by M. D. Massey
Will’s blood went cold. He glared at David, wanting nothing more than to snatch the knife from the psycho’s hands and slash his throat.
“We can be your family, William,” David said.
Will let out a ‘pssh’ noise and then looked away. He stared at the wall for a moment before looking back at him.
“Fuck you.”
David let out a small laugh. He looked down at the knife.
“Wrong answer.”
He leaned in and put the knife to Will’s throat, freezing when he heard the shouting behind him from another room.
“Who the hell is that?” the voice shouted.
David looked behind him, letting the cold blade stay rested against Will’s throat. He looked back at Will and flashed him a smile
“I’ll be back to finish this,” David said, patting Will on his cheek.
He pulled the knife away from Will’s neck, stood up, and left the room, leaving Will behind to think about how much time he possibly had left in his life.
In the bathroom across the hall, Marcus peeked through the crack in the door at the hinges, waiting for David to leave the room. Once he did, Marcus moved quickly into Will’s room, being sure to quietly open the door and close it behind him, holding the handle down to prevent the loud click.
Will’s eyes got wide when he saw Marcus. He began to squirm and try to work his way out of the ropes again.
Marcus put his finger to his mouth, signaling for Will to hush. He walked over to him and pulled a knife out of his pocket.
Will pulled his head away, waiting for Marcus to take the knife to his throat.
“David send you in here to do his dirty work?” Will asked.
Marcus smiled. “Not exactly.”
He reached behind Will and began to cut at the ropes with the knife.
“What the hell are you doing?” Will said.
“Shut up and listen,” Marcus began. “Holly was right. That guy out there, that monster…that isn’t the same David Ellis that I know.” He kept sawing at the ropes. “We gotta get Holly and get the hell out of here.”
“Where is she?” Will asked.
Marcus nodded toward the door. “They’ve got her out there, tied up like you. I think David aims to make an example out of the two of you.”
The ropes came loose and Will took turns rubbing his wrists with his hands.
“Come on,” Marcus said, offering Will a hand to help him get up. Will accepted, pulling himself up and almost falling, his legs fast asleep.
They went to the door and Marcus peeked out to make sure the hall was clear.
“We’re gonna head to the right. We gotta make a quick stop before we can go get Holly. Follow me.”
The door opened and they headed for the armory.
Enough of the Empties had scattered to other parts of the industrial park to allow time and open space for the SUV to park at the front of the building.
Jonas looked back to David as he entered the room.
“Some guy is out there with a kid. Apparently, he followed Rich and Mike back here. He’s begging us for food and shelter,” Jonas said.
David nodded at Jonas and walked to the end of the loading dock. He looked down the industrial park to his right and noticed that most of the Empties had gathered around a deer that had gotten loose in the area from the woods nearby. Only a couple of them gathered around the SUV with the man and child inside.
“What do you want?” David said.
“Food. Water. Anything that you can spare,” Gabriel said. “I have a child with me.”
David spit on the ground below. He pointed out to the west.
“You couldn’t find any food out there?” David asked.
Gabriel shook his head. “Have you people been out there? Everything is being or has been looted. These things, they’re blocking the paths into stores and homes.”
David pulled out a cigarette and lit it, letting the smoke rise into the air above his face.
“I’m sorry,” David said, pushing the smoke from his lungs. “But we can’t help you. Now get the fuck outta here.”
When David moved, Holly could be seen behind him, tied up and gagged.
“What the hell is going on in there?” Gabriel shouted.
David turned around. He pushed his coat aside and pulled the gun from the holster at his side.
“Did you not fucking hear what I said?” David yelled.
He fired his pistol at Gabriel, whose eyes had gone wide upon the drawing of the gun, and David now watched him shield the young boy in the passenger seat as the window shattered.
The assault ended when gunshots rang behind David’s head. He dived behind a pallet stacked with boxes of white copy paper.
When he looked up to see what was happening, Holly was snatched away by Will.
22
-
“Are you okay?” Gabriel asked Dylan.
The boy remained curled up in the seat, covering his ears and barely able to hear his own crying. The gunshot had startled him and made Gabriel wonder what kind of man could fire a gun into a vehicle with a child. But another problem was looming.
The gunshot had attracted a group of beasts, the deer no longer a distraction.
Gabriel looked in the back seat and noticed that the passenger side window was broken, matching the one in the front seat.
“Dylan, you need to move to the seat behind me, okay?”
The boy didn’t move. He remained balled up, ears covered.
“Dylan! Dylan!” Gabriel shouted.
Finally, the boy looked up. He nodded hesitantly, worked himself out of his ball, and moved to the back seat, behind Gabriel and away from the open windows.
Gabriel threw the truck into Drive and screamed as he floored the gas pedal, running over three of the creatures before turning the truck around to exit the industrial park.
As he passed back by the bay doors of the warehouse, he saw and heard, gunfire moving in both directions. Then, he saw it. Beside the building, sitting behind a chain link fence, he saw the same white car he’d spent the better part of the morning chasing.
Gabriel shook his head, sighed, and hit the gas pedal, heading out of the industrial park.
“Man down! Man down!” Jonas yelled.
David sat on the concrete, his back against a pallet of brown boxes filled with industrial shrink wrap. He checked his body for wounds, not sure if he had been hit.
“We don’t want to hurt anyone! We just want to talk to David!” Will called out.
“It’s too late for that!” Jonas yelled, trying to stop the bleeding on Leon’s stomach.
“No one else needs to get hurt, Jonas!” Marcus called out.
David’s face went dark. He turned and looked over the pallet.
“Traitor!” he screamed out.
Marcus leaned against the wall and shook his head. He looked at Holly.
“Do you know how many people are here?”
No longer tied up or gagged, Holly thought for a moment. “Two men are outside guarding the gate. And then there should be eight more in here,” she said. “Well, seven.” She was thinking of Leon, lying on his back and possibly bleeding out from the gunshot wound to the stomach.
“David!” Marcus shouted out. “Leon fired at us first. I can promise you that we don’t want to hurt anyone. We just want out of here.”
David grabbed an assault rifle leaning against a wall a few yards away from him. He checked the clip to confirm it was loaded. David slipped the clip back in, pushing gently enough to lock it in place but still control the volume of the click it made. Jonas was knelt down behind a pallet beside him and David nodded at him. Jonas looked over to Mike and Rich, signaling them.
“We’re past that, Marcus! No one is leaving!” David said.
Marcus closed his eyes and banged his head against the wall three times. He wondered if he had made a mistake turning against David, trusting the word of Holly that Will could be trusted.
�
�Please, David! Don’t do this!” Marcus pleaded.
Will looked over at Marcus.
“I don’t think he’s going to give us a choice.” He looked over at Holly and then back to Marcus. “It’s us or them.”
Marcus nodded at Will.
David lowered his eyebrows as he heard the roaring engine outside. He looked through the loading dock door and saw the black SUV scream down the hill toward the building.
Jonas grabbed the radio from his side and began to yell into it.
“Guard the fence! Incoming!”
Then they heard the crash through the fence and the gunfire ensued outside.
23
-
Five minutes earlier…
* * *
“We have to go back! We can’t leave them!” Dylan begged.
Gabriel kept his eyes on the road as the truck pulled back onto the highway. Part of him knew the boy was right, but he wasn’t prepared to go vigilante and try to help some people he didn’t know. His guilt kept him from responding to the boy.
They passed abandoned car after abandoned car and saw creatures lurking along the highway, the truck veering left and right to avoid them while Gabriel ignored the boy.
“Please! Go back!”
Gabriel stopped the truck on the shoulder and banged his head against the steering wheel. His conscience was catching up to him and he knew what the right thing to do was. He looked back to Dylan.
“That’s what you want?” Gabriel asked Dylan.
The boy nodded.
Three beasts approached the truck
Gabriel reached into the back seat and grabbed the baseball bat out of the duffle bag. He held it in his hands for a moment, feeling the comfort of the grip, before pulling his right hand off to confirm the gun was mounted to his side. Again, he looked back to Dylan.
“Then we do it my way.”
Drew Hilton took his hand off the end of the assault rifle for just a moment so he could pull the cigarette out of his mouth and exhale the toxins into the air. As commanded, he stood inside the fenced area at the side of the building, guarding the door in case Marcus, Will, and Holly tried to make a run for it. Four Empties clawed and gripped the fence, howling at him to open it. He shook his head.
“Ugly mother fuckers.”
He sat on the hood of the white hatchback while facing the door to the building. The cigarette burned down to the butt and Drew flicked it onto the ground with the others.
As he blew the last cloud of smoke from his lungs, he heard a noise in the distance getting louder. Drew stood and walked toward the fence.
His eyes widened as the black SUV came into view around the corner, and it was coming right at him.
Drew locked the rifle into his hip, pulled the trigger, and began to fire at the oncoming truck.
It didn’t stop.
His radio began to scream at his side.
“Guard the fence! Incoming!” Jonas shouted through the walkie.
“Shit!” Drew yelled, diving out of the way.
The SUV stormed toward the gate, launching two of the beasts into the chain link as it knocked it down.
The sound of the SUV crashing through the fence blew through the warehouse, and David’s group took it as their opportunity to try and catch the three rebels off guard.
Rich and Mike left their post and ran to the edge of the room, firing down the hallway toward Will, Marcus, and Holly.
Marcus was exposed, but quickly took cover behind the corner just as the men began to fire at them. He leaned against the wall and caught his breath. They were at the end of a long hallway. David had three men with him, one injured, a man outside, and the two women in the group were likely holed away in an office hiding.
Holly’s hand shook on the grip of the gun. She was holding a lightweight assault rifle and the barrel waved through the air.
“We need you, Holly,” Will said. “Just breathe.”
She closed her eyes and held a solemn grip on the gun.
Marcus turned his head around the corner again and Rich fired another shot, barely missing. He looked to Will.
“Give me some cover.”
Will let the assault rifle sit at his hip, the strap hanging over his shoulder, as he drew the pistol from his side. He reached his hand around the corner and began to fire, sending Mike and Rich behind a stack of boxes.
Marcus let out a breath and ran down the hallway into one of the side rooms, unseen by any of the men.
David, still sitting behind the pallet of boxes, signaled Jonas to join his two comrades. Jonas nodded, stood, and ran toward them, firing down the hall to cover himself.
Will and Holly were on opposite sides of the hallway. In order for them to move to where they needed to go, Holly would have to get across the opening to Will’s side.
“I’m gonna cover you,” Will said.
Holly was shaking again. Tears came running from her eyes.
“It’s gonna be okay. They won’t be able to shoot at you with me firing at them.”
She gently nodded her head.
Will counted down from five.
“Now!”
Will pointed his pistol down the hall and fired. Holly waited and ran across the hall. Jonas pointed a gun up over the boxes and shot, the bullet arriving just behind Holly and going into the wall. She fell to the ground.
“Come on!” Will said, leaning over to pick her up. They hurried down the hall.
David stood and the men were silent. They could hear the footsteps hurrying down the hall. He pointed that way.
“After them!”
Gabriel opened the door to the SUV and saw the man he had nearly run over lying face down on the concrete. He walked over and nudged Drew with his foot; he didn’t move. Looking to his left, Gabriel saw two more beasts appear ten yards away from the gate. Through a radio on the man’s hip, Gabriel heard someone shouting, “Drew? Are you there?”
When he turned to point the gun at them, a boot hit Gabriel in the side of the knee, sending him to the ground. The gun flew out of his hand as he grimaced, writhing on the ground.
Drew pounced on Gabriel, landing two initial punches to his face while he had him off guard. Gabriel got his hands up, grabbing Drew’s shirt, and was able to block further punches.
When Drew reached for the pistol, Gabriel brought his right hand off of Drew’s shoulder and landed a punch right below his left eye. The blow sent Drew rolling off of him and he landed directly on top of his gun.
Gabriel rolled over onto his knees and lunged at Drew just as he pulled out the pistol. Gabriel hit his arm, forcing the bullet wide, under him instead of through him.
He shifted his weight onto Drew, pinning the arm with the gun down to the ground as they fought each other with their other arms.
Gabriel lost his balance and leaned too far into Drew, who took the chance to deliver a head butt to Gabriel, the crack of his nose ringing in Drew’s ear.
Drew stumbled to his feet, his back to the fence, and looked down at Gabriel. He wiped blood away from his mouth, smiling as he looked down at the iron substance on the back of his hand.
Gabriel just stared through Drew, supporting himself on his right elbow and holding his left arm up, surrendering.
Drew smiled. He brought the handgun up and pointed it down between Gabriel’s eyes. “You lose,” Drew said.
Gabriel tensed his body and closed his eyes.
Two creatures pulled Drew down from behind, just as he was about to pull the trigger. He got one shot off, but it sang through the air, flying over the building. They followed him to the ground, pouncing on his face.
Gabriel watched the scene in horror as Drew drowned under the bodies, waving his arms in the air and pleading for help. He listened to the terror in the man’s final screams.
The gun was pinned under the undead; there would be no getting it. Gabriel had mistakenly placed the shotgun he had gotten at the sporting goods store in the very back part of the SUV, and with the beast
s lurking, had no time to grab it. Gabriel saw the baseball bat lying in the front seat. He reached through the door and grabbed it, the cannibal distracted with the fresh meal of living flesh.
Gabriel opened the door to the warehouse as the screaming stopped, confirming the beasts had done their job with no need for him to look back.
The rest of the warehouse became eerily quiet as the three men ran down the hall after the rebels. David could hear the echo of the click of his boots as he got to his feet. He walked to the center of the room just as Marcus came around the corner pointing a pistol at him.
David returned the favor, bringing his gun up to eye level with Marcus.
The two men stared at each other, each moving to their right.
Marcus spoke first.
“We don’t have to do this, David.”
David smiled. He cocked his head to the side, the joints in his neck cracking, which he followed with a shoulder shrug.
“It’s too late. It’s done.” David continued to shuffle to the side. “What do you think is going to happen when they find that piece of shit and that traitor bitch?” David asked, speaking of Will and Holly.
Sweat dripped down Marcus’ cheek. He didn’t want to shoot David. The two had been friends for years and when times had been tough for him, David had given him an opportunity to start over. In this tense stare down, looking down the barrel of a gun, Marcus remembered this, and guilt came over him.
Slowly, Marcus let his arm fall to the side. He knelt down, never letting his eyes leave David’s, and set the gun on the concrete floor of the warehouse. Straightening his knees, he lifted his hands to the air.
“Come on, David. Let’s just talk.”
Keeping his hands up, Marcus began to move toward David.
“Put the gun down, David. We can end this.”
David laughed. He waved the gun in the air like he was leading an orchestra through Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
