Saga of the Scout

by Cliff Hamrick

Tully looked at him for a moment and then smiled and nodded. “You’re welcome, son.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “¡Despierta! ¡Hay alguien ahí fuera! ¡Despierta!”

  Ethan jerked awake out of a dream of shadows that hunted him. He almost fell out of the small bed in the sleeping area that used to house firefighters.

  He looked around and saw Madison and Tully waking up. He grabbed his pistol off the nightstand next to his bed and followed them to the sounds of Elena yelling. He didn’t even take the time to put on his shoes.

  She stood in the dimly lit dining area. The sun was beginning to rise, and the outlines of what little furniture remained were just beginning to take shape. The elderly Martinez woman sat at the table, holding the oxygen mask to her face. Elena looked out at the window and turned when she heard the others come into the room.

  “¡Hay alguien ahí fuera!”

  Madison looked to Ethan in hopes that he understood her, but Ethan shook his head. Tully went to the window and looked out. For a moment, he looked as confused as everyone else. Then his faced dropped with realization.

  “There’s someone out there.”

  Madison and Ethan gathered at one of the windows and peered out. It was a moment before he could see the outline of a figure emerge from the growing light of dawn. It was a woman, just standing and staring up at the fire station. He could not make out anything else.

  “There’s more than just one,” Madison said. She pointed down and off to the side.

  As the sun rose, Ethan could another person, large and muscular, pacing back and forth behind the stationary woman. He was deftly flicking a long, curved knife in one hand and looking up at them.

  “A lot more,” Ethan said as he noticed others behind them. It appeared to be about a dozen raiders and changed people gathering in the street just outside of the fire station.

  “What’s going on?” Jeff asked as he entered the room. Andrew followed him, zipping up his pants, handcuffs dangling from his left hand.

  Tully replied, “That woman from yesterday returned. She brought friends.”

  Jeff went to the window and appraised the situation. “Alright, let’s get ready. We’ll shoot them from the windows if they try to get in. If they try to climb up, then we’ll take them out.”

  Jeff gave Tully one of the shotguns and kept it for himself. Ethan approached one of the windows, with his revolver cocked and ready to shoot.

  Madison, with her baseball bat and Andrew with a butcher knife, stood in the middle of the room, ready to charge at a window if necessary. Elena took her mother as quickly as she could out of the room and hid in the sleeping room.

  A tense standoff formed between the two groups. The people in the fire station looked down at the pack of butchers on the road. The sun finally rose over the hill behind the station, and the faces of the people waiting in the field came into view.

  Other than the brutal faces of the handful of raiders, many of which were hidden by masks, there was a blond woman dressed in a brown skirt and jacket, a heavyset man in sweatpants, a teen girl in a blue swimsuit, an elderly man in khakis and a golf shirt, and many others. All looked like anyone you would meet out on a spring day, except they each carried bloodied weapons and wore murderous expressions.

  Ethan prepared himself at the window, his revolver in both hands and ready to shoot anyone who came too close to the fire station. He looked out over the crowd, searching for any signs of what they planned to do next. He stopped at one figure and squinted to try and see them in the growing light.

  She still wore the black yoga pants though she lost her sports bra. Topless, she unashamedly paced back and forth near the rear of the crowd, her bare breasts bouncing with each step. She held a long, curved knife of a raider in her hand as she studied the fire station. Her face, framed by blond hair, which hung loose, was painted red with fresh blood.

  He smiled when he recognized her, the first familiar sight since all of this began. But his smile faded, and fear crept into the pit of his stomach as he watched her pace. She looked more like a hungry mountain lion impatiently searching for a way up to her prey trapped in a tree than his big sister.

  “Emily.”

  Madison stepped closer and looked over Ethan’s shoulder. “Who? Is that? Is that your sister?”

  “Yes.”

  Curious, Andrew stepped to the window as well. “Man, she’s hot, too. I mean, if you’re into crazy.”

  Emily’s eyes fixed on Ethan and her face twisted into a sneer as she recognized him. “Hey, little brother! Why don’t you and your friends come out? There’s someone you should meet.”

  “She’s not that hot,” Andrew muttered and returned to the middle of the room.

  Ethan didn’t respond. He remembered how much she enjoyed the brutality at the visitor center, bathed in it. The fresh blood painted on her face showed that she still enjoyed it.

  He was afraid of her, though she was his big sister. There was a time when she would play with him while their parents argued to distract him. But she hadn’t brought him comfort in a long time. And he didn’t think she was going to start today.

  One of the raiders shouted something in his strange guttural language, and the others screamed out a response in the same language. Before Ethan could wonder how they learned the primal language in such a short time, they all charged the fire station at the same time.

  “Oh, it's on!” shouted Jeff as he fired his shotgun.

  The booming sound of the 12 gauge was loud in the room and was echoed by Tully’s shotgun. Ethan remembered missing with his pistol yesterday, so he waited a moment before he fired at a black man in a postman’s uniform scratching and clawing his way up the brick wall.

  Ethan pointed his gun down and paused. A part of him told him it was wrong to shoot. But when the man almost reached the window, Ethan shot at his head.

  The first shot hit the man’s shoulder, shattering the bone and dislocating it, and causing him to slip downward, but he did not relent. The second shot hit him in the neck, which spun him around to the ground.

  The heavy man in sweatpants charged at the window below Tully, throwing his hefty body repeatedly at the table blocking his path. Tully’s shotgun blast split his head open like a melon. On the other side of the room, Jeff shot, racked, and shot again. From behind, Ethan heard a crash and a scream that no child should ever produce.

  “They’re coming from the back!” Madison yelled and rushed down the hallway, bat at the ready. Andrew flinched for a moment, but then he followed her.

  Tully fired again, his shotgun blast hitting the girl in the center of her blue one-piece as she tried to climb up the brick wall.

  Jeff ran out of shells and tossed his shotgun to the side. Then he drew his pistol and continued to fire. Ethan shot a college-age girl with pink hair in the stomach. She lurched to the ground, writhing in pain.

  Ethan glanced behind her and noticed that none of the raiders charged the building. They were waiting for the changed people to make their attack. Only Emily waited, pacing and grinning as she looked up at him.

  A commotion made Ethan look behind him. He saw Andrew running down the hall towards him. His knife was gone. “Fuck this! We gotta get out of here!” Andrew continued past him and ran down the stairs.

  Madison ran out of the bedroom soon after, still carrying her baseball bat. “They’re dead! They’re all dead!”

  Ethan wasn’t sure who she referred to until a Hispanic boy around his age ran out of the room after them, a bloody hammer raised over his head. Ethan stepped away from the window, his revolver raised at the teen. He fired and missed. He fired twice again and struck the charging boy in the chest, the force of the bullets knocking him to the ground.

  “Ethan!” Tully yelled.

  Ethan turned back to the window to see the most graceful movements he had ever witnessed. His sister, Emily, ran towards the fire station, her curved knife held in her teeth. Tully fired his shotgun at her but missed, the b
uckshot blowing apart a prickly pear cactus.

  When she reached the corpse of the heavyset man on the ground, she stepped onto his chest and used his ribcage to spring her up until her other foot reached the window sill. She kicked up and launched herself straight up, effortlessly reaching the second story window and pulling herself into the room.

  “Look out!” Ethan yelled, though he wasn’t sure if it was to Tully or his sister.

  Her fluid motions were so quick that Tully barely had time to rack another round. He aimed the shotgun at her and fired. But she ducked and rolled past him, and the blast flew uselessly out the window. She was inside.

  Jeff apparently noticed something was wrong and looked over his shoulder to see that she had gotten in. He turned and fired at her, but she continued to move around Tully. Her knife in her hand, she sliced up his thigh, groin, and stomach.

  Tully screamed in pain as he dropped to the ground, blood pouring out onto the tile.

  Ethan stood stunned. He loosely held his gun as he aimed it at her. Madison saw his hesitation, but also saw the head of a masked raider climb over the same window Emily entered in. She grabbed Ethan by the arm and dragged him away. “Come on! There’s too many of them!”

  Ethan didn’t fight or struggle. They ran down the stairs together to the garage bay. Behind them, they heard gunshots and screams, but mostly screams.

  Andrew was in the driver’s seat of the minivan, trying to start it. Metallic clanging filled the garage bay as the door shook violently from someone on the outside trying to lift it.

  Madison ran to the driver’s side. “Let me drive! Get the door open!”

  “Fuck you! You open the door!”

  Ethan got in the passenger’s seat and pointed his revolver at Andrew’s face. “Let her drive.”

  Andrew glanced at the gun, and then up at the dying screams coming from upstairs and decided now wasn’t the time to argue. He jumped out of the driver’s seat, and Madison climbed in.

  “Y’all better not fucking leave me!” he shouted at them as he went to the garage door.

  The minivan’s engine started just as Andrew pulled out the steel pin that held it in place. The garage door jerked up and opened to reveal a wild-eyed raider.

  Madison floored the accelerator, and the minivan slammed into the raider, spinning him off to the side. Then she slammed on the brake so Andrew could get in the side door. Emily and two other raiders ran down the stairs just as Madison sped away down the road.

  Ethan looked behind and saw Emily stand with two raiders in front of the open garage door. She smiled and casually waved goodbye.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “Your sister is one crazy bitch,” Andrew said.

  Madison breathed heavy and scanned the road ahead. There was no one on the flat country road, no signs of cars or people. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That…she was so fast. Did you see what she did to Tully?”

  Ethan looked down at his empty revolver. That was his sister, his big sister. The sister who used to tease him about being short. The sister who insisted on sitting in the front seat with her father. The sister who danced to silly pop songs with her friends. Now, she was the crazy bitch who murdered people for no reason.

  “What do we do now?” Andrew asked.

  Madison replied, “Let’s go with the original plan. We go to San Marcos and get help there.”

  “What if there isn’t any help there? What if they’re just as bad off as we are?”

  Madison slammed her hand against the steering wheel. “I don’t fucking know! You have any better ideas than running off and leaving us?”

  “Hey! I was trying to get the fucking minivan started. You didn’t see how hard it was to get this thing going yesterday.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “How was I going to drive off with the fucking garage door closed? Did you think about that? You know, what? Fuck you! I tired of you assholes not trusting me.” Andrew threw his body back against his seat.

  “Both of you shut up,” Ethan said. He took a deep breath and looked out at the window as the brushy field of the Hill Country rushed by. The sight reminded him of the drive to the wildlife ranch just before all of this started.

  “We’ll go to San Marcos and get supplies. We lost everything in the fire station. I didn’t even get a chance to put my shoes on. So, we go there, maybe find help, maybe not. And then I’m going to Austin.”

  He felt a moment of panic until he checked his pocket. At least he still had his cellphone. He still had a connection to home.

  Everyone was quiet for the next few moments. At the top of a hill, Madison slammed on the brakes to stop the minivan. The interstate was less than a mile ahead of them.

  This was the closest Ethan had come to the highway. The road they are on would take them under an overpass and into the town of Canyon Lake. The blackened shell of a semi-truck broke over the overpass railing and draped down to the block the road ahead of them. Cars, pickups, SUVs, and more semis piled up into each other and on top of each other. Black vultures swarmed through the wreckage, like flies over rotting meat.

  Madison leaned forward and scanned the long line of wrecked and parked cars. “I don’t see anyone. Do you?”

  Ethan looked, and Andrew leaned over the front seats to search as well. They could see bodies by the bright colors of their clothes moving in the morning breeze. But other than vultures, there was no movement.

  “I don’t see anything,” Ethan said. “But we can’t go this way. Maybe see if the access road is clear?”

  Madison shook her head. “No, I don’t want to get close to it. That’s where those crazy people were. And now there might be those raiders, too.”

  Andrew added without sarcasm, “Don’t forget about the rhinos.”

  Ethan looked around. At the intersection of the interstate and the county road they were on, there were a couple of gas stations and a fast-food burger place.

  “Maybe those places are good enough. We can go in there, get food and water, and then just backtrack or something.”

  Madison stared at the stores ahead and bit her thumb as she thought. “I don’t know. It's so close to the interstate.”

  “I don’t see anyone on the highway. Maybe everyone is gone already.”

  “We didn’t see anyone at the neighborhood yesterday either, but remember how that turned out. And you had shoes then.”

  “At least you have the gun, right?” Andrew added.

  Ethan opened the chamber and saw all of the empty shells. He dumped them out onto the floor in front of him. “Empty. And the ammo is in my backpack at the station.”

  They sat in silence for another moment. Andrew looked at the road behind them. “You know, we’re going to have to figure something out soon. For all we know, they’re on their way here to find us.”

  Ethan said to Madison, “Just pull up close, and I’ll sneak in and try to find some stuff. You can turn the minivan around and keep the engine running. That way, if we have to get away in a hurry, we can just go back the way we came. We can’t stay here.”

  Madison stared ahead, her eyes fixated on the burned-out shell of the semi.

  Andrew said, “Man, you don’t even have shoes. You’re not going to sneak in anywhere. I’ll go in.”

  They looked him in over their seats. Madison said, “You? Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, just do like he said. I’ll get in there, get us some food and water. Hell, maybe they have an old map or something. And then I’ll get back.”

  Madison looked to Ethan, who nodded. “OK. That sounds good. Just yell if you need us.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, you’ll hear me yell. And you see me running, too.”

  Madison drove the minivan forward and pulled into the parking lot of the gas station, turning the minivan around so they could drive back onto the road immediately if necessary. They waited in the parking lot, peering out the windows for any signs of movement.

  The gas station was large, but not as large as
the one that had caught fire. Cars and pickup trucks were parked in spaces and next to gas pumps. There were no bodies, no signs of violence, no vultures. It was as if all of the people just walked away from the station and left their vehicles behind.

  Madison said, “I don’t see anyone, do you?”

  Ethan shook his head. “No, I don’t.” Then, speaking to Andrew, he asked, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  Andrew said, “Fuck no, I don’t want to do this. But we need to anyway. Give me your gun.”

  Ethan hesitated.

  Andrew said, “I know its empty, but someone inside won’t know that. You know, like I didn’t?” Andrew cocked his head to emphasize his point.

  Ethan nodded and handed him the gun. “Good luck. We’ll be waiting.”

  “Yeah, make sure you do that.” Andrew opened the side door and left it open, looking around as he approached the gas station.

  Madison and Ethan watched as he walked past the vehicles without incident and entered the gas station. Madison looked back at the interstate, scanning the line of destroyed vehicles, searching for any signs of threats.

  Ethan continued to look at the gas station, but his mind was elsewhere. Fire station, Austin, wildlife ranch. His mind rested on the image of the millions of stars in the night sky over Big Bend when he went camping there. He felt comfort in that image.

  Madison noticed his silence. “Are you OK?”

  “Yeah. Are you?”

  “Yes. I mean, no. I mean, are you OK about your sister?”

  He sighed. “I already knew she was changed. I saw it at the visitor center. I just didn’t see exactly how much she had changed.”

  “Did she really change that much? I mean, what was she like before?”

  Ethan reflected on his memories. “She was always kind of angry, I guess. She wasn’t always bad, though. She was nice to me until our parents got divorced. But she was nothing like this.”

  Madison scanned the highway again before continuing, “In one of my psych classes, Dr. Turner said that most psychopaths don’t show any signs. They seem like everyone else. They really don’t care about anyone else except themselves. They are just good at hiding it. Some of them even do well in jobs that reward that kind of thinking. You know, business, law, even politics. Maybe your sister was like that before, but now she doesn’t have to hide it anymore.”