Apocalyptic Beginnings Box Set

by M. D. Massey

  “Maybe it’s Trey,” I whisper.

  “Could be anybody. We left a note out on the damn road,” Axl says, pulling out his gun.

  Joshua stands next to his chair, and his book lies on the floor at his feet. His eyes are big and round. They take up his whole face.

  Axl nudges his brother. “Angus, wake up.”

  Angus grunts and starts to sit up, but stops when his eyes land on Emily. I gently pick her up. She barely moves. I cradle her in my arms. Her face is so peaceful and innocent. God, I’m selfish.

  “What the hell,” Angus says, rolling off the couch.

  Just as he opens his mouth—probably to bitch more—there’s another knock at the door. He pulls his gun out so fast it reminds me of a gunslinger in an old western. Angus nods to Axl, and they walk toward the door. I lay Emily down on the couch, covering her with a blanket, then follow the brothers with my heart beating a million miles a minute. Joshua walks behind me, and he’s shaking. He looks even more terrified than I feel.

  “I’m sure it’s just Trey and Parvarti,” I say.

  Joshua nods but doesn’t say a word. His mouth is so tight I’m not sure he could. I sink my teeth into my bottom lip when Axl leans forward to look out the peephole.

  “It ain’t Trey.”

  “Who is it?” Angus’s fingers flex around his gun.

  “Some other people, looks like five of ‘em.” Axl takes a step back and glances back at us before calling out, “What do you want?”

  “Just looking for survivors,” a man with a deep, baritone voice answers.

  “You lookin’ for trouble?” Axl asks. “We’re armed and we got no problem killin’ if it comes down to it.”

  “No one’s looking for trouble. We’re armed, but we don’t mean you any harm.”

  “What you think?” Axl asks.

  Joshua shuffles awkwardly next to me and his hand shakes so hard there’s no way he’d be able to hit anything if he had to fire that gun. Not that I’m doing any better. My legs are like Jell-O.

  “We should hear ‘em out. See if they know what’s goin’ on,” Angus replies.

  Axl nods and turns back to the door. “We’ll let you in, but we want you to leave your weapons outside.”

  “Can’t do that,” the man answers. “We need to protect ourselves. We’ve got women and children.”

  Axl purses his lips. “Then you can send in one person. After we talk we’ll decide if the rest of you can come in.”

  There’s silence for a second and I hold my breath. The man says, “Sounds reasonable.”

  Axl and Angus step back and raise their guns, aiming at the door.

  “Open it, Doc,” Axl says through clenched teeth.

  Joshua stumbles forward and jerks the door open. A black man in his mid-forties steps in with his hands in the air, and Joshua slams the door behind him. The man has broad shoulders and a thick beard. His eyes are dark and intelligent, and they sweep across the room the second he’s inside. Taking us all in. His body is as stiff as a board and he doesn’t relax for a second.

  “That’s far enough,” Axl says.

  The man nods, but doesn’t speak.

  “Who are you?” Angus barks.

  “Name’s Winston. I’m just a survivor, like you, trying to get some place safe. I have a small group of people with me and we’re trying to make it out of the city. That’s all,” Winston says.

  Joshua and I don’t move, and Winston’s eye catches mine. He nods and gives me a small smile before looking back toward the brothers.

  “Who you got with you? Relatives?” Axl asks.

  Winston shakes his head. “My daughter is with me. Everyone else we’ve met along the way.”

  “Why’d you come up here?” Angus asks.

  “Saw your note outside on the street, thought we’d see who was up here.”

  Axl lowers his gun and looks over at Angus. “This guy ain’t tryin’ to hurt us.”

  Angus grunts and drops the hand holding his gun, scratching his head with the other. “Let your people in.”

  Winston puts his hands down and walks over to the door, keeping his eyes on the brothers as he goes. Angus heads to the dining room table and grabs his dip while Axl puts his gun in his waistband. Winston’s shoulders relax the second the gun is put away.

  He opens the door, and his group files in. They range from a little girl around the age of five to a man who’s probably in his sixties. They’re all dirty and exhausted. I can’t imagine what they’ve been going through the last few days. Why haven’t they been able to get out of the city?

  “You folks never told me who you are,” Winston says.

  “I’m Axl James and that there’s my brother, Angus. This here’s Vivian and her daughter, Emily is asleep on the couch. Over there we got the Doc, Joshua.”

  “Who’s Trey?” Winston asks.

  “A guy who was traveling with us. He and his girlfriend went off to Berkley to see if his parents were alive. We said we’d meet him here, in case things weren’t good for them at home,” I say.

  Winston raises an eyebrow. “So you’re not from the city and you actually came here voluntarily?”

  “We didn’t know ‘bout the dead,” Axl says.

  “Was a stupid idea even then,” Angus grumbles.

  Winston turns toward his group, who are huddled together in the doorway. “Well, let me introduce you to everyone.” He walks toward a tall, thin black girl in her early twenties. She has his eyes. “This is my daughter, Jessica. Here we have Arthur,” Winston says, pointing to a thin, gaunt-looking white man in his sixties with silver wisps of hair. “And that there is Mike.” The man he points to is big and burly, with a black leather biker jacket and a thick, gray beard. He reminds me of someone you’d see holding up a liquor store. “Over there is Sophia and her daughter, Ava.” Sophia and Ava stand back away from everyone else. They’re Hispanic, and the mother looks to be around thirty with a short, boyish haircut. Her daughter is probably a year or so older than Emily, and she has long, black hair and big, brown eyes.

  No one moves. These men have no idea what to do.

  I clear my throat and take a step forward. “Well, everyone must be hungry and dirty. Why don’t you take turns showering? The men were smart enough to get the generator going, so we have hot water.”

  “Hot water?” Jessica’s eyes get big and a smile spreads across her face.

  She’s not the only one who perks up. The others smile and shuffle around, mumbling stuff to each other about how nice it will be to get clean. They seem like a good group.

  “There are two bathrooms in the suite, but we have a master key, so we can get into any of the rooms.”

  “I think it would be best to stay together,” Winston says. “We can take turns.”

  The hair on the back of my neck stands up. I’d almost forgotten about the dead. “Good point.”

  18

  Winston’s group is nice, but silent. They move wordlessly through the hotel room. They eat and take turns using the shower. Their presence makes my insides feel weighed down by everything going on. We’re about to get a big dose of reality and it isn’t going to be good.

  Emily woke from her nap thrilled to find she had a new playmate, and Sophia was kind enough to offer to give both the girls a bath in the giant Jacuzzi tub. Why didn’t I think of that? Who knows how long it’s been since the girl had a bath, and the fact that I took a shower myself but didn’t even think about Emily was a real blow.

  This mom thing is so much more difficult than I expected it to be.

  Winston and Mike let the others in their group get the showers first, so they can fill us in on what’s happening. I sit on the couch between Angus and Axl listening to Winston talk, and that weight inside me gets heavier by the second.

  “The virus really hit us about five days ago. We were naive, I think,” Winston says quietly. “We really believed the government had contained it and the West Coast was going to make it through this unscathe
d. It was just a few cases here and there at first, and since the schools and most businesses had already been shut down we thought we could keep it that way. Then it just swept across the city like a plague.”

  “My wife got sick first. Four days ago she came down with a fever. Shortly after that my seventeen-year-old son got it. My wife only lasted forty-eight hours and my son even less. We didn’t leave the house, didn’t take them to the hospital because we knew there was no point. So they died in our home. Jessica and I didn’t know what to do with the bodies. By that point the phone lines were down. I moved them both to the guest room and planned on burying them as soon as I could.” He pauses and wipes the tears from his eyes. “It was two days after she died that she came back.”

  His hoarse voice sends a shudder down my spine. I swallow. I don’t want to hear the details, but at the same time I need to know. “What happened?”

  “Jessica heard some movement in the guestroom and came to get me. I thought maybe someone had broken in. That was the only explanation I could come up with. So I got my gun, loaded it and opened the door. She was standing there in the middle of the room with her back to me. At first I thought she must have gotten better. It was the only thing that made sense. But then she turned around and as soon as I saw her face I knew.” He shakes his head and closes his eyes. “It was worse than any horror movie you can imagine. Nothing can prepare you for how it feels to see your loved one come back from the dead. To have them charge at you. Try to bite you. The horror of having to put a bullet in their skull…” He breaks off and begins to cry. The sobs shake his body and he puts his face in his hands. My own throat tightens.

  “He shot his son in the head before he could come back,” Mike says.

  “What about you?” Joshua asks.

  Mike looks away. “Lost my girl. We’d ridden across the country to escape the virus. Had some wild idea that we’d go out to Alcatraz and live there after the end of the world. It was stupid and mostly a joke. She got sick five days ago and went real fast. I was still in the hotel room we’d gotten when she turned. I didn’t have a weapon, so I just ran. That was yesterday.” He clears his throat and downs the small bottle of booze he got out of the mini bar.

  “So what’s the story?” Axl says. “They turn and they attack, just like the movies? Do their bites change us?”

  Winston scratches at his beard. “No idea. This is just as new to us as it is to you. Jessica and I packed our stuff up yesterday and headed out to find a car. We met Mike, who had Sophia and Ava with him. Slept in the mall last night and ran into Arthur this morning. We don’t know much more than you do, just that the city is suddenly crawling with them and we have to get out of here. None of us had a car, though. Trying to find one with keys in it hasn’t worked.”

  “We have to wait until Sunday to leave,” I say.

  “Shit.” Angus jumps up and starts pacing. He reminds me of a caged animal. “This is bullshit! We don’t even know if they’re comin’!”

  “We can’t leave without them,” I say. “Anyway, they could be here earlier.”

  Winston gets to his feet and puts his hands in the air. “Let’s settle down. Do you folks even know where you’re headed?”

  “We planned on findin’ a farm somewhere, but that’s before all this zombie nonsense. Now…” Axl shakes his head like he doesn’t have a clue.

  “Well, I think there’s safety in numbers,” Winston says. “How do you feel about traveling together?”

  Angus grunts, but Axl ignores him. “Sounds like a good idea to me. We’re gonna need another car, but we can get a group together and find one tomorrow.”

  Arthur comes out of the bedroom and heads over to join us. His hair is wet and he has a big smile on his face. “Looks like everyone is showered and dressed, except Winston and Mike. There’s a restaurant on the top floor with a bar and a grand piano. Who wants to go on up and see if we can find any food that hasn’t spoiled yet? The power has been out for less than two days, the stuff in the freezer probably didn’t even have time to defrost completely before you folks turned on the generator.”

  Axl gets to his feet. He rubs his forehead like it hurts. “The booze won’t be bad.”

  “We’ll meet you up there after we shower,” Winston says, tilting his head toward Mike.

  I stand to go find Emily, following the giggles coming from the bedroom. Sophia sits on the bed with a smile on her lips. The girls are clean and dressed. Emily’s hair is even more blonde now that it’s been washed. The girls play with dolls and laugh like the world hasn’t gone to shit. The bath and the company really helped Emily come around, I’m thankful Sophia did it. It will be nice to have a real mom around. Maybe I can learn something from her.

  “We’re going to head upstairs to the restaurant, see if anything is still good.”

  Sophia smiles and stands up. “Sounds good. Come on girls.”

  They giggle and follow her out. Emily doesn’t even look at me, and my heart twists with pain. I need to find a way to connect with her.

  Everyone in the living room is ready to go, except Angus who sits on the couch with his arms crossed.

  I stop in front of him and nudge his leg with my foot. “Aren’t you coming?”

  “Gotta stay and make sure these guys don’t steal our stuff,” he says.

  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. I shake my head and follow the others out. “Suit yourself.”

  Arthur was right. The stuff in the freezer hasn’t gone bad. On top of that, there are plenty of rolls, and even some fruit still good. Sophia and Jessica get to work in the kitchen. I try to help, but they’re tripping all over me. Domestic stuff isn’t really my thing.

  “Why don’t you go out and check on the girls?” Sophia finally says.

  “Sorry,” I say. “I don’t cook.”

  “It’s okay,” Jessica says. “You can help in other ways.”

  The women give me fake smiles that make my shoulders go rigid. They’re humoring me. They think I’m worthless white trash. I swallow and hurry out of the kitchen before they can see the hurt on my face. You’d think I’d be used to it after twenty years.

  The girls are running around, playing a loud game of tag while Axl sits at a table, drinking and watching them with a smile on his face. I stand in the doorway for a moment, watching him and trying for the millionth time to understand him. And figure out what it is about this moody redneck that makes my insides unstable.

  The soft sound of classical music fills the room and I look around. Where’s that coming from? A speaker? Nope. Arthur sits at a beautiful grand piano in the corner of the room. Playing.

  He looks up and gives me a huge grin when I walk over. “I was a music teacher for over thirty years.”

  “It’s beautiful,” I say. “You’re very talented.”

  He smiles and winks at me. “You want to hear something funny? I’ve been waiting to die for three years.”

  My eyes get so big they’re in danger of popping out of my head. I have no idea what he means or why it would be funny.

  He laughs and stops playing, patting the seat next to him. “Cancer. I was diagnosed three years ago. The doctors said I wouldn’t make it through the year but I did, and I kept defying the odds. When this virus hit I thought, ‘This is it! This is finally what’s going to kill me!’ But I beat that too. I guess God has a bigger plan for me.”

  “I’m sorry,” I say, because I’m not sure what else to say.

  “Don’t be. I had a good life. Taught at the same school for three decades, had a wonderful husband and a fantastic life. I can’t complain.”

  He’s gay. Heaven help us if Angus finds out. “Don’t tell Angus you’re gay,” I whisper, glancing toward Axl.

  Arthur laughs and shakes his head. “Don’t worry. I can spot his kind from a mile away.”

  “So your husband, did he die from the virus?”

  He shakes his head and goes back to playing. A soft melancholy tune that brings tears to my eye
s. “No. Car accident six years ago. It was unexpected and I didn’t know if I would survive it. But I did.” He smiles again. He’s such a happy person. How? “What about you? Have you ever been married?”

  I shake my head.

  His smile stays, but he manages to make it look sympathetic. That will be a nice addition to our group. Maybe even balance out the moodiness of the redneck brothers.

  “What about Emily’s dad?”

  “Well, that was a long time ago.”

  I tell him how I gave her up, how I came back to find her. It isn’t easy. The guilt squeezes my heart. I really expected to love her.

  “You’re a good person,” he says when I’m done.

  “I don’t know. I expected things to be different. I thought I would feel some kind of love toward her. When she was born the love I felt was overwhelming, but I gave her up anyway. Now I have her and I just don’t feel the same.” I stare at my hands, so I don’t have to look him in the eye. Will he judge me?

  “You’ll learn,” he says. “You made sure she had a family when you couldn’t take care of her yourself, and came back to get her when you knew they might not be able to. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.”

  “But I’ve been so selfish. I keep thinking of myself first, forgetting I even have her.”

  He stops playing and puts his hand on my back. “You’ll figure it out. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

  Some of the guilt melts away. Maybe he’s right. Maybe I just need time. “Thank you, Arthur.”

  Angus shows up with Mike and Winston in tow.

  “Anything come up missing?” I yell. He gives me the finger. I laugh and stand up when Arthur starts to play again. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  I head over to the bar to get myself a drink and Axl follows. “You ready for another drink?” I ask.

  “Naw. I ain’t a big drinker.”

  “Really?” I say, pouring a glass for myself.

  He walks behind the bar with me and digs around until he finds a can of mixed nuts. “Mom was a drinker. Not somethin’ I really want to relive.”