by mike Evans
Aslin said, “You know that’s probably true and if you’d like to spend your time here debating your case to Clary, you can be my guest. If you want to go contribute to something maybe you should come with us.”
She thought about what happened to those not contributing and was pretty sure that she was safe but said, “No, that’s fine, I’ll go with. Besides, it isn’t like we’re going to be using long guns for a while. If I see anything I'm spraying it.”
Greg cleared his throat and she said, “Sorry, just kidding. Well placed shots are all that you will see from Hammond and I.”
Aslin and the five of them climbed into two different vehicles. Greg took a gunner spot like they’d always practiced, McQuaig took the wheel of the Humvee the two would be riding in and Shaun and Hammond both filed into the cargo truck that Aslin was driving. Shaun looked at the open back of it and said, “Christ, man, how much crap are we getting?”
“It’s going to be as good as gold soon, Fox. I’m not paranoid…well, okay, never mind that but I’m not stupid or trusting either. We have the generators keeping us going, but the last thing I want is for when they go to shit that we’re just sitting here in the dark by candlelight. Between the Turned and the others that we don’t know anything about yet, I’m not going to leave the million places outside that would be great shadows for zombies or intruders to hide in. Last thing I’m shooting for is someone walking past and slicing my neck open because I couldn’t see them. Nice, bright lights invading those hiding spots is exactly what I want. Takes a lot of balls to invade somewhere, now mix that with unfavorable conditions and you have me sleeping just a little better at night.”
Shaun said, “So you are going to clean this place out, is that what you are saying?”
“The place has everything a prepper could ever want; fence for the new farm animals we will acquire, tillers for our future farms, and the seeds we need to plant to grow them, and they have solar power kits there.”
Shaun was nodding, thinking about it and couldn’t help but say, “But we aren’t making this forever, what I mean is we do have interests in making it outside of Iowa at some point to help others, right?”
“Let's make it through the summer alive, Shaun,” Aslin said. “You are so worried about finding others sometimes, kid, that you forget that the ones here aren’t really ready to deal with this. You could go find thousands but if you are going to be premature about it bringing them back too early then you aren’t using the greatest formula.”
“But if we wait too long then-”
Hammond coughed, squeezing uncomfortably into the conversation. He smiled uneasily and said, “You know what, I think that McQuaig could use another spotter in their car. I’m just going to go ride with them. I feel like I’m with my parents…and they’re fighting. That isn’t one of the things that I miss from pre-zombie and orphanage days.”
He pushed the door open and when he left the two of them actually laughed. Shaun said, “I get what you’re saying. It will be interesting to see what other people say once we try the blood bag trick.”
Aslin said, “Right, but we get this shit first today. We also need to go put some time into checking out the other camp. It seems they’re pretty oblivious to us being out here if we hadn’t heard from them in almost a year. I’m pretty sure though that your machine gun and clothing is more than enough for any idiot to know where you were staying. If they radioed home they know where to start looking. I can only imagine they weren’t too happy about what happened to their group.”
“Well, if they wouldn’t have messed with my business there’d never have been any issues. Let’s go get your swag while we have time for it. If we wait too much longer it’s going to be dark by the time we get back, and then we have an entirely new thing to have to deal with.”
Aslin turned the truck over and they pulled out letting McQuaig go first. Aslin said, “Does she know where she is going?”
Shaun nodded, “Yeah, they’re from around here, so they know where they’re going, no worries.”
*****
Hammond sat nervously in the Humvee. “You guys think we will see anything?”
Greg watched intently, ready to throw open the door to the gun mounted on top. “How the hell would I know, Hammond? Maybe, sure, no? I have no idea. Considering most of the population has turned into one of those things, I’d say yes, overall there's a pretty strong chance. I mean, considering we’ve focused on one street in all of Iowa to take out the Turned, and probably ninety percent of those kills were Fox, yes there’s a great chance we’re going to find some dead roaming and happy to kill us.”
Hammond looked to McQuaig asking, “He’s just screwing with me, right?”
“I would say yes, but what he’s saying kind of makes sense. Does it make me any more comfortable going out? Hell no. Now keep your eyes out, they can be anywhere. We get spoiled having the fence surrounding us at all times.”
When they got within a few hundred yards of the store the dead were standing there looking almost lethargic. McQuaig was leading the two and held a fist out of her window to stop. Greg opened the hatch to take the machine gun spot. Aslin was already yelling not to shoot before Greg had the opportunity to take aim. He looked around seeing Shaun and Aslin walking with the silenced high-powered rifles. Aslin said, “Let Shaun and I get some practice with these. I want to see what they can do with a little room to stretch their legs.”
Greg knowing they did asked, “Can they shoot that far? I mean...I know you are getting kinda old, Aslin, can you see that far?”
“Greg, have I ever told you about my kids?”
“I thought you didn’t have kids, Aslin.”
“You know I don’t, Greg, but if I did have a little one, a child that was the apple of my eye, if I had that one request, then I’d like them to be absolutely nothing like you.”
Aslin set down the rifle on the Humvee’s hood extending the bipod. He took a moment to aim before what sounded like a cap gun went off. Greg was just on the verge of saying something smart when one of the closest Turned’s head exploded on the side and it’s brains hit the dead standing next to it. The Turned came out of their daze and began peering around. They knew something was wrong but were unsure where it was coming from. Aslin picked off one after another until the parking lot was cleared. When he was halfway through the dead Shaun noticed that they were done looking around. One of the Turned screamed louder than the rest and they ran off in a pack into the meadow surrounding it and out of sight.
Shaun said, “I’m sorry, but did you guys see that?”
“Yeah, I sure as hell did, Shaun,” Greg said. “Aslin just handed them a big ol’ can of whoop ass. I think I love that suppressor. He needs to get those for machine guns, if he can keep them from melting onto the barrel. You think he can do that, Aslin?”
“Focus, Greg, Aslin, Hammond, McQuaig, am I crazy or did I just see one tell the rest of them to leave?” Shaun said.
McQuaig said, “Yeah, one of them seems like they were in charge. They yelled, the rest followed and they understood. That’s about the scariest damn thing I’ve ever seen, and we’ve seen a lot. It isn’t bad enough that they can heal, that they’re faster than us and never get winded, super human, but now we know they think and understand.”
Shaun looked through his scope scanning the field. “I say we get in and out and if we run into any more of the Turned that we hit them with absolutely everything we’ve got.”
Aslin nodded thinking of the implications that an alpha could bring. Aslin said, “I don’t know if that is a good or a bad thing having one of them in control in a group. I mean what happens if we kill the damn thing then what do the others do? Are they like a buffalo where you kill the leader and the rest sit there like fish in a barrel or does someone else step up and take its place?”
“Well, I say if we get the chance to take him out then maybe we ought to and find out what their chain of command is.” Shaun said. “I know if each one of the
m has their own leader I'll happily split their head with a round. I know we can’t be that lucky to be able to take out one and have the rest of them just stupid and stand there while we kill them.”
Greg said, “Yeah, we aren’t that lucky. We never are. Should we get going before it gets too much later? I got a feeling we’re going to spend some time getting stuff. They have those big ass doors though in back that we can drive the truck through if we can even get in the place.”
Aslin said, “The front door of that place is glass so we’re going to get in.”
Hammond couldn’t keep his mouth shut, “So you want the place that has all the supplies in the world to be open for the dead to come in and out of as they please? That sounds like a great idea.”
Aslin was nodding before he’d picked up on the teen’s sarcasm. When he did, he decided they’d wasted enough time already with talking and needed to get going. “Come on and load up, and let’s get down there. Who knows how long those things are going to be gone. Per smart ass there I think we should try all doors on the store before we go breaking shit open. He has a valid point that once we clean this place it isn’t going to break my heart if we don’t have to waste time or stress on my heart doing it repeatedly.”
They drove slowly down the hill towards the empty parking lot below. When they looked to the highway that wrapped around it in the distance there was no shortage of cars, most had car doors ripped from their hinges or holes large enough to pull a person out of. They drove to the front trying to push the sliding glass door open. Aslin used a crowbar to try and open it but even that was not enough. He said, “It’s either locked or the energy isn’t making it out here anymore. With no one to work at the energy office and a hard ass winter there’s a very good chance that the power is out. I didn’t see any stop lights when we went after Shaun and Greg that were still working.”
They took a step back looking at the giant warehouse filled with what they desperately needed. Each of them were thinking how much creepier the massive building had just became. The shadows inside that could hide the dead were not inviting. They went to the rear of the building seeing that there were cars but these did not appear to be employees, the doors had been left open giving the appearance that a chase had more than likely ensued and these people had been running for their lives. Aslin pulled at the rear door and it did not budge. When he hit the button on the side of one of the many bays it started to go up an inch using the last shot of juice that it had in it and stopped after a foot. Aslin waited a second realizing it wasn’t going to go up any further and said, “Okay, who’s skinny enough to squeeze through there, and who has a potential death wish?”
The teens all looked to Shaun who shrugged. “No worries, the doors like a foot away, if there’s that many in there those things are going to bust through it like a bat out of hell and tear you apart also.”
He handed McQuaig the silenced rifle. “I’m getting this back.” He took the pack off and hit the flashlight on his AR-15, first looking under scanning the light back and forth and then when he deemed it momentarily safe he wiggled under it, disappearing. Hammond asked, “Fox, what do you see?”
He didn’t answer. Shaun moved the flashlight back and forth scanning the floor but there was no threat. Shaun assessed the door he’d just gone under and read the few directions on the side of it saying how to operate it in case of power outages. He pulled the large chains and the door squeaked loudly as it began to go up. Shaun winced knowing the implications of it but knew that they were going to have to get the truck in regardless if they wanted to get any of their treasures back to the base.
He stopped halfway up with the door and was glad that it was a sunny day out. The sun from the skylights was making it much easier to see. The store was going in and out of light as clouds teased at the visibility. When the rest of the group entered they scanned the area quickly deeming it temporarily safe. They made a circle around the floor seeing it looked safe. Shaun said, “Should we split up and make sure we aren’t just circling the dead, or god knows what else?”
Aslin nodded and Shaun, Hammond, and McQuaig went off to the left and Greg followed close behind Aslin, both had rifles up and at the ready. Aslin looked at his sights trying to see better and sighed pulling out his pistol to look down the red dot sights feeling more secure about being able to hit anything that he needed to in the dark.
Greg saw it first and hoped that they were empty of the dead or had healthy survivors. “Hey, Aslin, look…there are tents up there.”
Aslin looked up to the top seeing that a makeshift tree house had been constructed out of pallets acting as a railing to the floor twenty plus feet below. “You think anyone is alive up there, Aslin?”
Aslin shrugged and hit the test button on a lift seeing that it still had juice in it. He brought down the basket that was used to take employees up and down to reach high items. When they made it they could hear a growling sound. Aslin sighed thinking that being twenty feet up in the air was the exact place that he wanted to be. When he put a little more thought into it he hit his radio and yelled to Shaun’s trio to book ass over to them. He waited before going up the rest of the way and when they made it around the bend saw what they were looking for. Shaun hit his throat mic, asking, “So, did you guys yell up there before you took yourself up twenty feet in the freaking air?”
Greg shook his head no pointing towards Aslin who gave the finger back directly. Aslin said, “I didn’t think yelling in a place that we weren’t done clearing was a great idea.”
“Probably a lot quieter than if you have to shoot one of the Turned that are sitting in the tent comatose, huh?” Shaun said.
Aslin whispered to himself that this was exactly why I don’t have them, don’t need them, and sure as hell don’t want kids. He shone his flashlight back and forth on the tent not seeing anything come from it. A constant screaming growl not like one they’d heard before continued to come from inside. Greg said, “You want to hit it on a count, or what?”
Aslin got close thinking about it and climbed off hitting the emergency release on the lift to send Greg back down before he knew what had happened. “What the hell are you doing, Aslin?”
Aslin put up a finger knowing that taking a kid with him was irresponsible regardless of what he knew how to do. Aslin with a gun in one hand and machete in the other gripped the blade hard slicing it through the tent. It of course did not go as he wanted it to and got stuck on a rod halfway down. Aslin held his breath as he took a second swing at it. When he pulled it back the rest of the way he realized that he had only thought that he had seen the worst of the dead and the things that they were capable of. He thought about what he was seeing and wanted to kill every last one of them regardless of how long it took to complete the act.
A baby that was Turned, lay in a small basket kicking wildly with chubby legs that ended at its knees. He had to back out and catch his breath. The stink from the rotting flesh and soiled diapers that had been stewing for what he could only assume had been months was unbearable. When he was sure that he was not going to puke he pulled the slit tent to the side staring in. He pulled out his knife and entered the tent saying a small prayer to God as he did that he would be forgiven for this one. When Aslin came back down Greg saw his face and could only remember one time he’d ever seen an adult look like that and it was when one of his dad's deputies had not finished a shift alive. Greg said, “What was it?”
“They need to die,” Aslin said. “I mean it…all of them need to fucking die. People shouldn’t have to see shit like that, it isn’t fucking right. We get this shit back to the base, figure out the others in that group and from there I want to spend as much time behind this rifle as possible. The more of those fuckers we put down the better we all will be.”
Greg said, “So, what you are saying is you aren’t going to tell us what you saw?”
Aslin looked at him void of color in his face. “You’re welcome for that. You don’t want to know what I saw.
But I assure you that I can’t handle seeing too many more of those visuals.”
“Let’s finish going through this place so we can get back. It seems like we’re going to be doing some good, finally,” McQuaig said.
“We have been keeping people safe, so we’re doing good,” Aslin said. “It’s just not as easy to keep track of as it is when you are taking out the Turned.”
Greg looked over at Shaun and saw a mixture of emotions running across his young face. He could tell that he was curious what was in that tent and the idea there were dead and that he was going to get to go after them was something he’d been secretly craving. Greg whispered, “Looks like we’re finally going to start making a dent in those things. You think you’re going to be up for it?”
Shaun shook his head no. He already knew that Greg didn’t need to have that answer but nodded ever so lightly. He said, “I hope that we can get more of these silencers attached to the rifles. If we can go in like ghosts they don’t stand a chance. I’ll sit at two hundred yards all day long and they’ll never see me coming.”
“Don’t you mean us, Shaun?”
“Yeah, you know what I mean, Greg. Just a little excited that we might be able to take things back again. It has been a long year waiting to get some serious time out there. Other than the day of your little white lie we haven’t had a hell of a lot of trigger time where the target was something that wasn’t going to get back up again.”
Aslin motioned to Greg and the two disappeared around a row. Hammond and McQuaig were waiting for Shaun. He nodded and they started making their way through the aisles. When they were halfway through their portion of the store they found a lift with a platform but no gates for keeping it enclosed. Shaun said, “Who wants to go up?”
Hammond and McQuaig were both shaking their heads. “That crap up there is probably heavy. One of you is going up there with me, the other gets to sit down here and be first meal if any of the Turned show up.”
