by Stevie Kopas
Gary ran down the hall to get closer to the horde. “Fire in the hole you sorry sack of twats!” He reared his arm back and tossed the pipe bomb into the group of eaters, backtracking quickly and jumping into the stairwell. He covered his ears and looked at the other men, “Cheers.”
VIII
The three men huddled together in the stairwell with their hands over their ears, waiting for the explosion that would give them the upper hand against the eaters.
Samson furrowed his brow, unsure why nothing had happened yet. He was about to open his mouth and say something when it happened. He heard the explosion and the doors popping free of their frames. The group of eaters roared once and then ceased. Pieces of ceiling crashed to the floor and sheetrock crumbled and caved. The three of them barely felt any shockwave on the stair case, the building was solid, and Samson had never been more pleased with structural integrity. As quickly as the eruption had occurred it was over and followed by silence. Andrew popped his ears and Gary crawled over to peek his head out. Bodies lay unmoving on the floor surrounded by arms and legs. Only a handful of badly maimed eaters remained and were beginning to pick themselves up.
“Drew if that ain’t you out there I’m gonna kill whoever just pulled that shit!” Andrew heard the feminine yell of his brother from the unit down the hall and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Let’s take care of the rest of these chumps and get the hell outta here.” Andrew leapt from his spot on the stairs, Magnum out, and began taking care of the dead.
“Jesus Christ, can we not fire guns inside?” Samson cringed with each shot fired, the ringing in his head was unbearable.
“Better to get it done quickly. Just deal with it, you’ll be fine.” Gary joined Andrew in the long hall and the two quickly disposed of what was left of their previous obstacle. Heads popped and bodies dropped to the floor, never to be a nuisance again.
“Boy, am I glad to see you.” Clyde emerged from the room, putting a bullet in the last eater’s head that stood between him and his brother. The two brothers embraced, laughing at their luck and circumstance, never so elated to see one another in their lives.
“A little warning would have been nice.” Ben joined the rest of the group in the hall. “I’d be pretty pissed if I was killed by a flying door.”
Gary lead the way back upstairs so that the five of them could gather as much ammo, guns and other things as they were able to carry in one trip. “Not looking forward to coming back here very soon.” Gary locked the room up and followed the men back down to the 11th floor. He hadn’t noticed Clyde’s limp until they were making their way back to the double doors on the sky bridge.
“What’s the matter there?” He pointed at Clyde’s blood soaked pant leg.
“That’s nothin’, just got scratched up.” He waived a hand at Gary and continued toward the door.
Gary stopped walking and raised his weapon. “Show me. Now.”
“What the fuck is with people wantin’ to point guns in my face today? God damn, chill out.” He bent over and rolled his pants up to prove to Gary that he wasn’t bitten. “Satisfied? You think Ben would have let me walk out of that room if he knew I was bit?” He stared at Gary, hands on his hips.
“How’d that happen?” Andrew crouched down to take a closer look at his brother’s leg. “This looks pretty bad.”
“One of them dead things was a little too excited. She scratched me up somethin’ nasty, wouldn’t let go. I cleaned it, it’ll be fine.” Andrew inspected the wounds closely, they were deep and starting to ooze pus.
“Well this needs to be cleaned again. With no doctors we can’t risk an infection. Who knows the diseases these things carry.” He stood up and looked at Gary. “You mind takin’ that weapon off my brother now?”
Gary didn’t move. “You just said a very interesting word, Andrew. Disease. These things carry the disease that ended the fucking world in case you don’t remember.”
“Hey! Hold up, I didn’t get bit!” Clyde started moving toward Gary but Andrew put an arm up, blocking him.
“I’m sorry, I can’t risk it. I’ve been through it before. I can’t lose everything again.” Gary slowly put his finger on the trigger. “I’m sorry.”
The men all began yelling at one another and the tension was thick. Finally Ben stepped in front of the gun and put his hand on the barrel. “We give it a day. If he doesn’t show signs of turning then we know that it’s only the bite. You said it yourself when it happened before, you didn’t know the person in the building had been infected. Now you know. You’re aware of it. You can keep an eye on it. We’re not puttin’ him down like this.” The two men glared at one another, Ben’s stern eyes bore into Gary’s and after what felt like a silent eternity, he finally dropped the gun.
Gary brushed past him and didn’t speak as he retrieved the hidden set of keys and let everyone out of the building. “Don’t make me regret this.” He said quietly to Ben as he exited the central tower. Ben simply nodded and kept following the others.
Veronica sat bored on the couch nursing a water bottle, flipping through an out of date magazine when she heard the click of the lock. She threw the magazine down and stood up, holding her PVC pipe close.
The group of men walked solemnly through the door. “What’s the matter?” She couldn’t help but show her concern, she dropped her pipe back onto the couch.
“Nothing, where’s Juliette?” Andrew dumped the pile of weapons he was holding onto the recliner and left in the direction Veronica pointed.
“You guys sure made a hell of a racket.” She walked toward the stuff they were unloading in the living room and marveled at the guns, knives and other things that were before her. “Wow Gary, you sure weren’t kidding when you said you had an armory.”
He feigned a smile and began sorting through the contents on the recliner. She looked at Samson who stood nervously in the kitchen, tossing a water bottle back and forth between his hands. Ben had made a bee line for the back balcony. “What’s everybody’s problem?” She leaned against the silent refrigerator.
“It really is nothing, Veronica. We’re all just a little tense.” Samson finally opened the bottle and took a sip. “Things got a little hairy but everything’s fine.”
“Yeah I can tell you what happened.” Clyde joined them in the kitchen. “Trigger happy Gary over there is what happened.”
“Excuse me, but I saved your life, remember?” Gary stood in the entrance, hands propped up on the entry way.
“Oh yeah, I remember, and then you tried to take it.”
“Tried to take it? Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” Veronica raised her voice a bit, hoping they would explain.
“Clyde, go clean your leg up, will ya?” Samson tried to hand him a water bottle but Clyde shrugged it off, disappearing into the room with the medical supplies, intentionally bumping into Gary in the process. “Gary thought Clyde had been bitten. He’s nervous about the scratches he got when they had a close call but seriously that’s it. Nothin’ to be concerned about alright? We’re gonna keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t get sick. It’s gonna be fine.” Samson started toward the front door. “I’m going to get cleaned up.”
“Why was that so hard to explain when ya’ll first walked in?”
“Sorry little love, everybody has had a long day. We’re just tense. The sun’s starting to go down. Let’s take it easy the rest of the night.” Gary walked off into his bedroom to wash up and left Veronica to her thoughts. She heard the sliding glass door open and shut. Ben stopped in the entranceway on his way toward the front door.
“I need a bath.” He looked down at his filth covered hands. “How was Juliette while we were gone?”
“The most boring person ever. I thought she might have overdosed on Xanax at one point.”
“Figured as much. I’ll meet you back in here when I’m done. I’m starving.” He paused before leaving, “Do you mind checking in on Clyde?” And closed the door behi
nd him.
It wasn’t that Ben wasn’t appreciative of Gary’s hospitality, but at what point do you bite the hand that feeds you? Clyde had grown to be a friend of Ben’s, both him and his brother had. The fact that it was just so easy for Gary to accept Clyde’s undetermined fate sat uneasy with him. Someone he had just met that day had stepped into their already damaged comfort zone and almost killed a member of their group at what could or could not be a threat of infection. Maybe somebody somewhere in the world had figured out just exactly what this disease was that caused this sudden end to the world, but Ben knew for a fact that nobody in this tower knew. “Trial and error.” He said under his breath as he let himself into the unit he shared with Samson and Veronica. The door to Samson’s room was closed, Ben thought it best to leave him be. He hadn’t quite figured the man out yet.
He drew himself a saltwater bath and scrubbed his skin until he thought it might bleed. Once he was done rinsing he dressed himself in fresh clothing and dug through his bag. He retrieved a small joint and internally rejoiced that it hadn’t been left back in Franklin Woods. He grabbed an oversized decorative conch shell from off the bedside table to serve as his ashtray and sprawled out on the king sized bed. Lighting his joint he tried not to think about his journey and how he’d ended up here. He chalked it up to servitude; leading Andrew, Clyde and Juliette out of the city, his main focus on ensuring Veronica’s safety. But somehow he had found a way to fail Sal and Lucy. Ben lay back on the comforter, letting the bed pull him in and encase him in its warmth. His entire body ached, if felt like every muscle in his body screamed at him. He closed his eyes. Had he failed Veronica too when her brother died in the street?
When Ben opened his eyes again the glaring light from the sun was invading his room. A light film of sweat covered his body and he groaned, propping himself up on his elbows. He checked his watch, it was a little after 8am the next morning. “Holy shit.” He washed his face in the bathroom and brushed his teeth, thanks to Gary’s overabundance of hygiene products.
The condo was empty and he was correct in assuming that everyone was over at Gary’s. When he arrived they were all seated in the living room. The unit smelled delicious and Ben’s stomach growled. “There he is!” Gary cheerfully greeted him. “Come on in then, have a bite to eat. Juliette’s cooked us up some spam and powdered eggs on the balcony this morning.” Ben grabbed a plate and helped himself to what was left in the kitchen before sitting at the breakfast bar.
Gary got up from the recliner and grabbed a seat next to Ben. The others chatted away in the living room, scraping their plates clean. “Listen, mate, the others and I, we’ve put what happened yesterday behind us, alright? I’m hoping you and I can do the same?”
Ben chewed a piece of meat with his mouth open and stared at Gary awkwardly for a moment. “Sure. Sounds great.”
IX
The group of seven stood on the roof of the west tower and looked out over the city of Haven. Gary had brought the rest of them up there that afternoon to sell them on his second task, scavenging and rescue. “I’m not asking you to explore the whole world here, I’m just showing you how simple it will be to get out there and get what we need.” Gary put a hand on Andrew’s shoulder and pointed toward a large cluster of buildings not far from their location. “You see that there? That’s Emerald Park.”
Andrew brought the binoculars down from his eyes and handed them over to Samson. He turned to Gary. “Yeah I see it, but what is it?”
“Emerald Park was the shopping mecca of Haven! The only place worth going to around here outside of the pubs and restaurants.”
“A mall? You kiddin’ me? The world ended. No way in hell I’m goin’ to the mall.”
“Well, no, technically not a mall. It’s an outdoor shopping park. Hence the name? Hear me out, please. There will be food there, tools we need, clothing that never belonged to the deceased.” The excitement grew in his voice as he spoke. “Water, fine wine, medicine, entertainment, and best of all, more people.” His eyes were wide, resembling a child’s.
“You don’t know that there are people there, and if there are,” Samson glanced over his shoulder at Gary, “how do you know they’re the sharing type?”
“I do know there are people there!” Gary was practically shouting. “At least there were. At one point. Back toward the beginning of this all, before the incident here, a few of us were up on the roof of the central tower. There was a car I spotted speeding in the direction of Emerald Park and it crashed. I thought they were goners but they proved me wrong and jumped out. It made sense to me then, the crash, someone had turned obviously from the way they disposed of the bodies.”
“Yeah but how do you know they weren’t just some maniacs killin’ for fun?” Ben interrupted. “Or better yet, how do you know they weren’t infected themselves and attacking the ones that were just fine?”
Gary smiled. “Because they got back in the car and drove away. I just have a feeling they’re alive out there. And not just them! There must be others, there has to be!” The thought of the seven of them being the last people alive in the city weighed heavily on their chests. They’d all had the same collective thought in passing; that this might be it, that they were all just waiting to die. Yet something in Gary’s voice sparked a sense of panic in all of them. What if they were the last remaining human beings in Haven? What if they were the last remaining alive on the coast? The state? It couldn’t be possible and suddenly they all refused to believe they were it, and their panic turned into hope. Gary had sparked hope in them.
“If there are people out there, what do we do when we find them? What if they’re hostiles?” Ben scratched at his blonde hair as he spoke.
“We take care of that if need be. We plead our case to them, that we band together and rebuild what we can here. If they don’t accept or join then we leave, hopefully it won’t come to violence. We just have to take our chances out there. This is our city, the city doesn’t belong to the dead.”
Veronica finally joined the conversation. “I’m not staying behind this time.” Samson opened his mouth up to protest but she cut him off quickly. “You don’t know who it is that we might be approaching. Whether they’re friendly or not it will still look threatening when a group of armed men come marchin’ up to their doors. And I hate to say it, but I’m a teenage girl, and you need to use that to your advantage.”
“She’s got such a brain on her.” Ben cracked a smile, impressed once more by her confidence. “Veronica can carry her own weight. Let’s do this before I change my mind.”
“Yeah I like the sound of you comin’ along, you used to run right?”
She looked up at Andrew, “I still do.”
“Touché. We could use a scout though, and if you know how to handle a weapon, even better.”
“This is coming together perfectly. I say we leave as soon as tomorrow? We make our way to the park and-“
“Here’s a million dollar question for you.” Samson interrupted Gary’s enthusiasm. “How do you suppose we get not only these so called ‘other survivors’ back here, but all these supplies you’re talkin’ about?” He made big quotation marks in the air with his fingers.
“Had you let me finish Sam, I would have gone on to tell you that there’s a rather large banking complex across the street from where we’re headed and they happen to have an armored car park there. So all of the necessities we’d be bringing back, along with the ‘so called survivors’, would fit just right into a couple of those.” Gary mocked Samson’s air quotes with a set of his own. “We then keep them locked up in the tower’s garage and assuming things go smoothly, we can come and go as we see fit.” Samson and Gary had a staring contest. Veronica couldn’t figure out what had irritated Samson so much, but she could see it in his face. She could hear the sudden arrogance in his voice and the defense in Gary’s. She glanced at Ben as he lit a cigarette and passed the pack back to Clyde.
“If you two are done, we should get packed up s
o we’re ready to leave first thing in the morning.” She looked at Samson expectantly but he said nothing.
Gary clapped his hands excitedly and startled Juliette. “Drew.” She said to her boyfriend meekly, “Are you staying here with me this time?”
Andrew shook his head, “Nah baby doll, Clyde’s sittin’ this one out. He’s gotta take care of that leg.”
Clyde rolled his eyes and shrugged. “Whatever, I could use the beauty rest.”
The group left the roof to begin preparing for their journey to Emerald Park. All except for Samson. Veronica had called out to him, asked him if he was coming, but he’d ignored her. He still held the binoculars in his hands, standing in the same place as he had the entire time they’d all been on the roof. It was one thing to him to go out and forage for supplies to bring back to his bizarre excuse for a family in Franklin Woods. It was a completely different thing to leave the comfort of the walls of The Emerald City to search for strangers in a dead city. Whether it was a false sense of security or not, it didn’t matter to him. He felt small and useless in a group of hardened survivors. He was barely over the fact that he had manipulated a young girl into killing his already dead children. He couldn’t even find it in himself to leave Moira as she took over his life for almost two decades, nor as she was plunging into the depths of madness in a broken world. No, he left his wife as she was dying, after he brought a stranger into their home that shot her children in front of her.
“Yo!” Samson, startled by Ben’s voice from the rooftop door hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath. He gasped and turned to the tall young man peering out at him.
