by Jack Hunt
A thump at the side of the truck slapped him back into the present moment. Sam readjusted his grip on the machete, readying himself for the unexpected. All three of them knew that if they were cornered they wouldn’t survive. They had already seen three of their friends torn apart and the rest beaten to death. Fortunately, Murphy and the others from Mount Pleasant had stayed back in Hayden. While Sam had only got to know the seven over a period of six months, the bond between them had become strong. There was something about being thrown into a shit-hits-the-fan situation that brought people together.
“We need to get out of here,” Michael said, starting to get antsy.
“No, we stay here until it gets dark. Hopefully they have bad vision at night.”
“Screw that.”
Michael was about to get up when Luke tugged him back down. “You attempt to open that door, I will kill you myself. You understand?”
“No, he’s right, Luke. We are like sitting ducks. It only takes one of them to lift the rear door and we are dead.”
“If you go poking your nose out the back, you can be certain you’ll die. At least if we wait until it’s dark, we have a better chance of not being seen,” he muttered.
“You don’t know that,” Michael said.
“Remind me again why I saved your ass?” Luke muttered.
“I’m not staying here.”
“Listen, either way we are screwed. There are far more of them than us.”
“We just have to make it back to the truck.”
“Good luck with that,” Luke replied.
Michael got up and squeezed his way down the narrow gap between pallets. Luke was on him before he could get close to the door. He yanked him back causing Michael to lose his balance. His hand went over his mouth.
“You open that door, you die, comprende?”
He was right, they had no idea how many of those things were outside and even if they did get it open, what then? At least if they waited until it was dark they stood a small chance of making it back to the truck.
“We leave this evening.”
After an hour their eyes adjusted to the dark. Inside the air was almost non-existent. With no air conditioning pumping into the truck and food that had been sitting there for god knows how many months, it smelled putrid.
Hours passed painfully slow. They could hear them outside moving around. There was no communication, just the occasional scream and the sound of boots pounding pavement. The only way they could tell that it was evening was because a ray of light coming through a hole in the side was no longer visible.
“You ready?”
They mentally prepared themselves for what was to come.
“Are we going back through the store?”
“No.”
“You expect us to make a run for it in the open?”
Luke turned to Michael and grabbed a hold of him. Patience was not a strong point of his. “Listen, dickweed. Your father is not here to hold your hand. He’s dead.”
“You don’t know that!”
“Look, I’m not going to hold your hand and neither is Sam. You run or you die. But if you even attempt to slow us down with your bullshit, trust me, I’m not going to stop for you. Once that door goes up, it’s every man for himself. You trip. You die. You slow down. You die. You get taken down. You die.”
“Basically what he’s saying is… run or die.”
Michael nodded and pried himself away from Luke’s grasp. It was decided that Michael would go between them. Luke would be in front while Sam took the rear. Initially all three would be involved in lifting the door slowly.
“Ready?”
Sam nodded and they cracked the door just a few inches. Sam got on the cargo bed of the truck and looked out for movement. There was none. It was eerily quiet. Once they managed to get the door up halfway they slipped down to the concrete below and hugged the wall of the building. They assessed the situation for a second then began to move.
The rear of the grocery store was just one giant parking lot filled with abandoned vehicles. They were about a hundred yards from the east corner. Staying low to the ground they moved fast, only stopping for a few seconds at a time to check that they weren’t attracting attention. Once Luke made it to the corner, he peered around, and then gave the thumbs-up.
“Where are the …?” Michael said looking around nervously.
“Keep it down,” Luke whispered.
By the time all three made it around the corner their confidence was building but fear simmered at the edge of Sam’s mind. There were no streetlights to illuminate their way and they had no means of being able to tell where the lunatics were. All they could do was move a few feet, stop and hope that they hadn’t been spotted. Once they could see the truck, Luke lifted a fist to indicate for the other two to wait.
“What is it?” Michael whispered.
“Ten of them in the street. You still got the keys, Sam?”
He nodded, then turned back at the sound of movement among the cars.
“Guys. Guys, whatever we are going to do we need to do it now.”
Luke wasn’t ready. “Hold your position. We need to wait for them to move before we make a break for it.”
“There might not be enough time. Look.”
Sam pointed to an influx of people making their way through the cars, some of them were holding weapons. That was what was so odd about it. Whatever had happened to these people, they were still able to function like any other human. They used weapons even though some had chewed alive some of their group. Luke shuffled past Sam turning his back on Michael for just a few seconds.
“You got those keys, Sam?” Michael asked. “Give them to me. I’ll make it over to the truck and swing it around. No point all of us risking our lives.”
“I think it’s a little late for that,” Luke said still eyeing those who were moving up from the rear. They hadn’t seen them yet but it wouldn’t be long before they did. Michael came close to Sam. “Keys?”
“Settle down, Michael,” Luke said.
“I don’t take orders from you.”
“Just stay put.”
As Sam and Luke continued to monitor the most immediate threat behind them, Michael was watching the front of the building.
“Dad?” he muttered. “Guys, he’s still alive.”
“What?”
“I see him.”
“No, no you don’t, that’s not your father.”
“Screw you, Luke. He’s out there. I swear I saw him.”
“Your father is dead, Michael. I saw him covered in blood. Whatever you are seeing it’s not your father.”
“Dad?” his voice got louder. Before Sam or Luke could grab him he had taken off in the direction of someone he thought looked like his father. Now it was hard to know whether he had lost his mind or shadows were playing tricks on his eyes but there was no way it was his father. All three of them had seen his father get taken down by a group of six.
“Michael,” Sam said in a half whisper, half yell.
It didn’t help. He either didn’t hear or he wasn’t paying attention. The insane further down the street heard the sound of Michael running and before anyone could do anything, they took off after him.
“Now. We need to go now.”
“But...”
“Sam, let’s go. He’s on his own.”
Luke dashed across the street with Sam following close behind. With the group distracted by Michael, they hopped into the truck and slammed the doors. Sam fished into his pocket but the keys weren’t there.
“Hurry up.”
“I don’t have the keys.”
“What?”
“They must have fallen out.”
Sam jumped out of the truck and retraced his steps. He was halfway across the road when he saw a glint of silver in the moonlight. Sam looked over to Michael who had vanished down an alley.
“Sam!”
The insane rushed forward looking like a river breaking over the edg
e of its banks. Sam scooped up the keys and raced back, almost tripping. No sooner had he dived back in the truck and locked the door when they crashed against the sides of the vehicle. Scared out of his mind, and fumbling with the keys, Sam put the wrong key in the ignition.
“Hurry it up,” Luke yelled as several banged on the sides of the windows causing cracks to form. Once he had the key in and turned over the ignition, Sam slammed his foot against the pedal and they jerked back in their seats but not before knocking over several people in the process.
There was no time to see if Michael had escaped. Both of them knew the chances of him having survived were slim to none. The truck tore out of the town leaving behind the mass of bloodthirsty savages.
2
The land of the free was now gone. Something far more deadly than radiation had spread the day the bombs tore apart America. It was the second wave of assault that would take them into biological warfare against a vicious enemy that knew nothing except madness.
It had been a year since America was brought to its knees and six months since the Commander had taken over Hayden. In that time, they had learned that the country that lay beyond the walls of Hayden wasn’t safe.
Desperation had changed the hearts and minds of Americans and forced them into a corner where morals took a back seat to the basic needs of survival.
Food and water.
Medicine.
Clothing.
Shelter.
Warmth.
Safety.
These were the big six that dominated everyone’s mind now. Gone were the days of holding down a nine-to-five job, or kicking back and binge watching Netflix, or spending sleepy days laying in bed. Now everyone remained vigilant to what the next day, next hour, or minute would bring.
“I swear without a word of a lie. That’s exactly what I saw,” Sam said. His body was shaking and covered in blood.
“Luke?” Murphy asked hoping to verify Sam’s account.
Luke Penn stood by a window paying hardly any attention. What he had seen had shaken him to the core. He and Sam were the only ones among them had that gone with the group searching for food beyond Hayden. It was just meant to be a six-day trek. The rest of them had stayed back, helping with the day-to-day running of the town.
“Luke!” Murphy hollered at him trying to make sense of Sam’s ramblings.
He turned his head and without blinking nodded. “He’s right.” He stared at the wall blankly. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They didn’t listen to reason. They weren’t afraid of a gun and they sure as hell weren’t interested in supplies.”
Billy started laughing. “Please. Give me a break. Now tell us the real story.”
“That’s it,” Sam said. He was washing his arms using a bowl of warm water. It had already turned red from the blood of a friend that had been beaten to death.
Billy strolled between them and paced back and forth. “Okay, so let me get this straight. These people were alive, not dead, and they were trying to bite you?”
Neither of them responded. Billy took that as an answer and burst out laughing. “Shit, guys, you really had me going there for a minute. Oh man, this has got to be the best campfire story I have heard to date. But really, you should have waited until it was dark, it would have upped the creepiness factor to a ten.” He sighed and went over to the fridge and pulled out a plastic carton of moonshine. He filled his cup and downed it. Once he was done, he looked back at them and they looked on without even the faintest smirk on their face.
“You’re serious?” Billy replied.
“What do you think, Murphy?” Shaw asked.
“Luke, how much food was in the stores?”
“Plenty. More than enough.”
“Well, that rules out that they were starving,” Ally said.
“It wasn’t just biting. They stabbed and beat some of them to death.” Luke stared down. “It was like they were filled with rage.”
“Perhaps they’ve got some kind of virus. I mean, it’s possible, right? None of us really knows the true effect of radiation on the human body,” Sam added.
“That depends if it was just radiation,” Hank said. Hank sat at a table puffing away on his pipe. Since regaining Hayden, people naturally looked to him for leadership. “There could have been anything inside those bombs. A biological weapon would be my guess.”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t need as many bombs if whatever was released in the fallout took care of those further afield.”
“But it’s been a year,” Sam said.
“Don’t remind me,” Billy said. “You would think that the other countries would have sorted this shit out by now, but oh no, they’re all too busy eating cheese sandwiches and probably staying away from the USA. I can see it now, the United States is going to become the next Chernobyl no-go zone. Forget spending the winter in Florida, forget award shows and the latest Hollywood dirt, this entire country is going to be off-limits. Four years from now, those who have survived will cross over into Canada or Mexico sporting a third eye from whatever shit got released.” Billy shook his head and walked back to the cooler to get another drink.
“So none of them survived?” Murphy asked Luke. He glanced at him and shook his head. Ten people had left three days ago. Everyone had expected them back within six days. They were back within five.
“We tried to help,” Sam said. “But there was nothing we could do. There were too many of them. We were lucky to get out alive.”
“I’ll go and inform the families,” Hank said.
“I’ll go with you,” Shaw added.
Both of them left the home they were in and ventured out. It wasn’t going to be an easy task but as cops they had done it before, countless times.
“So what are we dealing with here?”
Billy picked up the jug of moonshine and chugged it back. “Well, it’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? This shit storm has just turned into a full-on zombie attack.”
“Don’t be a dipshit. They weren’t dead or rotting, though they did look a little funky,” Luke replied. “Besides, you don’t have to shoot them in the head to kill them. Once down, they don’t get up again.”
Billy lit a cigarette and blew out smoke. “Then some kind of vampire strain. You said yourself, they came out at night.”
“No. I said they were there in the day and in the evening. Pull your head out of your ass, these are not vampires, zombies or any crap that like. This isn’t supernatural. They were like lunatics. Madmen. They used weapons. Others used their teeth. These were people like us. Just they didn’t act like us.”
“Ah, I don’t know about that, you should have seen the way Corey plowed down that meat the other night. He shoveled it away like a starved animal with rabies. Which reminds me, where is he?”
“With Kiera.”
He chuckled. “Damn, that guy doesn’t give up. Who’s going to tell him, she’s not interested?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Ally nodded in the direction of the square. Corey was walking across the square with his arm around her.
“Oh come on! This has got to be a joke. There is no way on God’s green earth that a girl like that would fall for a guy like… I mean… It’s Corey.” He groaned and strolled off looking deflated.
Ally pushed away from the wall that she was leaning up against. “If it’s biological and is carried in the air, why haven’t any of us contracted it?”
Luke pulled out a packet of cigarettes and tapped one out. “Perhaps it only affected those within the radiation zones.”
“We’re nowhere near Boise.”
“Maybe the infected made their way north?”
Murphy ran a hand over his shaved head and mumbled to himself.
“What?” Sam asked.
“What those military guys were saying is starting to make sense,” Murphy said.
“What are you on about?” Sam asked.
“When I was held here, I spoke with one of them. I got a sense from him that they
weren’t just building that fence around Hayden for the heck of it. They were hoping to keep out whatever they had seen near Boise.”
“Oh come on, Murph. Are you telling me they were preparing for this?” Luke asked.
“I don’t know. But they were scared and not just of those in the forest.”
Once Sam had finished cleaning all the blood off, he toweled his skin and slipped on another shirt. “A better question to ask. If they have made it this far north, what other towns have been infected? How do we prevent this? How’s it transferred?”
Billy stepped into the midst of them and began waving his arms around. “Okay, folks, I think you are all getting a little paranoid here. Are you sure you weren’t drinking moonshine when you went into that town?”
Luke lost his shit on him. “You think this is a joke?”
“Well if it is, I’m still waiting for the punch line.”
“I’ll give you the punch line,” Luke said raising his fist to him.
“Whoa, guys, enough,” Murphy said. “Billy, go take a walk.”
“Why me?”
“Because you’re acting like a jackass.”
He huffed and slammed the door behind him. Silence filled the home for a few minutes. Murphy turned back to the radio and continued trying to get through to some of the surrounding towns. Over the past six months they had established a connection with other survivors and preppers using ham radio. At first, contact was made to see if anyone was alive, after that it was used as a means to provide support as and where needed. Hayden had gathered more than its share of clothes, food and medicine thanks to the Commander whose group had trucked in all manner of goods from towns in the area.
In the first few months Hank had invited others to come and join them but most didn’t want to leave their hometowns even though they were running low on supplies. Eventually Murphy made contact with Mount Pleasant and Tom Barrington’s father. They would provide weekly updates on how things were going. Many of the families that had remained were living out a meager existence but at least they were alive.
