“Fine, maybe next time I'll be a little slower with the axe.”
“See how that works out for you.”
He climbed up to the top of the tree house. Adam cursed to himself and picked up his axe.
“Tomorrow, we're going to clean this up.”
“Yeah, thanks, dad,” said Adam. He kicked a fallen reanimate.
“If I was your dad, I'd have smothered you at birth.”
“Fuck you,” Adam said under his breath.
…
Adam tensed his lips in anger, but he obeyed the command and walked over to the fallen creatures. None of them stirred, so he prodded at each with the pole of his axe. All of them had reached final death. Adam tossed his axe up onto the platform and hoisted himself up there.
I used to get hand jobs in this parking lot, thought Adam. The aimless creatures bashed their hands and fists on the walls; their eyes forever fixed on Adam. Adam met their eyes, one by one, searching for something he could identify with. All he saw was death.
Two
The Dark Fall
A crow perched on the narrow sill of the tree house’s portal. It hopped down next to Jesse’s sleeping bag. He followed its movement with heavy eyes. The bird took flight. It was light out. Jesse pushed himself up off the floor. He squinted and rubbed his face. White clouds filled the sky. No sign of coming rain. Past the parking lot were abandoned buildings and cars. The reanimates had cleaned the dead off the streets, but no amount of Washington rain could wash away the stain and stench of all that bloodshed.
“We're fucked,” Jesse said to himself and grabbed his rebar cudgel. He searched for Adam along the platform below. It was empty except for a few boxes and a pair of binoculars. Jesse leaned out of the portal. Nothing in the fort's small courtyard but a collection of noise traps. The remnants of the prior night's skirmish were missing. Jesse’s heart slammed against his ribcage and he could feel his pulse behind his eyes. He started down the ladder. His emotions oscillated between anger, confusion, and fear at a meteoric pace. Adam was not in the fort. He jumped off the ladder and moved through the obstacle course of tripwires. Chunks of coagulated blood and bits of skin colored the asphalt like macabre glitter. The trail led to the east wall's gate, which was wide open. He raised his cudgel and crept toward the gate. Right before Jesse reached the opening, Adam rounded the corner. Jesse cocked his arm back, ready to swing. Adam let out a shriek and his limbs did a brief spasmodic dance.
“Gah! You scared the fuck outta me.”
“Ditto,” said Jesse. “What the fuck were you thinking taking those bodies out there without me?”
“Don't get mad,” said Adam. “Something caught the zombies’ attention. They up and left halfway through my watch.”
“They left?”
“I haven't seen 'em for hours. I figured it was the best opportunity we were gonna get, and after what happened yesterday, I didn't really want to wake you.”
“They're gone?”
“To the man, or to the dead fuck, or whatever. Gone.”
Jesse dropped his cudgel and ran up to the lip of the platform. He jumped and hoisted himself up. He scanned the parking lot for a moment. The only signs of the undead were the corpses of those they had killed last night and all the days and nights beforehand. The rest of the reanimates were gone. Jesse jumped down from the platform and jogged over to Adam. Adam had closed the gate and was trying to secure it.
“What exactly happened?” asked Jesse.
“What do you mean? I already told you,” said Adam. “They left.”
“That’s it? They just left?”
“Hang on a sec,” said Adam. He finished locking the gate and turned around. He bent over and took in slow, labored breaths.
“Seriously, what happened during your watch?” asked Jesse.
“They left, and I dragged the—”
“Why did they leave?” said Jesse. His irritation colored his voice.
“There was this loud screaming sound, and then they left.”
“A scream? Why didn’t you mention that before?”
“Not a scream exactly, I mean not like a person screaming. It didn’t sound like a human.”
Adam shook his head and stared at his feet.
“What was it then?” asked Jesse. “An animal or something?”
Jesse studied Adam’s face for any signs that Adam might have been lying.
“No, it wasn’t any animal that I’ve heard before. It sounded really — I don’t know; it was wild, man. I don’t think I’d want to tangle with whatever made that noise.”
“There’s no animal around here that makes a screaming noise. Are you sure you didn’t nod off and dream it?”
“No, I didn't. I just kept low and quiet. Sometime in the night, there was this loud scream and then they left together. I could tell it was far away, but it was crazy loud, like metal concert loud.”
“So, you didn't fall asleep? And then they all left together like a bunch of elementary school kids going on a field trip?”
“I mean they weren't holding a rope and whistling, but, yeah, they left together like they were going somewhere.”
“I refuse to believe that they just left after three days of hanging out around the fort. They’ve never done that before. Whenever they catch sight of anything living they hound it until they get it, or die trying.”
“I didn’t see what made the noise. I heard the scream and then they left right after that. I used the binoculars and I looked, but there was nothing around.”
“I’m not trying to bust your balls,” said Jesse. “I just need to know everything that happened. I’m not going to get mad if you tell me you fell asleep or something.”
Adam shook his head and scoffed.
“I didn’t fall asleep, but that’s exactly what I want to do right now. I gave you the run down. That’s all I know.”
“You can go sleep in a minute,” said Jesse. “Tell me about this scream. Be a little more specific.”
“All right,” said Adam. “Gimme a sec.”
Adam closed his eyes. His lips moved like he was trying to say something.
“You know that game we played back in junior high, Dagger Hall or something?”
“Daggerfall,” said Jesse.
“Yeah, that one. You know the sound that those skeletons made in that first dungeon?”
“I think so, yeah.”
“It sounded like that, but run through a giant amplification system.”
Jesse put his hands on his hips and paced. He bent his head back and stared at the sky like it held the answers he sought. Adam patted Jesse on the shoulder and climbed up the ladder to the tree house. Jesse picked up his cudgel and set it on the platform. He vaulted up and walked over to the edge. The town appeared empty, so he picked up the pair of binoculars that sat next to their supply chest. Nothing stirred in Silverdale. Jesse tossed the binoculars aside sending them skidding across the platform and over the edge.
“Fucking stupid things.”
Jesse exhaled hard through his nose and clenched his hands into tight fists. A few deep breaths and he let his body go loose. He could hear his mother’s voice, “Count to ten, Jesse. Don’t get so upset.”
“This is bullshit,” he said.
He squatted down on his heels and flipped open the metal lid of their supply chest. He pulled out two cans of food: kidney beans, and peaches bathed in syrup. He jammed spoonfuls of the horrid combination into his mouth. His eyes locked onto the top of a larch tree in the narrow green belt that bordered the parking lot. A slow wind ran through its branches: spiny leaves dancing with each soft swell. Jesse slipped into a trance.
…
He was in a field bordered by tall pines. Atop each tree was a crow: their dark eyes fixed on him. From the forest came the sound of drums beating in unison. The pine needles shook with each deep blast of the drums.
The drums stopped.
He heard faint, distant footfalls: a slow march.
&nb
sp; “Do you hear them, Jesse?”
“Yes,” he said. He turned in a circle and tried to find the source of the voice. He was alone.
“Who are you?” Jesse asked.
“Are you the one I seek?” the voice asked.
“I don’t know. What are you looking for?”
“Come to this place and do what you were born to do.”
“Why?”
“Come to this place or death will find you behind your coward’s walls.”
“Who the fuck are you?” he asked. His voice echoed. It bounced around the field and dissolved. Out of the trees came a hundred versions of Jesse: five-year-old Jesse wearing a superhero t-shirt, fourteen-year-old Jesse in his junior varsity wrestling uniform, and a myriad of iterations of himself that could never be. He locked eyes with a thirty-something image of himself, with a striped purple button-up shirt and a tie beside a wife and two children. Jesse shook his head, trying to dispel the apparitions. He closed his eyes and hoped they would disappear. As his eyes opened, he saw only one man standing in front of him. Scars textured his face and shorn scalp. A coarse, braided beard dominated his face. Around his neck was a pendant hanging on a hemp necklace: a bull with jade eyes. Green fire emanated from the bull's stone eyes. The man wore ancient armor and held a giant bronze double-headed axe in his right hand. He slammed the pole of the axe into the ground and deep sound reverberated without end.
Jesse's vision eroded into pure white nothingness.
…
Jesse snapped out of his trance. He heard Adam coming down the ladder. Adam made his way onto the platform and sat next to Jesse. He patted Jesse on the shoulder.
“Your turn,” said Adam.
“Which way did they go?” asked Jesse. Adam pointed southwest.
“To the riverside?” asked Jesse.
“That direction definitely, but I think the sound came from the hills.”
“How do you know?” asked Jesse.
“Well, it sounded really far away, but it was still loud. I’m guessing it came from someplace higher up.”
Jesse took in a long breath.
“Maybe there's a type of them that screams,” he said.
“Fuck, I hope not, but I don’t know what else could have made that sound,” said Adam.
“The ones we see don’t make any noise, but maybe we haven’t seen everything yet.”
“Man, I hope we’ve seen it all,” said Adam. He rubbed his face with both hands.
“I don’t know how much more of this shit I can handle. My nine-mil has been looking mighty sexy these past few days,” said Adam.
“Hey, we’ve been surviving this shit for months,” Jesse said. He set a hand on Adam’s shoulder, “Whatever comes our way we are going to handle it. There’s a reason it’s just you and me left in this town.”
“Because everyone with half a brain blew theirs out when the going got tough.”
“Bullshit, most people tried to run, hide, or fight and they didn’t make it. We did. There’s something to that.”
“We just haven’t gotten ours yet.”
“Fuck that. I’ve got to kill at least a few thousand more before I go down.”
“It doesn’t matter, man. You could kill fifty million and there’d still be another hundred million left.”
“It matters to me. I’m not taking the easy way out. I’m in this shit for the long haul and you’re with me on this too. I can’t imagine doing this shit alone.”
Adam did not reply.
“We’ve got to see where they went,” said Jesse.
Adam turned his head toward Jesse. His expression was one of pure incredulity.
“What?”
“There’s no way we can just sit here and wait,” said Jesse. He stood and continued, “We’ve got to do some recon and figure out what’s going on.”
“Some recon? We’re not soldiers. I haven’t the faintest idea how to do some recon. I’m staying right here.”
“Listen, if you heard wrong and it was a person screaming, then that means that there are still survivors out in the woods or something. If you did hear some kind of supernatural scream, or whatever, then that means that something bigger is going on: something that we need to know about.”
“What do you mean? It’s zombies. We are being attacked by zombies. I know it’s weird, but that’s what’s going on. That’s all that’s going on.”
“I know that, but it isn’t like the movies. We don’t know everything. We don’t even know where they came from. I’ve been scratched and bitten and so have you. It doesn’t spread, so it’s not a disease, virus, or whatever like every other zombie story. So if isn't a virus, where did all these things come from?”
“They came from the Middle East. That’s what that news broadcast said.”
“Yeah, but how did they get there? There wasn’t a zombie farm in the Middle East or a lost tribe of ninety-billion zombies.”
“What difference does it make?” asked Adam.
“It didn’t make a difference before, but after you mentioned the scream I got to thinking. Some of these things look like they died within the past fifty years or so, but some of them look old — ancient even.”
“What are you getting at?” asked Adam.
“What if there are forces, you know, working to…”
“Working to what?”
“I don’t know. Get rid of all the people.”
“Yeah, those forces are called zombies and they eat people.”
“No, damn it, I mean there has to be an origin to this. It’s not like six months ago it rained and then suddenly there were zombies. Something must have happened.”
“OK, like what?”
“Well, fuck, I don’t know,” said Jesse.
“Listen,” he continued, “I’ve been having these dreams. I had one where I was on a beach and there was this woman in the water.”
“I don’t need to hear this,” said Adam. “You can keep those sorts of dreams to yourself.”
“No, it wasn’t like that. I mean, it felt like that at first, but then it was so real. I could feel the sand on my feet and the ocean air. I felt this one old woman’s hand on my throat. It felt like it was real.”
“Did you find some mushrooms on one of our runs and keep them for yourself?” asked Adam.
“Come on man,” said Jesse. “I don’t want to believe in any of this shit, but it’s happening and we’ve just got to go with it.”
“OK, so you have a dream about a beach with two women, and it totally wasn't a sex dream. Go on.”
“Anyways, the dream felt real, and this second woman, or creature or whatever, she seems like she has it out for me. The first woman, I was drawn to her. I can’t get her out of my mind, but the other one was evil. Just being near her stopped my heart, and not in a love kind of way.”
“So, what? I mean, what do you want me to get out of this?”
“That something is at work. When you told me about the scream, and I had some time to think about it, I really think we need to check it out. Plus, I had a vision just now. I was alone in a field and it was a big clearing in the middle of a forest. I heard drums and marching. This woman spoke to me. She told me to go there. I don’t know if it’s a trap, if she’s trying to help me, or if I’m going crazy. I honestly don’t know anymore.”
“My vote is that you are going crazy, and that I should just put one in my dome and be done with all this bullshit. That’s my fuckin’ vote.”
“Come on, Adam. Let’s just check it out. We’ll treat it like any other supply run.”
Adam pulled his lips in tight against his teeth. His jaw clenched. He exhaled through his nose.
“Fine, I'll go. We'll check out the noise, but if it turns out it's some kind of super zombie, then I vote we get the fuck out of Silverdale.”
“Agreed,” said Jesse. “So shall we?”
“Wait, what? Like now?”
“If it is just a person, I imagine the situation is rather dire.”<
br />
“I’m still really tired though,” said Adam.
“You can sleep when you're dead,” said Jesse. He opened the large, metal toolbox where they kept their supplies and food.
“Not anymore. These dead fucks seem pretty active to me,” said Adam. Adam climbed down from the platform and pulled his pistol out of its holster. He checked its magazine.
“I thought you were saving that for, you know?”
“They're called suicide missions for a reason,” said Adam.
“We're coming back from this. We’re just going to take a look. It'll be fine, so long as we just keep moving and keep quiet.”
“Lead the way,” said Adam. He threw Jesse a mocking salute and pushed open the gate.
Three
The Hunt
Jesse and Adam walked down the desolate road that ran through the middle of Silverdale. Cars with smashed windows and popped, empty trunks frozen in time like ancient relics. Months ago, Jesse had divided the town into quadrants on his map. He and Adam had worked through each section of downtown and cleared the streets of reanimates. They had already scavenged every automobile in town for food and useful items, but the shops beyond the mall remained unexplored. Once they returned from this recon mission, Jesse hoped he would find some new clothes. His jacket and pants sported holes and grotesque stains.
They passed the final strip mall and headed to the outskirts of town.
“Are you sure that they went this way?” Jesse asked.
“Yep,” said Adam.
They walked in an awkward silence for several minutes. Only the sounds of their breathing, the rustling of clothes, and their boots slipping along the wet asphalt touched their ears. A calm wind blew through Jesse’s long, oily hair and his bushy beard. Rain sprinkled the town. A chill ran up Jesse’s back. He flipped up his hood and shivered.
“Hey that’s Dan’s old house,” said Adam. He pointed to a two-story house on a hill that bordered the road.
“You remember that time —” said Adam.
“The past is dead, as is the future. No point in reminiscing.”
The Lost Gods Page 4
