TAGGED: THE APOCALYPSE

by Chiron, Joseph M

  A beast came from Rusty’s blind side and tackled him as they stood impatiently in front of the door. Thompson shot it in the head. Rusty shook it off. Even in death a second time, the thing’s razor sharp claws raked his chest through his heavy clothes as he shook it off. Three more beasts rushed them. They all turned and put them down in a hail of gunfire.

  Rusty slapped his badge against the electronic keypad. Finally, they heard the loud click of the lock and they tumbled into the guardhouse, slamming the door behind them.

  Frantically, Rusty pulled his clothes off to check if the beast had drawn blood. He exhaled heavily, seeing only very minor red marks across his chest.

  The quiet inside was jarring.

  CHAPTER 14: October 16, 9:45 a.m.

  The tinkling of breaking glass sounded just beyond their safe enclosure in the cafeteria. Eve had fallen asleep next to Brit, lying on his gurney. He had stopped moaning at some point during the night and slept soundly after that. He would groan painfully whenever he had to make even the slightest movement. Last night he had looked like he was going to die. This morning, he looked almost normal, just really tired with dark circles under his eyes.

  “Thank you for watching over me.” Brit spoke in a hoarse whisper as he touched Eve’s arm.

  Eve had butterflies in her stomach. He was so handsome, and his eyes were a clear bright blue. The doctor came and changed Brit’s bandages. “You’re looking a lot better. You just need a little rest and maybe something for the pain.”

  “They’re coming closer. We have to get outside. It’s not safe here.” Candy stood in front of Dennis, who appeared to be sleeping.

  All night, Eve heard the screams of the dying all around them, as the beasts ravaged them. Several times it sounded like they were getting much closer, but they never found their area. Candy let Dixon off the leash as soon as she was sure he wasn’t going to change during the night into one of the beasts. Even so, the wound turned an angry red and puffy. Dixon whined constantly about his confinement until she finally let him loose. Dixon was on high alert most of the night. Thankfully, he wasn’t a dog who barked a lot. He had barked early on once, but she and Candy had instantly clapped their hands over his muzzle to silence him. He settled for low rumbling growls. She didn’t think anyone had slept.

  Dennis shifted slowly and ponderously from his position on the chair. “This is the safest place. It’s not safe outside.” Dennis seemed to do nothing but eat, sleep and silently scheme beneath those heavily lidded eyes. Eve had trouble knowing when he was awake or asleep, he was so still sitting on that chair most of the time. She was beginning not to trust him.

  “Remember Needles, I mean Ben? Remember how he reacted when I turned on the lights?” The doctor said.

  “They can’t stand the light,” Candy said. “We’re safe in the light.”

  The sound of breaking glass sounded closer this time. “They’re breaking out the lights. They have to stay inside during the day.”

  Dennis jumped up from the chair, suddenly full of energy. “We need to get out of here. Follow me. I know the way.”

  CHAPTER 15: October 16, 10 a.m.

  “All survivors report to the control tower.” Jackie spoke loudly into the P.A. microphone he had found attached to an impressive bank of controls overlooking the facility.

  Sven stood outside, anxiously searching the survivors as they trickled in toward the tower. Sven had been unable to sleep all night, worried about Dixon, Candy and Eve. Why had he let them go with the doctor and Candy? He should have told them to stay in the control tower where it was safe. All night he had been haunted by visions of them bloody and ravaged, turning into the undead beasts. Smoking had calmed him, finally. He had taken to smoking in the still functioning bathroom - because there was still electricity at the power plant – and realized that pot was really a weed. He chewed and swallowed some, getting a nice buzz in the process, and finally, sometime in the middle of the night, his bowels had unlocked. The nightmarish visions still played through his mind, but he was more detached and he could watch them more like a movie. He ate some more grass when he awoke in the morning, delighted to find yet another legitimate medicinal quality present in this wonder plant he had spent his entire adult life cultivating.

  “Rough night,” Zeb said, as the survivors straggled toward the tower. It appeared that none had slept. Some were obviously injured. Many had torn clothes, some were limping.

  Dixon yanked himself off the leash held by Candy and jumped up on Sven, smothering him with kisses, overjoyed at seeing him. Sven spotted the gash on his neck immediately, “What happened?”

  “He bit an infected, who attacked us. It scratched him. He didn’t turn,” Candy said.

  “I’m pretty sure the ravening virus has no effect on animals. But we’ll know for sure in a day or two,” the doctor said.

  “I was so afraid I’d lost you. Don’t ever leave me again.” Sven spoke lovingly to Dixon, who smiled up at him, wagging his stub of a tail. “How are you? Are you all right?” Sven looked first at Candy, then at Eve. Eve stood beside the gurney with Brit, barely glancing up at Sven as he spoke. She helped Brit to sit up as he groaned painfully.

  “You guys are so cute together,” Candy smiled. “See, I told you he loves that dog more than life itself,” she said quietly to Eve, who smiled into her hand and moved her body closer to Brit, sitting on the gurney. Brit leaned toward her almost imperceptibly. Sven noticed that Eve barely looked at him even when he spoke, and she seemed to be attached at the hip to that guy, Brit. Probably, he was wrong about her, but at least he and his crew were inside the power plant. Better than being outside those gates by a long shot.

  Jackie stood on top of the low concrete wall surrounding the control tower and performed a count of the survivors. “I count 48.”

  “I reckon we had five hundred defenders last night plus family members.” Zeb scratched thoughtfully at his day-old beard.

  “They annihilated us,” Mack said.

  “We need a change of strategy,” Jackie said. “Any ideas?”

  “They are sensitive to the light.” The doctor stepped forward.

  “What do you mean?” Jackie asked.

  “Well, the sun is out and here we all are out in the open. Where are the ones infected with the ravening virus?” The doctor didn’t wait for an answer but continued, “They’re in there. They’re inside the buildings, waiting for nightfall. When nightfall comes, they will own this area.”

  “It’s true. We could hear them breaking the lights all night,” Brit said. Eve nodded agreement beside him.

  “What do you propose?”

  “We take a strong, fortified position and we flood the perimeter with lights - as many lights as possible.” The doctor looked at the control tower as he spoke.

  “He’s right. Those things are in the buildings right now. Why haven’t they come out and attacked us?” Zeb said.

  “Well, we’ve got two extra powerful spot lights up there on either side of the tower catwalk, plus there’s two more on top of the guardhouse. We can take those down and bring them up to the control tower,” Sven said.

  “I need all available manpower to go get those lights off the top of the guardhouse,” Jackie shouted.

  “We need tools,” Sven said. “We don’t want to damage the lights.”

  “I know where the maintenance office is and all the tools you could need.” Dennis stepped forward.

  Two survivors, a man and a woman, suddenly doubled over, vomiting. They had been standing in the shadow of the building, out of the sun. The woman looked up after vomiting. There was blood streaming from her eyes and nose, and bloody vomit covering her chin. She looked terrified.

  “Oh shit,” Candy said.

  Immediately, two nearby male survivors fell upon them with clubs and smashed their heads.

  CHAPTER 16: October 16, 11 a.m.

  “Everybody strips NOW!” Jackie’s voice boomed over the forty eight survivors. Zeb and his sons
, Sven, Eve, Candy and Dixon rallied around him facing the others. Zeb and his sons readied their weapons.

  “Now! Everybody strips!”

  “Anyone else manifesting symptoms must be quarantined immediately,” the doctor said.

  “It’s cold,” A female survivor said.

  “I’m not taking off my clothes,” another said.

  “We have to know who is infected. You will take off your clothes or you will survive on your own outside this fence. Now! Do it!” Jackie shouted, raising his weapon. Zeb and his sons raised their weapons. In the rear, a man sprinted away. In a flash, Mack shouldered his weapon, aimed and fired. The crack of the bullet split the still air and the man dropped almost before anyone else realized what was happening.

  “Take off your clothes, or you will be shot,” Zeb said. The men immediately began removing their clothes. Some of the women also more slowly began removing their clothes.

  “Men on this side. Women on this side,” the doctor ordered. It was a scene straight out of the holocaust. Men and women shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, embarrassed. A few fit, strong men stood with their hands on their hips, apparently unashamed. Candy, Eve, Sven and Dennis stood beside Jackie fully clothed facing the others, as they had already been examined the day before. Candy seemed to be sizing up the other women in front of her, making mental notes.

  As soon as the clothes were off, five more were immediately identified as in the early stages of infection. Three had enormous boils on their necks or in their groin area over the lymph nodes. Two already had extreme light sensitivity and were weeping or sweating blood in addition to boils. One had very thick hair, evidence of canines and claws. He bolted and was also shot by Mack.

  “Damn brother, let me get one!” Tiny complained half seriously. Bubba had died during the battle.

  “You’ll miss,” Mack winked.

  On closer examination by the doctor and two nurses, three more were identified as possibly infected. An older man complained that he suffered from a bad case of hemorrhoids. The doctor decided he would be quarantined separately.

  The quarantine area was two rooms in the basement of the control tower where they would be locked in.

  A sharp ear-piercing whistle from the locked gates broke through, “Hey! Let us in! Why are you all naked?”

  CHAPTER 17: October 16, 11:30 a.m.

  “Everybody get dressed. I need twenty men to help me with these lights,” Jackie said. “Show Sven where are the tools and maintenance room.” Dennis motioned to Sven, and they walked together toward the control tower.

  “Why is everybody naked?” the loud mouthed jokester outside the gate asked, when Jackie and his men approached. There were at least twenty people pressed against the gate with him, clamoring to get in, and behind him a growing crowd of sixty more.

  “What do you think?” Jackie spoke quietly to Zeb.

  “I think we let ‘em in. We need them. They need us.”

  “Every one of them has to be checked.”

  “Yep.”

  Jackie spoke loudly through the fence. “All new arrivals will line up to my left along the fence. Everyone else get dressed.” Zeb stepped back with his boys, who raised their weapons slightly to form a posse to Jackie’s right. Some of the other men also raised their weapons, copying Zeb and the boys. “You will remove all of your clothes. No exceptions. This is for your safety and ours. Anyone who runs will be shot. Anyone who refuses to strip will not remain inside these gates,” he nodded to Zeb. “Any infected persons will be safely quarantined. You will not be harmed.”

  Out of the eighty new arrivals, four were found to be in the early stages of infection and were quarantined without incident.

  “How are we going to feed all these people?” Zeb asked Jackie.

  “I don’t know. But we better think of something fast,” Jackie said.

  CHAPTER 18: October 16, 11:35 a.m.

  The loudmouth jokester at the fence turned out to be Frank from Portland, who had been down to see some family in the San Francisco bay area when everything hit. He knew his way around a tool box and quickly took charge of removing the lights from the tower in a safe and non-damaging manner.

  “Put the hammer down. Step away from the hammer.” Frank grabbed the head of the hammer just as a member of team #2 on the tower was about to give the now mangled light casing another whack to free it from its mounting. The guy holding the other end looked at Frank in surprise. Frank took the hammer and replaced it with a ½ inch ratchet.

  “The next guy hits a light with a hammer is spending the night outside. You! You’re in charge up there,” Jackie boomed from below. “Do what he tells you. What’s your name?”

  “Frank, from Portland.”

  “Okay then, Frank from Portland, make sure those lights get down here undamaged. I don’t see any replacements lying about. Do you?”

  “Aye, Captain,” Frank saluted.

  “I didn’t hit the light. It was the bracket holding it.” The hammer wielder defended himself in a polished voice.

  “What did you do before the infection?” Jackie asked.

  “I was Vice President of Advertising at Hertzog, Francis,” he replied proudly.

  “And you?” Jackie pointed at the long haired greasy kid beside him. “What did you do?”

  “Me?” The greasy kid tried to shrink away unnoticed. “I delivered Pizza and Chinese food.”

  “We need both of you down here,” Jackie diplomatically relieved them of their duties.

  “Get up there and make sure nothing else gets broken,” Jackie said to Sven. Sven ascended the tower to replace those two. Frank had pretty much taken care of business by the time Sven arrived topside.

  The teams, led by Frank and now Sven, mounted the new lights on top of the control tower, five stories from the ground, next to the other flood lights mounted there. Additionally, the guardhouse was the home of two powerful search lights that gave a directed beam of light and were housed on rolling carts that swiveled. These were tied securely and lowered down from the guard tower with ropes to avoid going inside in case any infected were hiding inside, waiting for full darkness.

  All of these lights were re-mounted and the search lights installed on the catwalk encircling the top of the tower, shortly after noon.

  “Hey, there’s people inside the guardhouse,” Frank called to Sven.

  “You mean like infected?” Sven said.

  “No, they look alive to me.”

  CHAPTER 19: October 16, 1 p.m.

  “For I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory. "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Jeb read a passage from the Bible as his remaining sons, Mack and Tiny, stood by stoically.

  A pit was dug with the backhoe in the far corner of the fence, on the ocean side, as far from the buildings as possible. Two smaller holes, off to the side, were dug for Eve’s parents and for Zeb’s sons Bubba and Jeb Jr,, who had died in the fighting the evening before. They discovered that there were surprisingly few bodies to collect and inter, when they sent around a flatbed trailer dragged by a pickup. Only the handful of dead that had been shot in the head did not reanimate.

  Eve wept bitterly as her parents were buried, flanked on either side by Candy and Brit. Dennis and all the remaining survivors were there to show respect. The guards they found in the guardhouse did not make an appearance.

  Jackie shook his head sadly, “Seems like a futile endeavor. We’ll
be killing them again tonight.”

  “Do you think that these things are the immortality Jeb read about?” Sven spoke quietly. Sven had felt electric as he listened to the words Jeb read. He felt that God was giving him understanding, but he wanted to test the waters first by playing dumb.

  “No. Those things are dead. They’re decaying and rotting,” Jackie said.

  “Those guards we found in the guardhouse didn’t show,” Sven said. “Do you think we’re going to have problems with them later?”

  “Later, more likely than not,” Jackie said. “Right now, we’re all just surviving. They may not make it through another night of the infected. We’ll deal with them later.”

  “Dennis seemed pretty happy to see them,” Sven said.

  “Brit, too.”

  Sven walked over to Jeb, Mack and Tiny and shook each of their hands in turn. “They’re in a better place,” Sven said. Jackie followed behind. Behind them formed a cue of the survivors to offer their condolences.

  “Ain’t that the truth.” Jeb had tears in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry for your loss. Nobody meant for that… to happen to your parents,” Sven approached Eve, who was flanked by Brit and Candy. Candy looked at him encouragingly, while Brit maintained a poker face at his approach.

  “I know,” she said. “Stuff…just happened.”

  To Sven’s surprise, Eve threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.

  CHAPTER 20: October 16, 2 p.m.

  Everyone brought something to share, and for the first time all the survivors as a group shared a meal. Most brought canned goods, since they were non-perishable. Frank from Portland generously killed five of his chickens and roasted them up. Nothing went to waste. When the guards heard the commotion, they came out of the guardhouse, and lined up with everyone else to get a plate. Eve was sure she was not the only one to notice they didn’t bring anything to share, even though they stacked their plates high and returned for seconds without asking.