After Genocide: The Dead Live Again

by Rodriguez, Jose

  “So what is your friends’ name?” Pam lets out a question.

  “Joe Walle, but he prefers to be called “Six.”

  “Six? As in the number six?”

  “Indeed.” I nod.

  “That is like a weird nickname,” she says. “Yeah, according to him he get that name with a reputation while training in the Marines,” I reply.

  “Like what that he could do everything by six or something,” she jokes and we share a small laugh. At least she is concentrating on the now.

  I continue driving and Pam lets out another question, “You two know each other pretty well?”

  “Yeah, we have been best friends since fifth grade,” I reply.

  We enter the driveway of the neighborhood where Six lived, there is a Red Hummer H-1 there park so I could figure out that we have some company. I park the car beside the hummer.

  “Either your friend is rich or somebody beat us here?” I look towards her, “It’s probably a friend; Six usually preferred a Mitsubishi Eclipse.”

  I look at Pam, “Check the glove compartment,” I say—she begins to fiddle with the handle and opens it—“we need to know how many shotgun shells are available,” I say.

  She opened the glove compartment, grabs the remaining shells, closed the compartment and handed me the shells. “And I have two, four, six, eight, ten, and twelve: twelve shotgun shells,” I counted.

  Reaching into my pocket, I grab the revolver bullets and give them to Pam, she gives a puzzled look, and replies “Well thank you, if I is out of ammunition this revolver would be useless,” she says. I smile at this thinking she is referencing a joke, “What is so funny?” questioned Pam seriously.

  “Nothing,” my smile fades.

  Then there is a sudden glass shatter, the front window of the car had been smashed, Pam and I look and one of the creatures jumps on the hood and tried to smash the glass more. I quickly reach for my shotgun, but by the time I tried to aim at the creature there is multiple gunshots. Pam and I watched the monster’s head splatter on the cracked windshield.

  “Look,” Pam’s voice echoes and pointed at the porch of the house, standing there is Six, holding an AK-47.

  “Hurry, hurry guys get inside!” he yelled.

  Pamela grabs the revolver, and I grab the shotgun and we make our way. I look around aiming the shotgun, making sure the area is secure, I whistle and Blade came out of the car. Pamela and I run inside and the dog follows.

  “Stay,” I order, and Blade obeys.

  As Pam and I enter the house we see another figure in a room to the right, dressed in a mechanic outfit with the Ford emblem on it and his name as well. He is taller than me, short hair, a grizzly beard and a mustache the common outlaw would have is visible as well. It is my younger brother Max, he is shaking in fear, partially sweating and had no control over his hands. He is holding a shotgun and it looks like he is muttering words as well.

  “Max, what’s wrong?” I ask, “I, I, I, killed it,” he replies.

  “Killed what?” I look around.

  “Look,” says Pam while pointing at a baby carriage.

  “I killed a baby,” says Max.

  “There is nothing else you could’ve done,” I comfort.

  Pam looks at me, “Boy you sure know how to handle these things. Go and talk with your friend, I’ll stay with your brother,” she says. It is a trailer house with a brown interior and teal exterior. Somewhat crowded with furniture and pictures of when Six and his siblings were younger. As I walk I notice the refrigerator with a particular photo, sophomore year birthday party for him the chocolate cake with chocolate and chocolate syrup filled Easter eggs. The whole gang close up together for a big photo, that day is fun. As I walk towards Six, he looks at me.

  “Hey,” he greets.

  “I ran into Juan Garza, he said that the military had a serum,” I say. “Unfortunately, his little story doesn’t answer all the strange things.”

  “Okay, let me explain what I know. Yes there is a serum, but it is to help the human race not destroy it,” argued Six. His voice tense with shame yet fear at the same time, not afraid of me but something else.

  “It is supposed to help the human race get stronger, build a strong immune system, maybe even cure cancer. It is so perfect, too perfect to be true, but something went wrong, terribly wrong. Instead of helping the body in perfection it began to mess with the body by destroying the live cells and altering the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) in the body.”

  “The project is called Super Immune (SI), but after the incident and how quickly it spread we called it Virus Genocide (VG). I left the military shortly after the incident, my sister, my brothers and mother are here, so I came to get them to safety, instead I found Max here,” he says. Six sat down on the brown sofa and take a deep breath. Now he look as if he’d seen a ghost. His hair messed up to each side as if he slept wrong, his brown muscle shirt exposing the tattoos he get in the Marines. His cargo camouflage pants filled with some blood and dirt. Hands on his AK-47 he looks up at me.

  “I don’t know where they are.”

  A noise startles me and it is Pam coming from the room, I look at Pam and she gives me a sign to talk to Six. I roll my eyes and relax the tension on my spine. My shotgun still in hand and I place it on the floor calmly. I walk towards Six,

  “Look buddy, your family is smart. I’m pretty sure they are alive somewhere.”

  “Max shot my mom,” he says.

  “Okay,”—I nod. “I’m sure the rest I’m sure the rest are faring well.”

  Pam looks out the window, “Hey, the fog has grown a little thicker,” she says.

  I turned to her and nodded.

  “What are we going to do now?” asks Max.

  “I don’t know exactly,” I reply.

  “C’mon guys, I mean, there has to be more survivors besides us. “We could go to certain places that people could think about as refuge and check them out” Pam suggested.

  “Like the Plaza Mall in McAllen, and the Wal-Mart in Weslaco?” I ask.

  “Oh that’s right remember the transmission earlier,” Pam points out.

  “We’ve seen what happens when you get bitten by those things at least I have. You transform into one of them,” say Six.

  “You were in the military from what I heard?” asks Pam.

  “Yeah, I is a United States Marine,” replies Six.

  “What about you Joe?” she asks.

  As if all the blood drained from me, where I have worked, do I even remember? I’m still recovering from my amnesia.

  “Me, I can’t seem to recall only that I have experience with weapons and combat,” I reply.

  “What about you Max?” she asks.

  “Oh, I am a mechanic who worked at Weslaco Ford until this mess happened, and I is a car painter,” replies Max.

  “What about you?” I ask. “Well like I mentioned earlier, I is coming back from upstate, I went to the University of Texas and I had barely finished, get my major in coaching. I is coming back to see my family and my boyfriend,” she replies.

  “So, do these monsters have some kind of name?” I ask.

  “Well the Marines had code names for them, SH (Super Human), but I call them Zombies,” he replies.

  “Zombies?”

  “Catchy. Didn’t want to call the walking dead or something else,” I reply with a smile.

  “So what do we do now?” asks Max.

  “We should do what Pam suggested. We could search for other survivors and aide them. It’s the right thing. We have a mechanic, Marine, amnesiac and a coach; the perfect combination” I reply.

  “We should go check on Moe and see what happened to him,” suggests Six.

  “Good idea, another muscle in the team helps,” I agree.

  “Okay, so we’re going to check up on Moe? Well let’s get to it guys,” ordered Pam.

  “All right team you heard the coach, it’s game time,” I reply and grab my shotgun again.

  W
e board the H-1 and Blade boards as well. We drive out of the place and into the main highway. The fog now thicker than it is earlier. The H-1 has a nice gray touch to it on the inside, I didn’t want to leave the car behind but an H-1 has more space.

  “Do you think Moe is all right?” I ask. I am driving, Pam is passenger, Max and Six are in the back with Blade.

  “I really don’t know,” replies Six. I drive faster, increasing the speed on the Hummer, make a turn on the light of the 107 highway, drive for about half a mile then turned leave. I continued driving then made a right turn on Garza Street and park into the driveway of a pink house.

  “We’re here.” The gang is tenacious to exit but I warn them, “Okay now everybody, be careful, this isn’t a game.”

  “Right,” they agreed.

  Ch.3: A Destroyed Family

  Slowly we open the doors and begin to get off the Hummer. Pam holding the revolver, me the shotgun, Six his AK-47, and Max his shotgun.

  “Load your weapons if you haven’t,” I ordered, “and keep your eyes open for those zombies, with this fog thickening every minute or so, it will make it harder for us to travel or to spot them,” I say.

  “Yeah but lucky for us we have the dog. By the way, what is his name?” asks Max.

  “Blade. Now keep your eyes open and make less noise, unless you want to end up zombie food,” I warn. We walk through the yard finding no signs of life whatsoever, not even a dog barking.

  We get closer to the front door, the pink colored house almost giving us a warning sign, the door made out of hard wood and with a little window at the center.

  “Six, you open the door,” I whispered.

  “Got it,” he replies with a whisper, and he gently begins to twist the door knob hoping it wouldn’t squeak or make any noise. There is a click, and Six had managed to make a small peek, and then, he gently pushed the door open revealing the inside of the house.

  A large sofa, family pictures hanging on the wall, four doors, to the right is the living room, then the kitchen. The light is off, and it is barely visible. Six clicked a switch, this bringing the lights of the house to a charge and the house is now clear to see.

  “It looks like nobody is home,” whispered Six.

  “Max, follow behind Six; Pam you stay with me. I can hear panting, I look back and Blade is standing while wagging his tail, “You stay,” I ordered. Blade whimpers and sits down obeying.

  We walk around each of us covering somebody, we glance quickly at the living room but nothing. We continue walking, searching for any signs of life from the Saenz family and Six begins to search the rooms. He grabs a doorknob with his hand, twists it slowly then push the door open and quickly aims his weapon with his finger on the trigger ready to open fire.

  The room appears to be empty, “Let’s try the next one,” suggests Six. We walk to the next door, Six opens it slowly, and then aims his weapon but what he finds is not a bedroom.

  Apparently the door he opened led to a storage garage of some sort, full of weapons and useable items. Six lowers his weapon, “Wow,” he says and he clicked a switch and the lights came on.

  “C’mon guys let’s not get distracted, we came for Moe,” says Max.

  “Yeah I’m with Max,” agreed Pam.

  Six leads the way to Moe’s room and he opens the door, he is in shock now, frozen where he stands as if his whole body had suddenly been dipped in ice water.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  “What the fuck!” Six yelled. His voice attracted the unwanted attention of what appeared to be Moe’s mom eating one of her sons. We didn’t know if it is Moe or one of his younger brothers who became this monster’s chow.

  “I’m sorry, am I interrupting breakfast?” joked Six with anger, the zombie look at him and growled. Six cocked his AK-47, and pulled the trigger with no remorse and fires multiple shots into the zombie. It appears the father is also infected, and he is in the house, odd how we didn’t spot him or how he didn’t attack us earlier. Well he made an appearance after the gunshots. The father zombie jumps out of nowhere and attacked Pam. He grabs her and throws her against the wall hard, then to the ground.

  I grab my shotgun and hit him in the face with the stock. The zombie bounced back before attacking Pam and turned his attention at me instead. I try to shoot him but he grabs my shotgun and tries to pull it, but I fight back. He snarls at me, Pam still on the floor reaching for her revolver, aims at the zombie and fires once. The zombie flew back, she missed the head, but shot him in the spine. He relinquished the shotgun and I pick it up again. Pam fires again, Max aims his shotgun at the father and fires. He made a direct hit to the head.

  I take a deep breath and pick up my shotgun, Pam is trying to get up, and I walk towards her, “Need a hand,” I say reaching a hand to her. She smiles, takes my hand and I help her to her feet.

  “Thanks,” I say. “

  “For?” Her face, puzzled.

  “If it weren’t for you I’d probably be dead,” I say.

  “No need to thank me now,” she reply.

  I smile, “So you’re using my knowledge to your advantage?” I ask.

  “Well you say it yourself,” she replies, and I chuckle.

  “Okay, I guess that settles the monsters,” I say.

  “Wait, we’re missing people here,” noted Six. “Moe and Aaron, that's who we're missing."

  The one the mother was eating is Bruno,” says Max. Now that was over, we remember the weapons in storage there is a feeling that they were preparing for this but how could they know?

  “Okay, grab what you can,” says Six. I quickly close the door behind me and took a look around. Nothing really caught my attention except for the Barnet Jackal Crossbow calling my name.

  “Come to daddy,” I say as I reach for the weapon. Stealth and deadly to the trained marksman but also cool looking. Besides, Max owned the shotgun and I wouldn’t mind an extra weapon.

  I place my shotgun in a box that is in a corner, and grab a Desert Eagle handgun and a silencer next to it. I grab five clips, load one into the pistol and pull back to cock it: Pamela grabs another Magnum Revolver and ammunition: as for Max, he went shotgun happy and grabs another shotgun and some shells, Six picks up another automatic and kissed it, “Come to papa” he says and he loads himself with ammunition as well.

  “All right, is everyone ready to go?” asks Six.

  “Yeah,” we reply.

  “Okay, then let’s get the heck out of here.”

  We leave the house in a group as quickly as possible, fully loaded and covering each other. Quickly, everybody enters the H-1 including Blade. I get in the driver seat, Pam the passenger, Max, Six and Blade went in the back. I started the ignition and put the gear on reverse and sped off. I drive to the stop sign then take a right on mile 16 and head east. There is a Wal-Mart in Elsa, we should garnish supplies there.

  Along the way we spot something eating about a quarter of a mile away beside the road, we couldn’t identify it with the dense fog; but as we get closer we found out that it is a zombie eating human flesh.

  “What the heck is all this?” asks Pam after gazing at the scene.

  “Some people who believe in the bible say it’s the apocalypse that this world brought to itself,” I reply.

  “How did we bring this to ourselves?” she asks.

  “Basically, we don’t follow the rules of the bible. So in a way, we are punished in some sense, but of course you have to believe in that. People blame God for the bad and thank him for the good, but how can somebody do that?” I reply and continue to drive.

  “So are we going shopping?” asks Max.

  “Of course we are, Wal-Mart is about a two minute drive from here,” I reply.

  “What? Here in Elsa? Why not Weslaco and can’t we wait till the fog clears up?” Pam asks in concern.

  “Look you said it yourself that you wanted to check for survivors, well here is our chance. Weslaco will get its chance, I decide we stay closer to home
for the moment. We take it one city at a time,” I reply.

  “I meant away from danger,” say Pam.

  I enter the parking lot and drive around closer to the store’s ’exit’ door, then I park about five feet away from it.

  “Look, everywhere we go there will be danger, fog or no fog. Rain or no rain, we can’t cower out when it comes to that,” I say and Pam nodded.

  “Okay load your weapons and keep your eyes open for anything,” I say. We get off the Hummer and look around. Damp weather because of the fog Blade jumps off the hummer and sniffs around.

  “That door is locked but I think we may be able to pick it,” says Six.

  “Well examine them closely and do what you can,” I say.

  Blade began to bark, “Now what?” I ask, there is snarling and growling.

  “Where is it coming from?” asks Pam.

  The fog is thick and only that and the door is visible for the moment. The sounds begin to get closer and Blade begins to snarl. I knock an arrow and aim my crossbow, “Six get the doors, everybody else, group up,” I ordered. Max covers the left and Pam the right while I remain in the center and Six shoots at the door knob and pulls the door open.

  “Get in guys,” he says. Pam, Max, Blade and I follow as instructed; we go inside and Six follows from behind and locks the door.

  “Well they shouldn’t get through that,” he says.

  But apparently the loud slam of the doors attracted some unwanted attraction; there is snarling the lights were on and we could all hear footsteps. We hold our weapons tight and aim high; me my crossbow, Pam her handguns, Six his AK-47, Max one of his shotguns and Blade just growled.

  “Which way are they coming from?” asks Pam.

  “I don’t know but get ready to shoot,” I say, crossbow steady in hand. We step out from the hidden area and out into the open of the store and there they are.

  The creatures came in a surrounding formation, growling ferociously; “Steady; aim; and fire,” I ordered.

  A full blast attack of unloading our weapons in an instant, the monsters fell in instances like flies to a frog; shotgun shells, pistol bullets, machine gun bullets and arrows fly through the Wal-Mart. We relax and began to reload our weapons, but there is more snarling.