by A. R. Wise
“It might be too late for that now,” said Kayla as she looked around them at the destruction that the Rollers had lived through. “It’s already too late for some of us. It’s already too late for Dustin, and Dante, and Kim.”
Abe approached, and Kayla looked at him in detest, familiar with how he always sided with Billy. She left them behind and headed for the church.
“What was all that about?” asked Abe.
Billy didn’t look at the big man and instead stared at the pavement. “Dustin’s dead.”
“Aw fuck,” said Abe as he shook his head. “Dusty, Kim, and Dante all at once. Fucking hell, brother. The Rollers are going to need you to step up. They’re going to want to get the guy who did this. Whoever the mother fucker was on those speakers is going to get a hell of a wakeup call from us.”
“No he’s not,” said Billy. He looked up at Abe and scowled at how ridiculous his friend was being. “You’ve got to be kidding. Look around. Look what these people are capable of. We’re outmatched, Abe. I think we always have been.”
“Tell me you’re not serious, man,” said Abe.
“They built this trap around our camp. These Greys were stored under this town, they had spike strips, they’ve got a fucking squadron of helicopters after us. This Jerald guy hooked up cameras and speakers out here just to fuck with us.”
Abe didn’t respond, dumbfounded as Billy continued. It was as if Abe was being scolded for not coming to the realization of their hopeless situation sooner.
“We’ve got a good group here, but they can’t stand up to someone like this.” Billy reached out to put his hand on Abe’s shoulder. “Abe, we’ve got no choice but to try and disappear.”
“Fuck that,” said Abe. “We need to fight back. Is it true what everyone’s saying? That this was retaliation because Hero dropped some bombs into a military base under the old airport?”
“It’s possible. Why?”
“Because if so, then we know where this asshole’s base is,” said Abe. “We need to get out there and finish this.”
“This wasn’t retaliation.”
“How do you figure? Are you saying this was just a coincidence?” Abe was obstinate and playing the part that Billy would’ve happily played just hours earlier.
“This guy’s been planning this for months, or even years,” said Billy. “I get the sense he could’ve killed us any time he wanted.”
“I don’t die easy,” said Abe.
Billy looked back in the direction of the fire that was consuming the eastern half of town. “Kim was ten times tougher than either of us, and you saw what happened to her.”
“We’ve got trouble,” said Victor from above. He was on top of the tanker truck beside them, keeping watch on the horde that had rushed out to search for Kim’s remains. “The fire’s pushing the Greys this way.”
“Are there more than we can handle?” asked Billy.
“Not now,” said Victor. “But these things just keep crawling out of the buildings, man. I have no clue how many of them are still hiding down there.”
Billy looked at Abe and pointed at the church. “I need you to get in there and help with the evacuation. We’re going to load up the trucks with the survivors from Vineyard first. Keep all the Rollers on the ground. We’re going to escort the caravan west and try to find a route through the town.”
“Why not just load everyone up?” asked Abe.
“Because they had spike strips out on the road by the plains. I’d bet there’s more out west too. We need to make sure the caravan has a straight shot out of here. Go. Get the wounded out first.”
Abe was about to head into the church, but he stopped and turned back around to face Billy. “I thought you were a fighter. If you’re not going to stand up for us, then I’ll do it. I’ll go alone if I have to.”
“Don’t argue with me about this now,” said Billy. “Just get in the church and tell them that we’re headed out.”
Billy watched Abe leave, and then fell backward to support himself against the truck. He’d been trying to stand tall beside Abe, but his back was torturing him. The pain was crippling and he dropped to his knees as he clenched his teeth.
“You all right?” asked Victor from above.
“Fine,” said Billy though he couldn’t hide the agony in his voice.
Billy couldn’t let Victor come down to help, his attention was needed on the horde that was now moving toward the caravan. There were other Rollers on the outer rim of the circle of trucks, working hard to pull apart the barricades that tied the trucks together.
“Someone needs to help Billy,” said Victor.
“No!” Billy screamed. He was on his knees with his fists on the pavement. “Keep focused. Do your job.”
A nearby Roller, a young man that had only recently been assigned a gun, ran over to help Billy. He held his hand out, but Billy slapped it away.
“Go do your job. Get the trucks ready to move. Go. Forget about me.” He couldn’t get up and was forced to his side. He was helpless, locked in a fetal position on the sidewalk in front of the church, wet with the blood from Annie and Dante as the other Rollers struggled to evacuate. He’d never felt more helpless, or ashamed.
He wished he’d died with Reagan at the facility, so many years ago.
Chapter Thirteen – Reassessments
Seven months after the apocalypse
Reagan, Hero, and Jill are trapped in a facility under Estes Park.
“Can your friend bust us out of here?” asked Jill. “Does he have more bombs?” She was searching the room for a way out, but it was sealed tight.
“Yeah,” said Hero. He was standing on a chair in the corner, inspecting the camera. Then he pulled some wires out of the back of it before getting down. “Hopefully the room isn’t some sort of death trap, like with walls that close or something.”
Reagan laughed and then saw that Hero was serious. “What do you think this is? Some sort of elaborate Indiana Jones trap. You watched too many movies as a kid.”
“Well why else do you think they locked us in here?”
“To capture us,” said Reagan. “My guess is they have a base around here somewhere, monitoring this building, waiting for a couple dumbasses like us to stumble into their trap. They’re probably on their way to interrogate us right now.”
“This is some rescue,” said Jill.
Hero pointed at her, surprised, and then clapped. He looked at Reagan with a wide grin and said, “Wonderful girl. Either I’m going to kill her or I’m beginning to like her.”
“What the fuck are you on about?” asked Jill.
“Didn’t you just quote Star Wars?”
“No, you idiot.”
“Oh,” he looked deflated. “Sorry, for a brief moment there I mistook you for a cool chick.”
“Are you going to stand around being an idiot or are you going to try and help me figure a way out of here?” asked Jill.
Hero started to push at the reinforced glass to see if the fitting was loose. “You know, you could try to be a little nicer. I’m not such a bad guy.” He inspected the small circle opening in the glass with the screen in it, which allowed people on either side to speak to one another.
“I’ve known my fair share of guys like you,” said Jill as she started to push on the glass as well.
“You don’t even know me.” He pushed his finger into the screen, but it was securely set in its frame in the glass.
“I know your type.”
“What type? You haven’t known me long enough to know my type. Christ.”
“The type that has a gun tattoo on his neck,” said Jill. “Probably a gang symbol or some shit like that.”
“Oh yeah,” said Hero. “You might be surprised to know…”
“Move out of the way, you two,” said Reagan. “Shut up and stop bickering. Come stand over by me and let’s see if we can shoot through the glass. I doubt it’s going to work, but we might as well try.”
“Hold
up,” said Hero. “I see light down the hall. I hope that’s our guys coming to save us.”
It wasn’t.
Men in blue uniforms, the same as the ones that they’d stolen, marched into the room with their rifles drawn. They cleared the corners, and then moved in and lowered their weapons, confident that they were in no danger. One of them approached, a middle-aged soldier with a square jaw and goatee that was speckled with grey hair. He looked a little like Reagan to Jill, but she always had trouble telling the difference between old white guys.
“Well, what do you know about this,” said the soldier. “Looks like we caught ourselves a terrorist.”
Reagan moved to stand in front of the window, near the circular screen that allowed them to hear the solider in the other room. “Do I know you?”
“No,” said the soldier. “But I sure do know you, Charles Reagan. Or didn’t Covington call you Chuck?” He nodded in the direction of the wrecked camera in the corner. “The facial recognition analysis said it was you in here, but I couldn’t believe I’d gotten that lucky. Or that you were this stupid.”
“Yeah, well, I had help,” said Reagan as he looked at Hero, who shrugged and looked offended. “How do you know me?”
“We’ve been looking for you since what happened in Georgia,” said the soldier. “We caught you on camera there too. You’re number one on our most wanted list.”
“Lucky me.”
“Who would’ve thought the elusive Captain Reagan would fall for a mousetrap like this. I thought you’d have an army working with you, not just a couple niggers.”
“Mother fucker,” said Hero as he approached the glass.
“Hero, back off!” Reagan was angry and insistent as he pushed Hero away. He faced the soldier again. “Just to pad my ego, how many guys did you bring with you? Is this it, or are there more outside?”
“Don’t worry, there’re more of us,” said the soldier. “We’ve got drivers outside.”
Reagan looked over at Hero, a pensive expression on his face. “Do you think Billy and Clyde can kill three drivers?”
Hero looked exasperated. He didn’t understand why Reagan was revealing that they had friends outside of the base.
Then Reagan flipped his rifle up and pointed the barrel at the speaker hole in the glass. He fired, destroying the metal screen in the small circle and hitting the soldier on the other side. The man staggered back, his chest bursting fountains of blood before he hit the far wall. Reagan jammed the barrel of his M-16 through the hole and moved to his right so he could aim at the next soldier, continuing to fire and shredding the man before he had a chance to react.
The third soldier aimed and took a shot, but his bullets ricocheted off the glass, leaving stripes of white before Reagan turned his attention to his side of the room. The third man was hit in the throat first, and dropped his gun to grab his wound, but Reagan didn’t leave anything to chance. His next shot caught the third soldier in the head.
“Time to build a better mousetrap, mother fucker,” said Reagan as he handed his hot weapon to Hero. “Give me your gun. I’ll cover the door until Billy gets here to bust us out of here.”
“God damn!” Jill whooped, wide eyed and filled with adrenaline. “Now that’s how you do it, Zero. You could learn a thing or two from this guy.”
Hero looked as if he wanted to feign annoyance, but couldn’t stop from smirking. “The old guy’s got some tricks. I’ll give him that.”
“Don’t celebrate yet,” said Reagan. “They might activate the wall crushers on us.”
“What?” Hero was worried until he realized the old man was joking. “Screw you, Chucky.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Yeah, sure thing,” said Hero. He waited a few seconds before adding, “Chuckster.”
“Damn it.” Reagan started to turn and look at Hero instead of the door.
“Hey, hey!” Hero pointed into the other room. “Watch the door, Chuckles!”
Jill laughed a little, and then pretended to cough. Hero had caught her being amused by his antics. He grinned and winked at her. She groaned and looked away, but was still smiling despite herself. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as she’d thought.
* * *
August 24th, 20 years after the apocalypse
Jill and Clyde are trying to save Annie in the church.
“I don’t know what that was about,” said Jill as she held one of Annie’s wounds. “But you’d better lay off Laura before I beat your ass.”
Clyde was busy wrapping Annie’s head. The girl had suffered several lacerations, and was losing blood fast. “There’s more to it than you realize.”
“That woman just lost her daughter,” said Jill, unable to stop the tears that were falling down her cheeks. “And now she might lose another, and you have the gall to spit venom at her. I don’t know what got into you, but I’m going to beat it out if you don’t shape up.”
“You don’t know the whole story,” said Clyde. “I need more gauze.”
“I don’t have any,” said Jill.
“Okay, okay,” said Clyde. He wiped his brow against his wrist, but there was so much blood that he just ended up smearing crimson over himself. “Let’s move on to the next one. How deep is it?”
The redhead had been stripped, and was now only wearing her bra and underwear as she lay bleeding on the pew. Jill was perched over her waist, applying pressure to the gash in her side. “Deep enough that we might be dealing with more than just a few stitches. I’m not sure.”
“Is it pumping out?” asked Clyde.
“With her heartbeat, yeah,” said Jill.
“Fuck,” said Clyde. “How much?”
“I’m not sure. I didn’t want to take the pressure off, but I can feel her heartbeat. It’s slowing down.”
“Okay, well let’s get to it.”
“Wait,” said Jill and her expression revealed concern. “It stopped. I don’t feel her heart beating.”
Clyde put two fingers to Annie’s throat. The pale red head’s skin was sheet white in the few places it wasn’t covered in blood. “Fuck, no, no.” He put his hands on her chest. “Keep the pressure on, harder than before.” Then he started pumping her chest.
Jill felt the gush of fluid hit her palm, under the wrapping that covered the wound in Annie’s side. The pressure from Clyde’s attempt to revive the girl was pushing the blood out of her wounds. Even if he was able to revive her, the extent of the blood loss was getting to a dangerous level.
“Everyone listen up,” shouted Abe from the vestibule as he came in from outside. “We’re evacuating. We need the wounded out here first. No arguments, we have to move quickly. The fire is getting close.”
“Clyde,” said Jill, terrified that they would have to let Annie die.
“I heard!”
“Clyde…”
“I heard, for fuck’s sake!” He continued to pump the dead girl’s chest.
“They’re going to need us,” said Jill.
Clyde looked at her and his expression was of shock, as if the idea that he’d have to leave Annie here hadn’t seemed like a possibility until now. “I’m not leaving her.” He started rhythmically pumping Annie’s chest again.
The crowd of survivors were passing the pew where they were working.
“I need my defibrillator,” said Clyde. He looked up at the crowd that moved past. “Don’t just fucking look at me! Someone get the defibrillator out of my truck. It’s a white box with paddles on it, and wires.”
“I know what they look like. I’ll get it,” said Ben. “Which truck is yours?”
“It’s parked near the front. Abe can show you which one it is. The defibrillator is in a compartment on the side. Are you okay to walk?”
“I’m fine,” said Ben. “You pumped me full of drugs. I can barely feel anything.”
Clyde continued to pump Annie’s chest, checking for a pulse every few moments as they waited for Ben. Laura and Zack appeared from the side of the room wh
ere they had been speaking to David and rushed over.
“What happened?” asked Laura.
“I’m doing everything I can,” said Clyde, but it looked hopeless as Laura and Zack moved through the crowd.
Laura got to the pew and fell to her knees. She reached over the edge and put her fingers in her daughter’s hair, unable to keep herself from crying. “Baby, baby, please no. Honey bear, please fight.”
The survivors continued to walk by, unable to pass without staring down at the tragedy playing out before them, like a procession of mourners sent to witness the moment of death.
“Come on, everyone,” said Abe from the front.
People filed out of the church and Jill could hear them coughing as the smoke from the fire outside stung their lungs. The tears in her eyes blurred her vision, and when she looked outside and saw the orange blaze it looked like a vision of heaven through the church doors, with souls marching into the light.
She kept her hand pressed to Annie’s side, but no amount of pressure could keep the blood in. Jill’s tears dripped off the tip of her nose, striking her knuckle as she clenched her eyes shut.
“Annie,” said Laura as she pressed her head into her daughter’s shoulder. Jill could hear her whispering to her lost little girl, “I love you. Tell Kim that I love her too. And tell your dad that I miss him so much. I’ll be there soon. Okay? I’ll be there as soon as I can get there.”
Annie was gone.
A dog yipped and Jill looked up to see the pug near the entrance of the church, barking at Ben as he came back in. “I’ve got it!”
“Get it over here, now!” Clyde stopped trying to revive Annie long enough to take the small white backpack with the looping wires dangling from it. “Jill, Laura, you two need to get off. Back up.” He took the paddles out and then peeled a paper film off their flat, metal side. Jill took the unit from him, leaving Clyde with the paddles, and then told him when it was charged. He pressed the paddles to Annie’s chest and said, “Clear.”
Annie jolted in the pew and Laura gasped as if she’d been hurt just by seeing it happen. Clyde checked for a pulse and then looked up at Jill. She didn’t need an explanation and waited until the unit was ready again.
