the ribcage and ended up on the other side. Pulling it back through was a cinch, and hauled the entire ribcage through the man's chest on his foot.
Phoenix removed the ribcage (now broken in half), and then sliced open a shambler's stomach. Guts and blood hit the pavement. And a cleaver hit and split open the woman's skull. "BITCH."
More and more were approaching. "Alright we gotta go!"
Phoenix lifted the motorcycle upwards, freeing Tyler. Strings of blood and flesh were dripping from the motorcycle's chassis to his leg's wound. "AAHHHHH!"
He shushed Tyler in order to prevent more from approaching. "Shut your mouth or else more will come!" Phoenix ordered Tyler, with a finger over his lips. Tyler nodded twice, attempting to stand. He failed, falling back to the ground. "Come on!"
Phoenix wrapped his arm around Tyler's, heaving up upwards. Tyler fell onto the back seat of the motorcycle, and Phoenix mounted the vehicle again. "Let's go." The two speeded down the street. Phoenix's mask had the speed limit of 64 MPH in red font on the screen.
Chapter V: Dead Set
"I can't believe we made it!"
"We made it by a.. A freaking hair, if you would've moved out from under the choppercycle, we wouldn't be in this situation."
Tyler's face morphed into a scowl. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. But it's not my fault."
30 MINUTES LATER
Phoenix and Tyler had arrived at a big white building, with a moderate amount of shamblers roaming around the front mindlessly. "Alright, let's go!" said Phoenix, inspiring Tyler to move. The two scurried into the building, ending up being put at gunpoint by a scientist with a Luger.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" he questioned the two.
"Buddy I'm not here to hurt you, lower your weapon," Phoenix told him.
A shambler hit the glass face first, chomping at the three. All three faced their attention to them, then back to the conversation at hand. "Anyways, we're here to help."
"Yeah right. You're the masked terror. And putting you down might put me in the history books." Phoenix grabbed the barrel of the gun, forcing it backwards into the scientist's shoulder, and yanked it out of his hand. Now he had two shotguns. "Now you're on the end of the gun. Who are you?"
"I'm a scientist-"
"CUT THE SHIT. Gimme your name."
"I'm Dr. Evan Fogarty. I work in the biological weapons division-"
Phoenix pointed the shotgun barrel closer to the man's face. "Alright, keywords: Biological Weapons. What does that mean, you make viruses into weapons?"
"No, no! We examine weaponized biological organisms."
"...that spread outside the boundary-"
"HOW ABOUT YOU LOWER THE GUN? HUH?
WE'VE BEEN HELPING OUT YOUR FUCKING COUNTRY SINCE WE WERE MADE IN 1901.
YOU KNOW WHAT WE DID? WE HELPED FIND CURES FOR NASTY STUFF YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO GET
OUT.
MEASLES. WEAPONIZED SMALLPOX. OTHER SHIT THAT COULD WIPE OUT THE WHOLE COUNTRY!
THEY BLOCKED OFF THE EXITS TO LOUSIANA, EVEN THE WATER. WE CAN'T GET OUT UNTIL WE LIBERATE THE VIRUS."
Phoenix lowered his shotgun. "That's what I thought. But since you're here, you could do us all a favor." Evan lead him into the laboratory were a device stationed in the center of the room was being tinkered on. "I'm the only scientist left. Everybody else is either dead or knawing on people's knees."
The device powered on, then powered off. "I've got everything set up. But one thing is required, I need a power source. The main power is out, but going into the power zone of the station is like committing suicide without knowing it. You're strong. If you turn it on, we can eliminate the gene within people that have conducted the virus, switching them back to normal."
Phoenix nodded and walked his way over to the door. "I'll be back." He headed to the power room. Evan opened the door and remarked, "Good luck!"
Phoenix headed into the dark room, and switched on a flashlight. "Can't see SHIT." Phoenix walked deeper into the place, waving his flashlight around. He passed a shelf with materials on it, several computer desks, windows of test rooms, and other items. And then he bumped into something. Aiming his flashlight at it, it was the power source. "Are you shitting me, Evan? Was it really that hard?"
He opened the panel, and pulled the circuit breaker upwards. The power came back on, and lights illuminated the hallway and room. Several shamblers were revealed to be in the room.
"Oh, this is gonna get bad."
Phoenix watched a scientist leap off of a computer desk and hit the wall, then straighten itself up and snarl at him. "FUCK OFF." Phoenix blasted it in the face with his shotgun. Another one came out of nowhere with goggles on. Phoenix shoved it aside into a window, busting their skull open. The amount of scientists in the room was overwhelming. "SHIT!"
Phoenix sprinted all the way back to the central room and locked the door behind him. "YOU COULD'VE WARNED ME!"
"ABOUT WHAT?"
"THAT THERE WAS LIKE A FUCKING HUNDRED IN THERE- Nevermind just DO THE THING!"
"Right. And this MIGHT make you go into sh-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP AND DO THE THING!"
Evan flipped the circuit breaker... And darkness for Phoenix. "Sleeping time, old man."
Chapter VI: Freedom on the Inside
"I'm saved from this parasite inside of me. Wasn't looking forward to becoming a wolf anytime soon. Not even sure if it would've happened again. Sure, we're cured of the virus. But we're still inside of this sinkhole of a state."
Phoenix awakened in the laboratory. "Phoenix, wake up. You might wanna get going before some of the Nazi soldiers come and take you away." Phoenix questioned, "Tyler, you should come with me. You can help us out when we fight for freedom."
"I don't wanna get shot, that's the problem."
"You won't if you don't do anything wrong on the field. Come on, we need people like you." Tyler disagreed and stayed back.
Phoenix walked outside and Tyler followed him, saying, “WAIT! I’ll come with you.” Phoenix nodded, with his mask giving Tyler a thumbs-up. The two headed off on the choppercycle. Driving through town, people were getting up off of the street, covered in blood, bite wounds, and etc.
The announcer systems projected, “We have cleared the virus from your bodies, Louisiana. Continue your lives normally. If you find someone affected by the virus that wasn’t cured, report it immediately.” Phoenix kept on driving by.
PHOENIX’S RESIDENCE
Phoenix drove into the garage, past James’ corpse. “Gonna have to sweep that outta the driveway.” Phoenix proceeded inside, where there was banging on the basement door.
“PHOENIX?”
“ANYONE?”
“HALLO!?”
Phoenix jogged over to the door while Tyler made himself at home. He unlatched and unlocked the basement door, and then Abhy, Peter, and Hans emerged from the room. Abhy hugged Phoenix removed his mask for him. “There’s my loving husband.”
The two kissed for a few seconds, and Pete said, “Whoa, who’s that on the couch?”
“That’s Tyler. I met him on the way to save this place from the virus. Didn’t take too long, to be honest. The scientists at the station have this…”emergency thing” that destroys the material in the body affiliated with the virus. He flipped a switch and everyone’s normal… I guess. But the weird thing is, I also got bit. But I never turned- Well, I did. But not into one of those freaks.”
Pete, with a confused look, questioned him, “Well.. What did you get?”
“I became a wolf or something. I saw someone else who had the same thing happen to them. Let’s not get into detail about that, though.”
“Ja. Ja. So let’s CELEBRATE who prevented us from dying. Today is for HERR PHOENIX!” Hans announced. Phoenix shrugged his shoulders and said, “Can’t argue with that.” Everybody grabbed a beer from the fridge and started drinking.
Minutes later, Hans walked over to Peter.
“Jesus… Zhat bite on your neck looks big. Reminds me of my vife.” Peter paid attention, pointing at him with a drunk facial expression. “I just had a daydream that I had SEX with your wife!”
The two started laughing and eventually hit the floor. “VAIT, VHAT?”
Tyler walked in on Phoenix and Abhy in their bedroom, and Phoenix said, “WHOA, HOLD YOUR HORSES COWBOY!”
Tyler walked back out and shut the door. “What did you need?”
“Where’s more beer?”
“It’s in the mini-fridge in the garage.”
Tyler grinned and walked into the garage. Once the mini-fridge was opened, Tyler grabbed two bottles. “Hear hear!”
And then thirty minutes later, all five of the people were outside looking at James’ remains. Phoenix, wobbling back and forth, pointed at Peter and said, “Hey… we knew this guy, right?”
Peter eyeballed him a little bit. “Nope. Never seen this guy in my life.” Phoenix searched for the ID and found his identification card. “His name is.. Uh….”
Phoenix’s vision kept zooming in and zooming out under the influence of alcohol. “It says: Waterfall… Orange…. Mustache…. James.”
Tyler started laughing and then said, "What the hell are we even doing right now?"
An hour into the party, Peter and Tyler were having a drinking contest of shotglasses. They just finished their fifth shot. "Come on, man. I can drink more than you can drink til your face turns red."
"Oh yeah? Well slap my knee and do... er... SOMEthing..."
Peter threw his shotglass across the room and hit Phoenix in the shoulder, doing nothing. Phoenix went, "Ow," squinting and smiling.
Chapter VII: Trouble on the Homefront
AFTER THE PARTY
Phoenix and the rest were in the living room watching television. There was a football game on the screen. Phoenix then looked closer at the screen and noticed one team was full of white people and the other was full of coloreds and jews. "Alright that's enough Football." He lifted the remote, causing Tyler to butt in, "Whoa whoa, why?"
"Look at the teams; The way they're scrambled. Whites on one side and the undesirables on the other. This wasn't like this days ago." Then the television shifted to another channel, and so did everyone else in the neighborhood. Then in the whole United States on everything with a screen and broadcast. Touchscreen devices, food machines, giant television screens.
There was a woman at a podium, standing behind it, preparing for a speech.
"What the fuck?"
Phoenix mashed the channel up button, several times. The television refused to change. "Hallo, Americans. Velcome to a new order, and this goes for those in Louisiana. Ever since zhe outbreak of zhe virus specimen, we locked down zhe state. We are releasing the lockdown today. As for the rest of you, listen close, and listen hard.
Factories here will be producing for Germany now, and only 20 percent of your precious produce in
the end of the day will belong to you. We vill also be imposing several new laws:
Undesirables vill now vork on zhe streets, with no pay. They won't have a choice to vork, anyvays. They have un automatic device on their heads that will control them and perform a certain task.
Shipping to other countries will be cut off until the quota is matched.
And security will be upgraded. Punishments will be more swift, more just, more VIOLENT. No more of these, shall you say, "flunky" security guards and soldiers. You will find out what I mean if you try to attack one. Have a nice day."
Phoenix switched off the television. "Great. Just fucking great. Guess Adolf Hitler is gonna have to wait." He walked into the garage, and pulled out a large piece of paper. Peter, Tyler, and Hans followed him in there. "Herr Phoenix," Hans questioned, "Vhat are you doing?"
"We're gonna eliminate that bitch. What were the three things she said?" he questioned, drawing three circles with a marker. Peter thought to himself for a minute. "Undesirables were gonna work in public... Umm... Something about our country's manufacturing being cut off... And security upgrades."
Phoenix scribbled the three things into each category. "Alright. How are we gonna stop all of this?" Phoenix questioned. Hans proposed, "Maybe we could send un message, to start. If zhat does not vork, we go to extreme measures." Phoenix heard the television come back on. He walked back inside to go sit down, but then saw a news report of a famous Nazi celebrity.
