by Hilden, Josh
The sounds of their boots on concrete echoing in the stairwell were unnerving. It didn’t matter how many times they breached a cleared a building, Brian was never convinced they’d gotten them all. He trusted Riley as much as he trusted anyone, and Nathan more than any other living being, but the old fear boiled back up.
The same fear he’d felt at the barricades.
Then, Day Six of the Rising, the South Barricade
“This isn’t happening… this can’t be happening,” Captain Steven Minnelli kept muttering. He was standing in the open hatch of his command hummer and watching in shock as the barricades were hammered by wave after wave of the risen dead. The man had been acting stranger and more disconnected as the chain of command developed more gaps than links.
“Sir we need to pull back,” Lieutenant Capshaw said for the hundredth time in the last six hours. He was exhausted and covered in a mixture of sweat and zombie gore, he’d just finished a ten hour rotation at the barricades. “We are losing too many soldiers down here. If we fall back to the north we can use the bridge as a funnel to mow down the dead instead of trying to be a tiny cork in this massive bottle.”
Instead of responding, the Captain picked up his sat phone and dialed the same number he’d been trying to contact for two days. It was the direct line to the Generals office in Lansing and the last contact had been fragmentary and useless. But the Captain kept dialing.
“Sir, I don’t think now—” Capshaw never had a chance to finish.
Captain Minnelli had his sidearm out and pointed at the young Lieutenant’s head in half a heartbeat. “Lieutenant Capshaw when I want your opinion I will tell you what it is,” the terrified sounding officer said. His hands shook and Capshaw was sure his CO was about to kill him.
Then both men froze.
The unmistakable sound of a safety being switched off filled the air.
“Captain I know you’re as tired as the rest of us and god knows you have a lot on your shoulders but I think you might want to holster your weapon,” the icy calm voice of Corporal Nathan Hacker said.
Minnelli and Capshaw both turned to see Hacker with his M4 Carbine leveled at the Captains chest. The young man was covered in the same mixture of sweat and gore that coated Capshaw and the other soldiers at the barricade. In contrast Captain Minnelli’s uniform, while sweat stained and crumpled, was relatively clean.
“Corporal, shoulder your weapon and get your ass back down to the barricade,” Minnelli ordered never moving his pistol from Capshaw’s direction. “Do it now and I’ll forget you just pulled a weapon on a superior officer.”
“No sir, if you don’t lower your weapon I will put three rounds in your chest,” Nathan said, his face was hard and cold. The racist humor and smartassed attitude of six days earlier were gone. That Nathan Hacker died as the world around him dissolved. The Lieutenant had stood side by side with the Guard troops while the Captain had remained safe in the rear. Every man and woman on the line knew which officer they trusted.
“You’ll be court-martialed for this,” Captain Minnelli hissed slipping his weapon back in its holster. “We shoot traitors in time of war.”
“Then maybe I should have shot you,” Nathan replied lowering his rifle and turning to return back to the barricade. There was work to do and the last thing he needed to do was to spend time screwing around with this coward. “You should probably head back north sir, the barricades won’t hold much longer. It’d be horrible if something happened to you.”
It happened fast.
“Hacker, down!” Capshaw yelled.
Nathan whipped around to see the Captain unholstering his weapon once more. Nathan dropped to the hot cracked asphalt of the bridges road bed and leveled his rifle at Minnelli. He never had a chance to fire.
A single burst of rifle fire slammed into Captain Minnelli’s head. The man looked shocked as his brain matter was loosed from the opposite side of his skull and he crumpled across the top of the hummer.
Nathan looked to Lieutenant Capshaw and could see the smoke rising from the muzzle of his rifle. The man no longer looked like the fresh faced young officer he’d been when this started. Now he looked like a warrior.
“Sir,” Nathan said getting up from the ground. “Thanks for that.”
“That man was a piss poor officer before the dead started trying to eat us,” Capshaw said in way of an answer. “You’re worth a hundred of him.”
Nathan swelled with pride but said nothing.
“We need to move north, help me move this piece of shit so I can get to the command radio,” Brian ordered.
Nathan hurried over. His commanding officer needed a hand.
Now, Duluth City Hall, Basement
“This place doesn’t officially exist, it’s not part of the building’s underground blueprints hence the dedicated stairwell,” Riley said opening the heavy door at the bottom. “You haven’t seen anything like this outside of television and movies Major.”
The stairs had taken them down five flights and Brian was sure they were below any other part of the City Hall’s basement space. It all looked old and in poor repair as they descended. Then the door opened and cool white light flooded the landing and caused Brian to shield his eyes from the glare.
“What the fuck?” Capshaw whispered once his vision equalized.
“My thoughts exactly,” Riley said quietly.
“This looks like something out of Fallout,” Nathan said speaking for the first time since they’d entered the City Hall.
Brain looked at Riley and the two men broke out in laughter.
“You’re not far off Hacker,” Riley said gesturing for the other two soldiers to enter the room. “I honestly never thought places like this existed.”
The room, despite the stained area where Brian assumed the station monitor had died, was antiseptically clean. The room was a combination compact living space and high tech computer station. There were several open doors in the room and Brian could see a bathroom and some storage rooms.
“Why’d she kill herself?” Nathan asked. “This place has enough supplies for years.”
“Is this equipment still operating?” he asked looking to Riley with a raised eyebrow. “If it’s not working this was a waste of time.”
“Yeah it’s working but most of it is so highly encrypted that we don’t even know how to start breaking it,” Riley replied, then he reached over and touched a flashing icon on the main touch screen. “But there is this. Hacker I think this might answer your question as well.”
The screen was filled with the image of a young woman. She appeared to be dressed in the tattered components of a business suit favored by federal agents. Her skin was pale and there was a quaver to her voice.
“This is NSA Agent Jillian Walker, it has been twenty-seven days since the dead began to rise and I was ordered to lock myself in this hub station. It has been two days since my last contact with anyone in my chain of command. When that last contact took place I was given orders I cannot morally follow and have cut links to both Colorado Springs and Anchorage. Things have fallen apart and I refuse to be part of what they are doing.”
She coughed and when her hand came into view the bloody bandage on her wrist was clearly visible. She realizes this and holds her arm out for the camera to get a better view.
“I made the mistake of checking out the upper levels this morning and paid the price. I am leaving this message unencrypted for anyone to find. If you are watching this I only have one request.”
She coughs hard again and the men can see the blood vessels in her eyes breaking. They’ve all seen this a hundred times in the last year. Agent Jillian Walker was almost done with life.
“I have a daughter, her name is Hannah and she lives with her father in Chicago. I know it’s a long shot but if you ever meet her can you please tell her that her mother stayed at her post but never stopped loving her and thinking about her.”
Jillian holds up a picture of a young girl with braces
and pigtails.
“The dead are bad but what is coming is worse. Stay away from Alaska and don’t trust the liars in Colorado and Arizona. The Fleet might be trust worthy, I’m not sure.”
She doubles over coughing even harder.
“One last thing, when you find me please bury me… I don’t want to be burned.”
The camera turns off.
“Well that was cryptic,” Nate said. He then walked to the store rooms and began doing a rough inventory
“What did you do with her body?” Brian asked.
“She’s body bagged with our two losses. We’re going to take her back to the Island for burial.” He looked a little self-conscious. “It just seems like the right thing to do.”
Brian nodded agreement. “We’re going to need to get some people down here who know computer systems and how to break them. We need to know what she was talking about, because if it jibes with what the Alaskan’s told you, we’ve wasted too much time as it is.”
“This place is just one of the installations on the Senator’s list,” Riley replied. “I think we have a big job ahead of us.”
Gunfire could be heard upstairs as a straggling zombie was put down.
“So what else is new?” Brian asked.
Part 5: “Nancy and Charlie”
Now, New White Harbor Harrison-Sutton Residence
“Charlie I need to tell you something,” Nancy Harrison-Sutton said.
Charlie was playing with the Lego’s Rich Paulson had brought back from Duluth for him. Every time Rich came back from an assignment he brought something back for his adopted nephew.
“What mommy?” he asked adding height to the massive Lego fortress he’d been constructing for two days.
“Honey stop playing for a minute and come over here,” she said patting the worn seat of the couch. “This is important sweetie.”
The little boys head snapped up and the look of a frightened animal replaced his sweet childish features. It was a look Nancy hadn’t seen in a long time and she mentally kicked herself for the fucked up phrasing.
Damnit, the last time I said that to him we were back in the old house. When I had to tell him the world was ending and we needed to run if we were going to survive.
Then, Canton Michigan
“Bye Daddy,” Nancy said before setting the phone down. Her blood had gone cold and for the first time since her mother had died Nancy Harrison, she’d dropped her married name as soon as the divorce was final, was scared.
“Mama why didn’t you let me say goodbye to grandpa?” Charlie asked.
His words startled Nancy and she had to bite back a scream. Her father had dumped more information on her than she could process at once. Hell it was more information than a dozen people could have been expected to handle and still function.
“Grandpa needed to get off the phone, he told me to tell you he loves you,” she said hoping her little boy couldn’t see the through the mask she’d forced onto her face. He’d always been entirely too good at being able to read her emotions.
He cocked his head and for a second she was sure he was going to ask her why she was lying. Instead he hugged her and headed back into the living room to watch more cartoons before she told him it was time to leave for daycare. She watched him for several seconds. He was her heart and soul. Nancy was unsure what she would do if something happened to Charlie.
Snap out of it! You believe dad and if you believe him you need to get your ass moving. We need to hit the road and we need to do it as soon as possible because this is going to get really bad really quick.
The first thing she did was change from her business suit to jeans and a tee shirt. Then she retrieved the massive revolver from her bedroom table along with the speed loader and box of shells. Making sure it was loaded she removed the trigger lock and slipped it onto her waistband.
Charlie continued to watch TV unaware that Nancy started taking food and camping supplies from the house to the Jeep Liberty parked in the driveway. Every time she reentered the house to gather more supplies she expected Charlie to ask her why she was putting all of their food in the car. But he never did, instead his eyes were glued on the antics of Tom and Jerry. The final thing she did was pack a small bag for each of them.
“Charlie,” she said entering the living room.
“Yes mommy,” he replied not turning to look at her.
“Honey, stop watching TV for a minute and come over here,” she said. “This is important sweetie.”
Now
“What’s wrong Mommy?” he asked climbing onto the couch.
It broke her heart to see the armor he’d erected over the last year. It was the same look every child on the island had when they were confronted with the unknown. These were the kids of the new world, they’d seen and become accustomed to things that would have sent her into a catatonic shock when she was their age. Even if things went back to normal tomorrow these children would remain forever changed.
It’s their world now, were just taking care of it until they are old enough to take over and start really fixing things. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. If we have to live in this world at least people like Charlie will be inheriting it.
“Well Charlie I have some good news and some bad news.” She’d never been one to hide things from her son and she wasn’t going to start now. “Which do you want to hear first?”
In the days before the dead walked he would have jumped on the good news and tried to ignore there would be bad news to follow. But this Charlie, for all of his hope and good nature, was a hard edged pragmatist. She wasn’t surprised with his answer.
“The bad news,” he said in a scarily adult tone.
“Alright,” Nancy said with a sad smile and a sigh. “When Mama Lisa gets home tonight she’s going to be packing to leave for a while.” Her heart clenched when she said the words. The conversation with Lisa over the islands primitive telephone network had been a nightmare. She understood why her wife had to do this but that didn’t mean she had to like it.
“Why?” Charlie asked softly. His voice didn’t change but Nancy noticed his eyes developed a new shine.
“You know about the problems in Alaska,” Nancy said. It wasn’t a question. The boy would have had to be deaf not to have picked up on some of the conversations on the island. The defectors and the discoveries in Duluth had been the single topic of discussion for the last week.
Charlie nodded.
“Mama Lisa has to go to Duluth and handle things,” Nancy continued. She was going to tell him the truth, but she had no intention of telling him how dangerous the city was. Moving up the expansion timetable had stretched the Michigan and Canadian forces to the breaking point.
“It’s gonna be dangerous,” Charlie said as if he could read her mind. He’d been doing things like that lately and it was getting a little scary. “She and Uncle Richie are going and it’s not going to be easy.”
“How do you know that, did Rich tell you?” she asked trying not to sound shocked. She knew Rich wouldn’t have discussed it with him but there was no other way he could have known.
“No, I just knew,” he said looking at his feet. “Will it be scary like when we had to get in the car?”
Then
“Get in the car Charlie,” Nancy said hustling the boy out of the house and toward the waiting Jeep. The boy didn’t really understand what she’d told him but when she said they had to head north and meet up with his grandfather he was anxious to go.
She didn’t see Mr. Jackson until it was almost too late.
Gary Jackson was ninety-two years old and lived three houses down from Nancy and Charlie’s house. He was one of the nicest people Nancy had ever met and when he realized she was a lesbian he’d been overjoyed which lead to hours of him telling her about his gay brother and the tribulations he’d suffered back in the day. The old man positively doted on Charlie.
“Gary!” Charlie called out making a bee line for the man who always had a dolla
r and a can of Coke for the little boy. “Gary, me and mama are going on a trip!”
Nancy started to open her mouth to warn Gary about what her father had told her. But she took one look at his gray skin and dead expression in his eyes and knew it was already too late.
“Charlie, get away from him!” Nancy yelled.
The boy hesitated and in that instant the dead man who walked grabbed him by his hair. Charlie screamed and struggled to break the grip. The man moaned and moved to take a bite from the boys exposed flesh.
“Mommy!” Charlie yelled struggling, panic overcoming him.
“Get away from my son!” Nancy yelled sprinting and shoulder checking Gary Jackson.
A lifetime of hockey and softball had left her in good shape and the man may have been a zombie, but he was a ninety-two year old zombie. He was feather light compared to her. Bones snapped audibly when her body impacted with his and again when he slammed into the driveway. Charlie shrieked when a chunk of his hair and scalp stayed in Gary’s hand. Acting fast Nancy drew the revolver and put a round directly in the man’s head, just as her father told her to do.
“Baby, are you okay?” she asked dropping to her knees in front of him.
“Mommy,” Charlie said through thick tears and choking sobs, “Why did Gary try to hurt me?”
