Apocalyptic Beginnings Box Set

by M. D. Massey

  “Lots of practice conditioning the liver.” He kissed my forehead. “Just rest. I’ll take care of it.” Henry crawled away from me and got out of bed. I peeked at his body while he dressed. I couldn’t help but smile. Pulling his shirt over his head, he headed toward the door, but he looked back at me once more.

  “Just so we are clear. Even if you don’t remember our little adventure last night, I do, and it was absolutely brilliant.” He winked at me and left the room.

  I was so embarrassed, I pulled the covers over my head. I only remembered bits and pieces, so I wasn’t even sure what he was talking about. What adventure? I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to know.

  Reluctantly, I rolled out of bed to get dressed, discovering another sore spot that I would rather not discuss. I felt mortified.

  While trying to shake off the whisky fuzzies and wandering thoughts, I glanced out the window, shocked at what I saw. There had to be at least six inches of snow out there, and it was still falling at a heavy rate.

  “Shit!” I stumbled over my shoes. I ran out of my bedroom and pounded on the doors. “Get up! Everyone up! There’s snow on the ground!” Mumbles and groans came from inside the rooms.

  I ran downstairs while tugging a sweater on. Henry stood with his hands in his pockets, looking out the window in the dining room.

  “Well, at least we have four-wheel drive.” He turned around. Everyone else filed down the stairs, all gasping over the fresh and continuously falling snow. “Let’s dress appropriately for the weather and pack up.”

  Henry rummaged through the bags and boxes that Sophie, Claire, and Thomas had brought back from his apartment. He pulled out his ball cap and found his winter coat. He tossed an extra coat to my brother. I watched Henry meticulously load up his vest and put it on over his shirt.

  I ran upstairs and dug through my parents’ closets, pulling out a couple heavy coats, along with hats and gloves. I searched for boots and winter clothing, as well. Luckily, my mother and I wore the same size. Sadly, our styles were on opposite ends of the spectrum. I wasn’t an Ann Taylor kind of girl. More like an Old Navy kind of girl.

  When I heard someone at the door, I glanced over my shoulder. Claire stood just inside of the room. “Claire…Here.” I tossed the clothing at her.

  “Thanks,” she said. “I’m going to go search through the rest of the closets and see what I can find. Extra linens and such. Nick is going to go to the garage to look around for anything we need.”

  “Okay.” Claire turned around to walk away. “Claire, wait.” She stopped and looked me, brows raised. “Thank you.”

  “For what?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

  “For a lot of things, but specifically for making Nick happy.” She smiled. “You both deserve happiness.”

  “Yeah. A little happiness in this crazy, fucked-up world is hard to find, but I think we have.” I laughed. Claire sounded so funny when she swore. I was pretty sure I would never get used to hearing her say it.

  I grabbed what I could and headed back downstairs, then passed out items to everyone. Henry and Nick were already outside getting things together. We all looked somewhat funny in my parents’ expensive coats. Sophie grabbed the fur, of course.

  “Fitting, yeah?” She twirled around. “Oh, is there a muffler to go with this? I definitely think it needs one.” I threw one of my father’s plaid wool scarves at her. “Oh no, love. This absolutely does not go.”

  I rolled my eyes and continued passing out items. Then I got myself all bundled up and headed out the door.

  It was a heavy, wet snow. I paused, then grinned, thinking about all the snowball fights and sledding trips Nick and I had taken. Mom and Dad would take us skiing in the Catskills. We would stay in a lodge, roast marshmallows, and drink hot cocoa. I felt a sudden playfulness rush through me.

  I bent down and made a nice heavy snowball, squeezing it tight, smoothing any bumps. Then I threw it, hitting Nick right in the back of his leg as he helped Henry load the truck.

  “Hey! What the…?” They turned around and saw me grinning. “You little bitch!” Nick yelled. He and Henry made snowballs and started throwing them at me while I dodged them, running behind the big maple tree in the front yard. Every time I peeked out, one of them would just miss me.

  “And you call yourself a sharpshooter, Henry?!” I shouted playfully from behind the safety of the tree.

  “Quit being a chicken and come out!” Henry yelled.

  When Claire and Thomas come out of the house, I waved Claire over and she ran to join me. Naturally, Thomas joined Henry and Nick. Both Claire and I got pelted left and right. We didn’t care. We laughed so hard, our stomachs ached.

  Sophie finally decided to grace us with her presence. She walked across the yard in my mother’s best fur, not a single snowball hitting her. It was like she parted the seas. She joined us in our pursuit of defeating the men.

  Henry stopped, turning an ear to the sky listening. He held his arm up for the rest of us to be quiet. Then I heard it. “Is that a plane?” I asked.

  We all looked up. It was hard to see with all the snow coming down, but the sound got increasingly closer. I felt a moment of excitement.

  “Henry! Maybe there’s help coming! Maybe there are other places in the States that aren’t infected! Maybe we should drive to the airport!”

  “No. That can’t be it or they would have flown over ages ago.” Henry listened closely. “That’s a military jet.”

  “That’s good news then, right? Maybe they’re looking for survivors.” Claire tried to sound positive but judging from the worried look in her eyes, she felt the same unsure feelings Henry did. Then we heard an explosion, the ground rumbling. Another plane flew overhead.

  “Come on! Let’s roll! We need to get the hell out of here!” Henry and Nick ran around, getting the trucks packed.

  I ran to him. “What’s going on?” I said, panicking.

  “They’re bombing!”

  “What?”

  “Whoever is flying those planes is bombing!”

  “But what about survivors?”

  Henry grabbed my arms, shaking me. “They don’t care, Elaina! Now move! We need to finish getting packed so we can get out of here!”

  My heart pounded as we heard more planes and felt more explosions. I stood frozen in place. My feet wouldn’t move, my muscles stiff. Fear had taken over my body.

  “Elaina! Come on!” I watched everyone running around, trying to pack up. “Elaina! Snap out of it! We need you!” Henry ran past me with the trunk of weapons and ammo.

  Finally, I was able to move. I ran into the house and collected what I could, then ran to the truck. Nick brought stuff out of the garage: axes, chains, and a carrier for the roof of the truck. He fastened it to the top of Henry’s Tahoe and loaded it with the dry wood.

  Claire ran past me with extra blankets. Thomas carried out boxes of food. Everyone moved at warp speed. More explosions sounded in the distance, but closer. The ground continued to rumble.

  Finally, the house was cleared of everything we thought we needed. I ran into the living room and grabbed the photo albums. Nick came flying down the stairs with his guitar and a couple other treasured childhood items from his room. I ran upstairs and paused at my parents’ bedroom.

  I am not a praying kind of girl, but I grabbed my mother’s gold cross necklace. She treasured it. Her mother gave it to her on her sixteenth birthday. I stuffed it in my jacket pocket. Knowing that could very well be the last time I ever saw my family home again, my jaw trembled.

  “Elaina! Where are you?! We’re leaving!” I heard Henry running up the stairs, coming up behind me. “Love… Do you have everything you want to bring with you?” His voice was calm and smooth. I nodded, crying. Henry rubbed my shoulders with his gloved hands. “Hey, hey, hey. Listen. If we can, we will come back. Okay?” He pulled me in tight.

  “It’ll be too dangerous, and probably burned to the ground by then.” We heard another expl
osion closer than the last. It felt like an earthquake.

  “We have to go.” He grabbed the photo albums out of my hands and we ran out to his truck.

  Thomas had already taken a spot in the back seat. There was just enough room in there for him. Sophie was siphoning gas out of her truck to put in Henry’s. I got in on the passenger side, then hung the cross on the rearview mirror. Henry got in and touched it curiously. Then he gazed at me.

  I looked down, fiddling with my gloves. Henry engaged the four-wheel drive, then put the truck in reverse. I couldn’t look at the house anymore. It was the last piece of normalcy I had.

  “Turn on the walkie-talkie. It’s in the glove box.” I didn’t move. “Love…?” He touched my leg, making me jump. “Can you grab the walkie-talkie out of the glove box and turn it on?” I nodded and did as I was told, handing it to him.

  “SJ, you got me?”

  “Loud and clear, HD. We’re ready to roll out.”

  “Follow me. If we can’t get through, listen for further detail.”

  “Copy that, boss.”

  Henry drove as fast as he could in the weather conditions. Not only was there snow on the roads, there was still a significant amount falling, as well as black clouds of smoke in the background.

  Could it possibly get any worse? I was doubtful.

  As more planes dropped bombs all around us, my hands shook. I unzipped my coat. I couldn’t tell if I were sweating from fear or just from being overheated.

  “It’s going to be okay, love.” Thomas laughed, obviously having a different opinion. “Shut up, Thomas!”

  Henry reached into his pocket and pulled out his iPod. He opened the center console, pulling out the car charger. “Can you plug this in?” I took it from him. The first track was from The Killers.

  We drove about twenty miles, only the iPod breaking the silence. Thomas had nodded off in the back. I shook my head, having no idea how he could sleep. I was too jacked-up. We suddenly came upon a congestion of cars. It was still snowing like crazy, and we could hear the planes and explosions off in the distance.

  “Bloody hell,” Henry grumbled as he reached for the walkie-talkie. “SJ, do you copy?”

  “Loud and clear.”

  “In about three hundred meters, there’s congestion. Going to pull over and see what we can do.”

  “Copy.” Henry pulled up close to the vehicles, and Thomas stirred.

  “Have your weapons at the ready. Thomas, you come out and cover. Elaina, stay put.” I frowned at him. “You’re to stay put unless I say differently.”

  “Fine.” I folded my arms and looked the other way.

  “Christ, Elaina. Cut the shit,” he grumbled, opening the door and hopping out.

  “Be careful,” I mumbled. He grumbled something, then closed the door. I watched him and Thomas walk toward the cars. With all the snow still falling, they disappeared. Then Sophie walked past, still in my mother’s fur. She waved at me as she went by.

  Henry treaded through the snow, Thomas following obediently behind him, watching their surroundings. Moments later, Sophie caught up.

  Henry held up his hand, listening for those horrible, familiar sounds. All he heard were the two trucks running, the snow hitting softly all around them.

  He approached the first car. With some hesitation, he wiped the snow off the driver’s window with his gloved hand. He breathed a sigh of relief. Empty. Sophie knelt and tapped on the gas tank, finding plenty in it. Henry tried the handle. Finding it unlocked, he opened it, searching for a trunk release. When he found that, Sophie searched it and pulled out a gas can.

  “Check it out! Got us a gas can.” She pulled the siphon out of her pack, which she had on under the fur coat. She siphoned out as much gas as the can would hold.

  “I’m going to walk ahead a bit, see how far this traffic jam goes.”

  Thomas looked between the two, wondering if he should follow Henry or stay back with Sophie.

  “Go with him. I’m fine. I’m going to fill our tanks, then check this other car.”

  Thomas walked off, catching up with Henry, as Sophie headed back to the trucks. As she put half the can in each truck, more planes flew over, dropping bombs in the distance.

  “Keep close, Thomas, so we can see each other,” Henry commanded.

  “All right.” Thomas was right up on him when Henry stopped, running right into his back. Surprisingly, the little waif almost knocked Henry over.

  “Christ, Thomas! Not that close!”

  “I was doin’ wha’ you said.”

  “Shit.”

  “Wha’?”

  “The road. It looks like the traffic goes on forever. Fuck!” Henry kicked the car next to him, hearing an intense growling from the inside. When Henry swiped the snow off the window, he and Thomas both jumped back.

  “Bloody hell!” There was an entire family of undeads inside the car, pawing at the windows.

  “How the…?”

  “One must have been bitten, and they were probably trying to take them somewhere, maybe to the hospital. There’s one off the exit up ahead.”

  “Do we shoot them?” Thomas nervously asked. Henry raised his gun. Four shots later, all were true dead.

  Sophie heard the gunshots in the distance. She stopped what she was doing. “Henry!” she called out. No answer. “Henry!” she yelled louder. Still no answer.

  Sophie decided to follow their tracks. She walked faster and faster until she ran into Thomas, his Sig aimed right at her head.

  “What the fuck, Thomas?!”

  “Sorry, I thought you were—”

  “Yeah, I got it. Henry, what’s going on?”

  “Took out a couple.” He sighed. “The traffic is backed up. If we plan on continuing on this path, we’re going to have to push through. Otherwise, we have to turn around.”

  Sophie looked around. “Well, there really isn’t much of a choice, is there? Let’s head back to the trucks. We can rotate pushing.” Henry nodded.

  Henry opened the door of the truck and hopped in. He threw his gloves and aviators on the dash, pulling his ball cap off before running his hands through his hair.

  “How’s it look?” I asked with concern.

  “Not great. A lot of traffic. We’ll have to push through.” I didn’t like the sound of that. “A couple of us will push if we can’t do it with the truck.”

  “This isn’t a good idea. Someone will get hurt.”

  “We’ll be fine. We just have to be cautious.”

  “Right,” I said, skeptical.

  “It will be fine, Elaina. Trust me.” I laughed, and he glared at me.

  He put the truck in drive and crept through the middle of the road. We barely fit, metal scraping on metal. Henry cursed, and I decided to sit with my hands covering my eyes. It was just easier for me that way.

  I felt us come to a stop.

  “Thomas, I need you to hop out.” Then Henry got on the walkie-talkie. “SJ, we need a push up here.”

  “Copy.”

  I removed my hands from my eyes. Henry jumped out, clearing the cars of undeads. When Thomas and Nick pushed the cars off the edge of the highway, he got back into the truck.

  The snow seemed to have lightened up, but still came down at a steady pace. Visibility was quite bleak. Henry impatiently drummed the steering wheel to a Calvin Harris song, watching and waiting for Thomas and Nick to clear enough space for us to continue.

  After several minutes of continuous finger drumming, I smacked Henry’s hand.

  “What?” he snapped.

  “You are driving me batty!”

  “Sorry,” he mumbled.

  Finally, Thomas and Nick rushed back to the trucks. Thomas rubbed his hands together, trying to warm them.

  “We thought we heard some undeads, but we ain’t sure. It’s still hard to see out there.” Thomas’s teeth chattered while he talked.

  “Thank you, Thomas,” Henry said, all business. It sounded like “Program Henry” was back
for a visit. Oh, the joy. He put the truck back in drive, slowly moving forward again.

  We couldn’t have moved fifty feet before we saw them. There was an enormous herd roaming back and forth on the highway. I couldn’t see how many exactly, but there were more than I had ever seen…more than I ever wanted to see.

  “SJ, we have company,” Henry said into the walkie-talkie, like it wasn’t a big deal. It was creepy when he used his “business” voice.

  “How many?” Sophie barked back.

  “Hmm…maybe fifty? Not sure. The vehicles and snow make it difficult to see.” When he said fifty, bile rolled up in my esophagus. I could see them, but just hearing the amount made me want to flee.

  “I’m stopped directly behind you. I’ll hop up on top and pick them off. Wait for my cue.”

  I trembled. There were so many, a few of them bumping into the front of the truck. They looked partially frozen.

  “Copy,” Henry said, then looked over at me. “Hey. It will be okay.” He rubbed his cold hand down my cheek. “We’ve got this.” He always tried to be so reassuring, but I knew he was just as scared as I was. “Thomas, pass me the sniper rifle.”

  “HD, I’m up.”

  “Copy. I’m going up, as well. You kneel, I’ll lie down.”

  “Copy.” When I looked back, Nick reached out the window and grab the walkie-talkie from Sophie.

  “Henry, no! They’re too close. They could get you while you are trying to get up there. And what about the carrier?” I didn’t like the plan at all.

  “Love, I know what I am doing. Now, once I’m out, roll up my window. You’ll be safe in here.” He rolled down the window, opened the door, and climbed up it like a ladder. I would have fallen on my ass.

  I pulled the door shut and rolled up the window just as an undead tried to reach in. Thomas had his gun ready. He was breathing heavily, and I could feel his fear.

  “Elaina, pick up.” Claire’s voice was shaky. I almost dropped the walkie-talkie on the floor because my hands shook so much.