DEAD: Darkness Before Dawn

by Brown, TW

“I saw a couple more a street over,” a voice that sounded like it belonged on a phone sex operator said in a breathy whisper.

  “But I also thought I saw two others around here someplace,” another woman said, she sounded both frantic and angry. “They were not wearing the colors of the Guardians, and one of them had a nasty limp.”

  “We aren’t worried about a couple of locals, Darla,” Phone Sex purred. “I want the Guardians. And I want all of them dead…no prisoners. Are we all clear on that?”

  There was a mumbled chorus of agreement. The group melted back into the darkness and vanished into the back yard of the house where this odd little gathering had taken place.

  “What the hell?” Kevin turned to Catie. She simply shrugged. “And you are sure that you have not seen any signs of the living?”

  “I think this is just a random encounter,” Catie said. “Sounds to me like these two groups have some sort of war going on.”

  “Yeah…the Guardians?” Kevin scoffed. “And just what would they be the guardians of I wonder.”

  “You sound like you are already deciding who the supposed good guys and bad guys are in this,” Catie said with a hint of amusement in her voice. “I wouldn’t simply assume that just because one group seems to be all women that you just instantly consider them the victims. Did you see the way they tore that guy up? I have never seen anything so brutal in my life…and with what I have seen in this past year, that is saying something.”

  Kevin considered her words. He had done exactly what she was suggesting. He had automatically just assumed that the women were the victims and that this crazy gang was the evil motorcycle gang from the movies.

  “Well I think we need to head back,” Catie finally said. “If our people are nowhere to be seen, then it might be good to assume they already saw enough to know better than to get involved.”

  Kevin agreed and they slipped out from the cover of the shrub that they had been hiding under. Staying low and to the shadows, they made it back down the street and away from the burning church.

  They continued to move away from the church, cutting through more yards first before turning back towards their little camp. More than once they had to freeze as people from the two factions ran past; sometimes in pursuit; but more often, just on seemingly random missions of futility. For all of the activity, there seemed to be a rather surprising lack of actual fighting taking place.

  Kevin was following Catie over a fence when he was suddenly grabbed from behind. Without thinking, he spun and slashed with the blade he was carrying at the time. There was a strangled cry; his blade had struck with near perfection in a slice across the throat of his would be assailant.

  He was transfixed as he stared into the eyes of a young woman who was clutching at the gushing wound like she could stop the flow of her life blood. Something warm sprayed Kevin’s face as her hands fell away and the young woman collapsed to her knees.

  “Jesus,” he sobbed as he swiped at his face, smearing the crimson fluid more than actually wiping it away.

  “Kevin!” Catie hissed.

  He looked up just in time to see three more figures in hooded coats sprinting his direction. Two of them had pistols drawn. Instead of trying to climb, Kevin threw himself at the fence and allowed the momentum to hurl his body over.

  Catie did not hesitate and pulled her own pistol, having decided that preservation now trumped the idea of stealth. There was an exchange of gunfire. Her advantage was that she was stationary. She only briefly mused how it might look good in the movies, but running and shooting were usually a bad mix. She also chastised herself just as quickly for the thought. I have been hanging around Kevin too long…I am starting to compare everything to the damn movies like he does, she thought as she leaned down and helped pull the man to his feet.

  Once more the pair moved out, but now they had turned up and were trying to make it back to their current base. Catie was in the lead and stopped suddenly, signaling for Kevin to get down. He did so just as five individuals rushed past chasing two others. It happened so quick that Kevin had no idea who was chasing who.

  “Get in the house,” Catie whispered.

  They were in front of one of the small, simple brick residences that had no windows remaining intact. Catie went first and quickly shoved her blade into the face of a creeper that was missing everything from the pelvis on down and was nothing much more than one arm, the head, and most of the rib cage.

  Kevin moved past her and came up short when a small figure peeked out from what looked like the kitchen. The zombie regarded him in that way that he had seen in previous encounters with younger zombie children. He wished he had the time to test a theory or two, but that was not a luxury at his current disposal. Before it could react further, he lunged forward and drove his blade into its face; although he could have sworn that it was about to try and turn and flee.

  “This one had an attic or something,” Catie whispered as she moved into the hallway.

  Sure enough they discovered one of those pull-down ladders that led to a dark attic. They both scurried up and pulled the ladder, sealing themselves in near perfect darkness. A single sliver of light shown at the far end where a small, portal-style window looked out to the street. For some reason, it was curtained.

  Catie reached the curtain and pulled it aside just enough to look out. At the moment, the street was clear, but that was not why she was looking out so intently.

  “The sun is coming up,” she announced.

  Kevin knew what that meant. They either made a break for it now, or they would be trapped for at least the rest of the day. He weighed it out very quickly and decided on the former versus the latter.

  “Okay, let me get my wind for just a second and then we have to run for it,” he announced.

  “I think that is a terrible idea,” Catie countered.

  “Yeah, well we have no idea what might be going on with the others…also, the kids are alone and have no doubt heard all of the shooting. We go now.”

  Catie did not say a word, but he could feel her stare in the relative darkness. After just a few minutes, he turned the latch and let the ladder slide down. He went first and Catie was right on his heels…or shoulders such as it was at the moment.

  They snuck to the front of the house and spied out the busted picture window. The street seemed empty. They could hear a few skirmishes from different directions.

  “It doesn’t look like one way is better than the other,” Catie whispered. “I say we just get up to a hundred and twelfth as fast as we can. If nothing else, we can at least duck into the woods.”

  Kevin did not have a better suggestion and gave her a nod. Together they climbed out the open window frame and were dropping to the ground…just as two figures burst forth from the back yard gate of the house directly across from them.

  For the briefest of moments, everybody simply stared at each other; nobody expecting an encounter just then. It was Catie who acted first. She did not care from which group these individuals belonged and simply designated them as a threat. Her pistol was in her hand in a flash and she fired. Her first two rounds caught the person on the left in the center of the chest. Her second two shots went wide as the other person dove behind the car in the adjacent driveway.

  Shoving Kevin down, Catie moved across the yard and behind the waist high porch to their right. Kevin realized that he was in grass high enough to conceal his position and decided to stay still for the moment. Meanwhile, Catie allowed the pack on her shoulders to drop to the ground beside her feet. She quickly pulled the first Molotov from her pack, ripping away the protective bubble wrap that some of the younger children had been tasked to encase the volatile bombs in.

  Flipping open her lighter, she ignited the dangling strip and hurled it at the car she had seen the person dive behind. There was a shattering sound immediately followed by a fantastic fireball. Her hit had even better results than hoped for as the person came out shrieking with their clothing engulfed in
flames.

  Kevin did not wait and scrambled to his feet. He and Catie started up the street, not bothering to waste a bullet on the person who looked to be trying to chase them for at least a dozen steps before flinging themselves to the ground. The screams had not faded when six more individuals rounded the corner up ahead. This time there was no question as to which group they belonged. Kevin recognized the voice of the one who had been called Jerome.

  “Kill those fucks!”

  He and Catie barely had time to dive behind a wooden fence as the group opened fire with a barrage of bullets that whistled overhead and ricocheted off the street right behind them. Kevin only had a moment to appreciate the fact that this Jerome had a thick, bushy, black handlebar mustache exactly like Tom Savini’s in Dawn of the Dead. Meanwhile, Catie was already pulling out the second of her three Molotovs.

  As soon as there was a lull in the gunfire, she lit the strip of kerosene soaked cloth, popped her head up to get eyes on her target, and hurled the little bomb. She did not stay up to appreciate her handiwork as she saw guns quickly swivel her direction. However, she was rewarded with more than one scream of what she hoped was pain and not simply surprise.

  Kevin scooted up against the fence and opened his own pack. He pulled out one of the three precious explosives.

  He could hear the voice of Jerome above the screams. “Screw him…he’s a goner. I saw two of those mother fuckers take cover behind that little white fence. You two get across the street and we can catch them in a crossfire!”

  Taking a guess based on where he thought he heard the voice come from, Kevin lit the Molotov, struggled to his knees and only had to correct a little just before he threw.

  Unlike Catie, he could not help but watch; a decision that almost cost him his life. Jerome was looking right at him and brought the wicked looking weapon at his hip into play and opened up with a spray of fire.

  A second later, there was a ball of flame between them and the chatter of the automatic weapon ceased suddenly, followed immediately by more screams. Catie yanked Kevin down and smacked him on the side of the head.

  “Ouch!” he squawked.

  “That is a good way to get yourself killed. Can I just take this second to quote you…this ain’t the movies. In real firefights you don’t get to observe your handiwork. You just pray that you score a hit. The best confirmation you can hope for is that the bullets stop coming at you.”

  Kevin scowled, but Catie was already lighting her third and final Molotov. She popped up and saw three figures remaining that were not in flames. She hurled her bottle at the closest, but misjudged the distance and watched as it sailed over the individual’s head. All that managed to accomplish was to cut off any possible retreat.

  From his position against the fence, Kevin actually had a good view down the street. He felt his heart flutter just a bit as he caught a glimpse of what he was pretty sure had to be Trent and Heather ducked down low but running across the distant four-way intersection. Of course his next thought was, Where is Aleah?

  Catie popped up suddenly and snapped him back to his immediate situation. She fired off a few quick shots and then dropped back down.

  “Hit anything?” Kevin asked.

  “No idea,” Catie answered as she swapped out her magazine for a fresh one.

  Kevin drew his suddenly puny seeming .22 pistol. He glanced longingly at Catie’s .45 and sighed. Scooting around and getting up to his knees, but still hunched over to maintain his cover, Kevin took a deep breath and then came up firing. Even the sound of his weapon was decidedly weak.

  “Can you make a move for that corner of the house by the garage?” Catie asked after letting the slide slam back into place on her pistol. “If you can get there, we can alternate firing at them from the two different positions. I seriously don’t give these idiots enough credit to focus on just one of us. That should give us better odds.”

  That sounded like she was making things up to him, but Kevin nodded. As soon as he signaled that he was ready, Catie popped up and sent another several rounds at the last position she had seen the closest of their enemies. Kevin took off as fast as he could; twice he felt something whizz terrifyingly close to his head. It only took a few seconds, but he reached that corner of the house feeling like he had been in the open forever.

  Taking a moment to catch his breath and ensure that he hadn’t wet his pants, Kevin peeked around from behind the safety of solid brick that made up the exterior of this house. He saw the rear end of one of the three remaining men sticking up from behind a fallen garbage can of all things. He had no idea what the man thought a plastic garbage can would do as far as stopping bullets…and then he looked down at the pea shooter in his hand and scowled.

  “Fine,” he muttered, taking the time to aim. He squeezed the trigger and almost felt embarrassed by the pathetic ‘pop’ the resulted. At least that was how he felt until he heard a yelp.

  The man behind the garbage can seemed to suddenly forget that he was in the middle of a gunfight and hopped up to his feet grabbing his butt with both hands. It was comical until Catie popped up and put four slugs from her .45 into the man’s chest.

  The man Kevin had identified as Jerome leapt up and opened up with his automatic. Kevin watched helplessly as the hedge and fence began to disintegrate. Fortunately for Catie, the man emptied his magazine without ever lowering his stream of fire the six more inches which would have signaled her doom.

  Catie did not wait for the man to reload, she jumped up and made a zig zagging sprint for Kevin’s position. All he could do was fire his gun to offer some sort of cover. He seriously doubted that they even heard his weapon as the cylinder rotated around until it came to an empty casing.

  “That was a good shot,” Catie said with genuine admiration. “I seriously doubted your pistol’s ability to even do damage from the range you were at.”

  There were a few more exchanges of fire, but Kevin had no luck and neither did Catie. Fortunately, neither did their adversaries. After a few verbal exchanges which mostly consisted of Jerome telling them just how sorry they would be when he got ahold of them, there was a brief silence.

  The part that was confusing to both him and Catie were some of the comments when he called them “carriers” and “clap traps”. Kevin was tempted to shout a few things back, but he knew well enough how those sorts of exchanges usually worked.

  On two separate occasions, an explosion shook the area. It took a few minutes, but eventually a cloud of smoke would rise to give away the location. Both times it proved to be to the north, which made both of them breathe easier since their base and the location of the children was to the south.

  At last it looked as if Jerome and his cohort had decided to make a break of their own. Kevin was actually surprised when Jerome popped up and sprayed their location with his weapon so that the other individual could make a run for a nearby house. Both Catie and Kevin waited for the man to make his own move; each had their weapon fully loaded and trained in the general direction.

  When he made his break, they both opened fire. From the looks of it, neither got close. The man dove through the door that opened for him at the last second and disappeared.

  “Jeez, you’d think at least one of us would hit him,” Kevin spat, looking down at the pistol in his hand like it had betrayed him.

  “Moving targets aren’t easy,” Catie said as she hit the release and let her empty magazine drop into her hand.

  Kevin quickly told her about having seen Heather and Trent. She seemed to give things careful consideration. Finally she looked up at Kevin.

  “This isn’t our fight. We could slip away now and be done with this place. They are obviously in some sort of feud or war with another group…and it has been going on for a while if my guess is correct,” Catie said with a tilt of her head.

  “You saying we should just take off?” Kevin asked with a touch of surprise. “Is this a woman thing? I mean, one minute you are bitching about how we don’t
do enough, you aren’t sure if you made the right choice to follow my group, the next, we are all buddy-buddy…and now this? Seriously, I realize that stand-up comics used to do hours of material on women and their inability to make up their minds…but for the love of Pete—”

  “What I am saying is that this seems like a war. We are not part of it. This is not a group of survivors stranded and needing help. This is two groups who have some sort of beef with each other. We can cut and run,” Catie stated matter-of-factly.

  “Well, I say we go, but we need to take out the two in that house first…they got a good look at us.”

  “So?” Catie shrugged.

  “So, we don’t exactly move all that quickly with all the children in tow. If we just happen to encounter these folks up the road…it could go bad.”

  Catie gave it a moment of thought. It seemed unlikely, but she also saw the logic of not having to look over your shoulder.

  “Fine, then we take them out and make a run for it…get everybody packed up and move out as soon as it gets dark,” Catie agreed. “I am going to get up on this roof real quick and take a look around. I want to see if there is anything on the other side of that house. They may actually be trying to get back to the parking lot of the church.”

  Kevin nodded and kept his eyes on where he had seen the two individuals duck inside. Twice he thought he saw the door open just a crack. He wondered why they had not made a break out the back yet. Secretly, he sort of hoped that they would. It was not that he was afraid of them, and he certainly did not like the idea of the potential, however unlikely, that they run in to Jerome later and have to deal with it. Honestly, he was just tired. After all, he had basically been in a coma for the past several days. He was not at his best.

  Catie slid down beside him and they went over their plan of attack. And now, here he sat up against the wheel of the truck. Catie had vanished over the fence about thirty seconds ago. He continued to watch the front door with his last Molotov in his hand and the lighter at the ready.

  He heard the crash and a ‘whump’ as the incendiary device broke and created its fireball. He counted to three, lit his and stood up. With an overhead hurl, he lobbed his at the front door. The added bonus was strictly a matter of coincidence as the door flew open just as his Molotov reached it. The firebomb actually went in the open doorway. A gout of flame spewed out, and seconds later, two figures came out screaming as the flames did their ghastly work.