by Hunt, Jack
“I’m okay, I can do it myself,” Izzy said as Baja was trying to yank her up by the scruff of her collar.
When we reached the top, my hands were shaking. I looked down at the mass of distorted pale faces chomping the air. Their milky eyes fixed on ours. Their fingers tore at the brick, unable to climb. Ralphie toppled over onto the roof, clasping his leg trying to stop the bleeding. Izzy didn’t hesitate; she tore off some of her pant leg and wrapped it around his wound.
“Fuck this place. What the hell is there here for us? They are all dead,” Specs barked.
“Calm down,” I replied.
“I should have just died back in Castle Rock with my family.”
I took a hold of him and gave a shake. “Snap out of it.”
It was hard to take it all in. The noise of the dead below, Ralphie in tears, and Specs pacing back and forth looking as if he was about to leap off.
“Listen, whoever threw those canisters are alive. There are others here. We just need to find them.”
“Oh, you think they were trying to help us. Please. They made it worse,” Specs said.
“Maybe, but maybe not. All I know is we need food and perhaps they have some.”
“I highly doubt they’re going to invite us to an all-you-can-eat buffet. They just tried to make us one for those fuckers down there.”
“You need to settle down,” Dax said to Specs. Specs shook his head and wandered over to the opposite edge to gaze down at the street below.
“You okay, Jess?” I asked. Her hands were shaking. I took a hold of them and stared into her eyes, trying to gauge if she was still with us. The truth was, it would have been very easy for all of us to lose it. All sense of normality was gone. Nothing remained except a world that was trying to kill. Every waking moment was filled with a sense of dread. Who would be next to go? What would happen if we fell into the wrong hands? If we didn’t get any food soon, would we starve to death?
“What now?” I asked Dax.
“Stop asking that,” he shot back.
“I was just—”
“I don’t know, Johnny. This is as foreign to me as you.”
There it was. I had finally seen a crack in Dax’s hard exterior. I could see the look on his face. Perplexed, overwhelmed, and confused. Naturally, because he was the oldest among us and my brother, I looked to him for answers. But there were none.
We were living hour to hour hoping to stay alive and we had no way of knowing if we would. We had barely caught our breath when we heard a stranger’s voice.
“Toss your weapons down.”
I spun around with my shotgun pointed at two masked individuals. They wore black bandanas over the bottom part of their faces. Both had white skulls on them. From the little I could see, they both looked African American.
“We will end you right here. Now put them down.”
“I think you are little outnumbered,” Dax said scowling at them.
“Really?”
The man pulled his banana down to reveal a smirk and goatee. His eyes looked around. We followed his gaze to see even more guns pointed at us from adjoining buildings above and to the left and right. There had to have been fifteen of them. Each of them wore the same skull bandana.
We cast a nervous glance at each other before reluctantly placing our assault rifles, shotgun, and other weapons on the floor. One of the two approached with a large duffel bag and scooped them up.
“Pleasure doing business with you.”
They turned to leave.
I stepped forward “What, that’s it? You are going to leave us without nothing to defend ourselves with?”
The man with the goatee turned back. He paused before reaching into the bag. He removed a Beretta. Took out the magazine, tossed the handgun near my feet, and threw the magazine over the edge. Right below to where the crowd of Z’s were.
“Happy?”
“You fucking piece of shit,” I said.
My nostrils flared and I heard the click of guns as I moved forward on him. It was mad really. We didn’t know them from jack, and had no way of knowing if they would kill us. But then again we had already encountered our fair share of lunatics. I wasn’t thinking clearly.
“Be grateful we aren’t tossing you over the edge.”
“Why?” Jess asked. “Why are you doing this?”
The one who had taken down his bandana was about to answer when the other pulled him away. The guy with the goatee jerked his arm away.
He snorted and turned back to Jess. “You aren’t from around here, are you?”
She shook her head. “Where we come from we wouldn’t rob people of their weapons.”
Baja tossed her a look and for a moment you could have heard crickets. We had attempted to do exactly that back at the silo. Though, the difference was they were ours to begin with, and those guys were royal dicks. They had what was coming to them.
He studied all of us with a look of amusement.
Before any more words were exchanged, gunfire erupted and all of us scrambled for cover. At first I thought they had decided to kill us. But that wasn’t it. I looked up to see them returning fire across the street to another building. There were even more figures on the other side than the ones we had encountered. I couldn’t tell who they were. All of us were crawling on our hands and knees trying to get behind the numerous metal air vents.
“Tongans,” one of them yelled.
“How the hell do we find all the idiots?” Baja yelled from behind cover.
“Maybe you’re a douche magnet,” Izzy shot back.
I called out to the man with the goatee. “You want to toss me a gun?” He just smirked and continued firing. They all looked like this was just another day in the hood.
“What the hell is going on?” Ralphie bellowed.
Bullets were pinging off steel and ricocheting. You could hear the snap of them whizzing past us. We saw one of their men fall off the adjoining building onto the roof. His body hit with a thud. Blood pooled from his head.
Dax gestured to me. The two men with the bag were busy returning fire, paying no attention to our weapons. I was the closest. Though to reach it I would have to expose myself to the roof across from us. The same one where gang members were snapping up shit like it was a Mexican fiesta.
I took a deep breath and rolled across. A bullet tore up the concrete in front of me, inches from my hand. I leapt for the bag and managed to get one out when one of the skulled men turned and kicked me back. He didn’t have time to fight. All he could do was grab the bag and dash into the stairwell. I chased after him, returning fire. A round hit him in the shoulder and he fell backwards down the first flight of stairs.
“The next one is going in your head.”
I felt a gun press against the back of my head.
“Now drop it.”
Gunfire was still erupting outside. I let the CZ P-09 fall from my hand to the floor.
“Joshua, you okay?”
“I’ve been hit, Elijah.”
“If he dies, you die. Now go.” He pushed me forward toward the stairs. I turned to see him whistle to the others. They jumped down from the adjoining buildings and muscled the others in our group into the stairwell. It didn’t take us long to reach the ground floor. We found ourselves inside a grocery store. No doubt there was no food. The place smelled bad as though someone had unplugged all the fridges and meat had turned rotten. That was exactly it. There was no power, and everything had been left to decay.
We waited for what seemed like another ten minutes as the rest of their surviving men returned with a vehicle. It was a cube van. They piled us inside and then zip-tied each of us.
“Go,” Elijah yelled.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“We go by the name BMGs or TBKs”
“Is that like MSGs?” Baja asked
“Yeah, keep it up. And you’ll be the first one to go.”
One of the other masked men spoke up. “The Black Mafia, or otherwise
known as the Black Kings, heard of us?”
“I’d like to say I have, but no. But I have heard of your rival gang. The TTs.”
“Who?” he replied.
“The Teletubbies,” I replied.
Baja smirked. Elijah just gave me a cold stare.
“Where are you taking us?” Dax asked.
“You’ll see.”
THE BLACK KINGS
We were hustled towards a cinema. The front doors had been boarded up with planks of wood and sheets of steel. A few bangs on the front entrance and someone peeked out. Once all of us were in, we noticed there were a lot of them just milling around. They stared at us inquisitively.
We were led into a back office. The door slammed behind us.
“Hey,” Izzy yelled kicking the door.
“Settle down, sweet cheeks,” Baja said.
“What did you call me?”
Izzy shook her head then continued to kick the door.
“Well this is grand,” Specs said.
“Yeah.”
I slumped down against the wall. They had stripped out everything from inside the office. There were no windows. All that remained was a clock on the wall that no longer worked. It wouldn’t have mattered. Time ceased to exist in this new world. There were no schedules, places to be. It was actually refreshing. No more trying to keep up with a fast-paced society, or reading quotes about how life was short so use every minute. The apocalypse had brought a whole new meaning to life expectancy.
After a while, the door opened and Elijah came back in. Behind him were two men with plastic plates of food, and bottles of water. Up until that point we could hear a lot of talk outside. It was muffled but heated.
“Eat up.”
“How’s your friend?” I asked.
“You’re lucky. He’ll survive.”
As he turned to leave I got up.
“How long are you going to keep us here?” I asked.
“Until we make sure there aren’t any more of you.”
“Well that’s easy to clear up. There isn’t.”
“That’s what they all say.”
“All?”
“Gangs.”
Baja snorted. “You think we’re a gang?”
“Well, aren’t you?”
“Oh, you got us red-handed, I’m Al Capone,” Baja muttered.
“Is that who was shooting at us?” I asked.
Elijah’s eyes drifted from Baja to me. “Tongan Crips.”
“Who the hell are they?”
He never answered. Instead he studied us before asking his own questions. “Where are you guys from?”
“Castle Rock,” Jess said.
“What brought you here?”
“Our town was overrun. We heard a radio signal broadcasting from Salt Lake City. We thought there might be safe zones.”
He laughed. “Safe zones? Nowhere is safe.”
The other man with him tapped him but Elijah seemed interested in talking.
“Have you heard the broadcast?” Dax asked.
He nodded exhaling cigarette smoke.
“Where’s it coming from?”
“It’s broadcast out of the CDC.”
“There’s other survivors?”
He looked at us as if we were from another planet. “There was.”
Each of us started eating the food we were given. It was sliced Spam.
“Why do they keep broadcasting?” I asked.
Elijah looked at the other guys with him.
“Probably best I show you.”
We all rose to our feet.
He shook his head. “No, just you.” He pointed to me.
The others looked at me, concerned. “I’ll be all right.”
I couldn’t say for sure if I would or not. Call it a hunch or gut instinct but something told me Elijah was different from the others. As we left the room I walked in step with Elijah who gestured to two others to come with us.
“Why didn’t you shoot me?” I asked
“What?”
“Back on the roof. After I shot your friend.”
“Maybe I will.”
We moved fast between buildings. I got a sense that it wasn’t because of Z’s but the threat of an attack from another gang. Eventually we arrived inside a tall office block. It was mostly made from glass. We ascended stairs two at time until we were on the sixteenth floor. There, Elijah led me to a window that overlooked the city.
I looked out over the vast desolate city. A huge building rose up in the distance.
“What is that?”
“Temple Square. It’s run by the Tongan Crips. A motherfucker by the name of Domino is in charge. After the city was taken over by the dead, they took up residence there.”
Temple Square was a ten-acre complex at the heart of Salt Lake City. An entire block surrounded by a fifteen-foot wall. Though it looked as if the Tongans had created their own wall from sheets of corrugated metal to fill in the gaps. The surrounding city was built around it when the Mormons established themselves back in 1847. Inside, at the center was a magnificent granite structure. It was built like a fortress. Its spires rose up among the downtown buildings, shopping malls, and beautiful landscapes. It reminded me of Disney Castle.
“And the CDC?”
“West. Further down. About an eleven-minute drive.”
I nodded. “Why are you showing me this?”
He looked at me. “Because you guys look green.” He chuckled to himself. “There is a war taking place that’s far more dangerous than those walkers you see out there. You are more liable to die from a stray bullet than being bitten. The Tongans run everything.”
“And police?”
He let out a chuckle. “You’ve got to be kidding. Those pussies bolted or were killed the moment everything went to hell.”
“And what about your group?”
“There are over two hundred Tongans, and sixty of us. They keep to their side, we keep to ours.”
“If there are no safe zones, why don’t you leave?”
“This is our home.”
“That’s what I said about Castle Rock. Things are different now.”
“Maybe for you, but not for us. Come. We should go, you don’t want to be out here after dark.”
As we made our way back, I noticed how few people we saw on the streets. It seemed the only ones that had survived were the gangs. Those willing to kill, those who had spent their entire lives preparing for the worst-case scenario. Though for them, it was prison time or a gangland hit.
We were three blocks from their base when one of his men was shot. The bullet came out of nowhere. It echoed. We scrambled for cover. Elijah had his eyes on the rooftops. I stared at his friend who was still alive but not moving.
“Darius, go get Lukas,” Elijah yelled.
“Fuck that homie!” Darius said before returning fire and then making a run for it. Darius was the only one that was close to a door that led into a building. Every time we tried to see if the coast was clear, bullets would snap past our heads. They had us pinned down in an alley behind a couple of industrial dumpsters. Several gunshots were coming from either side. Maybe I was mad or angry at being held against our will but I just wanted to get the hell out of there. At the same time I knew what it was like to lose someone. To be pushed into a corner and fired upon. I dived out into the open area, grabbed a hold of Lukas, and dragged him to the other side of the alley.
Lukas had been hit in the back. The chances of him surviving were slim. I took out his weapon that he had stashed in the back of his pants and began firing up at a Hispanic guy that was taking shots from the roof. For those brief few minutes I had never felt my pulse race so hard. The noise of gunfire was attracting Z’s. They had started to shuffle into the alley.
“Elijah, you are going to have to get over. We need to get out. I can’t carry him by myself.”
Elijah gave a nod.
“I’ll cover you. On three.”
I raised my fingers,
counting up. On three he rolled, firing in the opposite direction while I continued laying heat on the guy above us. As soon as he was over he swung Lukas’s arm around his shoulder.
“All right, buddy, we’ll have you out of here.”
“Go.”
The door was a few feet from us. There was a good chance we would be hit with a bullet. But it was get out or end up some Z’s Big Mac. Gasping for air as we made it into the building we didn’t stop to check if anyone was following. We pressed on. Lukas was groaning.
“Stay with us,” Elijah shouted.
Several Z’s came in the door and were following. They were the slow suckers but liable to do some serious damage if they got hold of us.
“Go. I’ll follow behind you,” I said.
“I’m not leaving you,” Elijah replied.
“Earlier you were going to shoot me. I think I’ll be fine.”
Elijah shook his head.
“Go,” I repeated.
“You know your way back?”
I nodded.
Elijah stumbled forward dragging Lukas. I unloaded three rounds at the heads of two walkers who were spewing blood from their mouths.
“Damn, you are some ugly motherfuckers.” Once they were down I kept inching back until I was at the door on the other side of the building. I slammed it closed and pushed a dumpster in front of it. The door jerked back and forth as I saw Z’s trying to get out. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get through the next door as the alley was already filling up with more Z’s. I clambered onto the dumpster and reached for the fire escape. It was out of reach. I pushed the gun into the small of my back and tried to steady my balance.
It was hard because the walkers were determined they were going to get through the metal door. The sound of metal pieces slapping up against each other and the sight of more shufflers coming into the alley got my ass in gear. I stepped back to the edge of the dumpster, took a few fast steps, and jumped off. I barely caught the bottom rung. I felt my elbow almost pop out of its socket as I hung by my fingers.
Beneath, reaching up at my feet were ten Z’s. I could feel the tips of their fingers clawing at the soles of my boots. My fingers were slipping. It wasn’t that I couldn’t have pulled myself up if given time but they now had their chicken-licking fingers around the tips of my boot and probably were placing bets on who would get the first bite.
