by mike Evans
“Let’s start the day off right, Fox, let me get my first cup of coffee poured then we talk.”
Shaun waited impatiently and after what seemed like an hour Aslin finally put a steaming hot cup of coffee in front of him and took in its sweet aroma. Aslin motioned for him to talk and Shaun felt like he’d been holding his breath. He said, “I don’t know what time you wanted to leave but I already spoke to McQuaig; she was out on duty doing patrol. I told her what we were planning and she didn’t have any hesitations. Are you sure you wouldn’t want to take a few more people? It might be safer if we do. I still watch that fence line for someone looking to bring retribution against us.”
Aslin waved him off. He said, “I think we are safe. If anyone wanted to do anything they’d have done it by now. You want to wait till this afternoon to go out?”
“Hell no, I don’t! I want to spend every single minute we can bagging those things. If we get started early we could work out in a couple of different spots. Just about the time they start acting like they know what we are doing, we move. I think it would be the best way to go about it. I mean, unless you have any better ideas?”
Aslin said, “You make sure the trucks are topped off with gas and ammunition for machine guns as well as long rifles and we’re good to go. You might want to grab some shit from the kitchen and make sure that we aren’t going to starve out there as well.”
Shaun said, “What do you think that you are going to be doing until then?”
“Oh me, Shaun, I am going to be sipping on this delicious Folger’s coffee until you are ready to go. If you want to ask why then let me refresh your memory…what happens when I don’t get my coffee?”
Shaun sat there seeming to debate about it for a minute and finally gave him a thumbs up before turning around and walking back out. Shaun took the Humvee that Aslin had driven to get his brew going and headed for the armory and the gas reserves. He filled it with enough ammunition that he could survive the rest of the dead war if need be. He looked over seeing Ellie pulling up her pant leg exposing legs still very much white from the winter with her thumb out. He pulled alongside and said, “Geez, I don’t know if I ought to pick you up. You kind of look like trouble.”
Ellie climbed in giving him a kiss and said, “You ought to know by now that I most definitely am trouble. You weren’t there when I woke up this morning, what did you have to do?”
“I wanted to get out and stretch my legs. You were still out for the count and I didn’t have the heart to wake you. Besides, we have all night to hang out. I checked the schedule this morning and neither of us have guard duty tonight. We could do whatever we want.”
Ellie ran a hand up his thigh just to the point she knew he would be close to swerving the truck and said, “Well, whatever will we do, Mr. Fox?”
Shaun smiled nervously feeling the flush in his face for a second time. He said, “Yeah, pretty sure that I should have let you stay on the side of the road. You, my dear, are nothing but trouble.”
“Isn’t that what all the boys want, Shaun, a troublemaker kind of girl?”
Shaun said, “I know I’m not complaining, and you are all that I want, screw what other boys want, it is you and me.”
Ellie said, “You got me for as long as we can stay ticking, Shaun.”
He rubbed his hand through her hair. “You aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon, Ellie.”
Shaun drove back by the armory seeing Greg and Clary doing maneuvers with the tanks. Ellie laughed, “You know, Shaun, it is actually sad that he is better at driving a tank than a car. If the world ever gets back to normal he might be the only one still driving one of those.”
“Just think how much more effective we’re going to be having two people driving around in a tank. I’m going to drop you off here, Ellie. I will see you a little bit later, okay?”
She pulled him in giving him a long wet kiss. She said, “Now, you don’t let anything happen to you, Mr. Fox. Shaun, I am seriously not kidding. I want you to be as safe as you can out there. With all those dead things out there, and Aslin and McQuaig, make sure they cover your back.”
Shaun felt the chills running up his back and smiled. “You give me another kiss like that and we can skip the damn trip, good Lord you do bad things to me, Ellie.”
“Just gives you a good reason to come back, Shaun. I’ll see you later, be good out there, and get rid of as many of those things as you can. Maybe we’ll be able to live off the base one day.”
“That would be great…to just live.”
Ellie hopped out of the truck and ran back into the base. Joey was sitting outside watching the birds flying around. Shaun honked his horn once and Joey gave him a thumbs up as he drove away. Shaun pulled up to McQuaig at the armory and the two headed over to get Aslin.
McQuaig said, “So, how many do you think we’re going to get? Isn’t this exciting?”
“It is the future,” Shaun said. “If things rock today and we can keep this up then we will have something to look forward to. A new hope.”
McQuaig was like the others and was unsure if such a day would ever happen. Aslin was sitting outside waiting while drinking a steaming cup of coffee. When they pulled up he grabbed a bag of food and a thermos of what the two assumed was more coffee. McQuaig asked, “Do you think he knows that living off of coffee isn’t good for him?”
“I don’t think Aslin is worried about living a long life; I kind of think that he already feels like he has done better than most. With the rest of his time on earth he just wants to try and kill as many of those damn things as he can.”
Aslin climbed into the truck setting his high powered rifle and machine gun down on the back seat. He slammed the door shut and tapped on the roof. Shaun pulled out carefully doing his best to keep the truck steady. “You are getting pretty good at driving this thing, Fox. Before you know it you are going to actually be old enough to drive one of these things legally,” Aslin chuckled.
“I only need to make it another six months and I will be old enough. I got a feeling the lady at the license station isn’t holding down the fort any longer. You just sit back. We don’t want the elderly driving any more than we need them to.”
Aslin said, “You know comments like that will not get you seconds at dinner, Fox.”
Fox and McQuaig both laughed. “Did you hear that, McQuaig, my luck is getting better with every day that passes.”
They drove back to Johnston thinking if they worked their way through the smaller towns first that it would give them more leverage and room to spread out when they were moving into Des Moines. Shaun parked under a traffic light that was just barely flickering. One thing hit him as he watched McQuaig with the video camera. “How the hell are we going to get people to watch this?”
She lowered the camera not catching onto what he was implying. “What do you mean? We stick it on the web and then there will be a billion people ready to watch anything that has to do with how to kill these bastards.”
Shaun actually very much liked the idea of billions of people still alive. “What I mean, McQuaig, was there are flickering lights. One of the things we need to have to be able to watch the video is energy. We might be going through all this work for nothing.”
Aslin responded, “We are going to do it, Shaun. Even if there is only one state that still has electricity we still want them to know, don’t we? Besides, what is it going to hurt to make a video of it? It isn’t costing you anything but a little bit of time, right? So, why don’t you quit wasting it complaining and toss that first bag up over the pole?”
Shaun swung it in a circle for a moment before sending it soaring up over the pole. He tied it off so that when it made it to the top it would tighten on its own. Aslin handed him a second and third bag and by the time they were down the street there was a line for as long as they could see of blood bags swaying in the wind dripping slowly in the wind. When they could hear growling in the distance they drove with Aslin behind the wheel a few hundred yards
away off of the bloodied path and climbed up onto the roof of a Price Chopper Market.
Aslin groused, “Well, I guess now we wait for the Turned to come. What do you think we’re going to get for a turnout?”
Shaun didn’t say anything but McQuaig said, “Oh shit, we’re going to get like two hundred maybe two hundred and fifty. Hell, we might get a thousand.”
Shaun looked at the two of them and watched as the dead began to fill the street. He saw no alpha screaming to leave the blood alone. No, these dead were hungry, thirsty, and ready for something, anything they could get on their lips. Shaun didn’t say anything else as he tucked beneath his scope and began ridding the world of the dead. Aslin and McQuaig watched, smiling, seeing Shaun hitting dead on with skull shots. They both knew that it would be no use to worry about cleaning these up with machine guns. There was nothing but hope pouring out of them with each squeeze of the trigger. They spent the next four hours taking turns keeping the rifles firing one after another only taking breaks for their guns to cool off so that the barrels didn’t overheat. When the piles became too large they moved down staying behind the buildings and going to a new one along the two-mile stretch worth of strip malls. When the day was coming to an end Aslin was sold on the idea that they were on to something and that this was the answer. He set the gun down pulling out a reserve smoke that he only had a few of. He’d stopped, per the kid’s insistence that they would leave him behind if they were hacking up a lung while they were running from the dead.
He hit the transmit button, smiling. “Clary, you have to come and see this. Shaun’s idea was genius. This is a fucking game changer, brother. We had to have shot three or four hundred of those stinking bastards. This is the best-”
Shaun felt it before he realized why he had winced. He felt his face and brought back a hand lightly covered in blood. He looked to Aslin, horrified. A stream of blood was running down the front of his fatigues. Shaun looked down in front of him seeing that the tissue was skin, fatigue coat, and pieces of his heart. Shaun’s eyes started to well up with tears but Shaun fought them back. Aslin tried to smile but coughed on blood that spurted from his mouth. Shaun ran to him but he held up a hand telling him to stop. McQuaig started to say something when a second shot went off. McQuaig went down hard falling over the roof. Shaun gripped his rifle running for the edge of the roof, keeping low to the ground. Clary was screaming over the radio. It had been struck down as Aslin fell to the ground. Shaun jumped from the roof landing on top of the Hummer roof.
He threw his guns in wasting no time. He hit the start and floored it running over the curbs and when he had an open spot to turn it around he did. The Turned were looking for the source of the shots. The cover of silencers was now gone and the dead were more interested in the sounds than the blood. Shaun raced around the corner knowing that the shots were rifles and that they had been from a good distance back. When he drove to the nearest street he saw an old truck pulling out of a driveway. When he saw the man look back at the Humvee he knew instantly he had been the man that was responsible for the death of his friends.
Shaun drove straight for the truck. His truck’s passenger door was pointing towards Shaun’s front. Shaun turned the truck just enough so that he aimed directly for the back right wheel of the truck. He slammed into it with no slowing down. When he hit, the truck spun violently into a tree. When the man tried to get out of the truck Shaun was already holding a gun on him. Cade tried walking but had broken his leg. He held up his hands and said, “You got me, kid. Christ, I would have had you if it wasn’t for not having a silencer. That is what gave me away, isn’t it?”
Shaun pulled the trigger on his pistol hitting him in his good leg. Cade screamed in pain. “I said that I give up. Bella said you guys were all just and honest. What the fuck are you doing?”
Shaun fired again striking him in the arm keeping him from crawling and when he still tried to crawl he shot him in the other arm. Shaun walked up staring at him. Cade started laughing. He said, “Christ, you are just a fucking kid. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“You just shot two of the people that I care most about in this world. What exactly do you think is wrong with me?”
“But, but you are supposed to like help me and shit.”
Shaun pulled out three blood bags. He sliced through them standing over a immobilized Cade. The crimson red poured over him washing him in blood. The nectar to the dead was going to be more than they would be able to withstand. Shaun fired his pistol until the magazine was spent. Cade said, “Hey, kid, come on, you can’t leave me like this, you can’t leave me alone!”
Shaun climbed into his Humvee glad that it was still running like a tank. He said, “You don’t have to worry, asshole, you won’t be alone for long.”
Shaun pulled down to the end of the street standing and watching the feeding take place. Cade screamed until he did not have the body parts to be able to produce sound. Shaun smiled thinking that he was getting everything he deserved. When the dead had eaten and lost interest they eventually left. Shaun went back to where he had left behind Aslin and McQuaig and climbed back up to the roof. When he saw the two of them the tears threatened him and he let them come. His shoulders shook and he could not help but let his emotions pour out. When he heard Clary coming over the radio he couldn’t help himself. He screamed, “Clary, they’re all dead, McQuaig and Aslin are both fucking gone!”
Clary could barely speak he said, “Shaun, oh thank God you are okay. What happened, what do you mean they’re dead? What happened, Shaun?”
“The guy from the other housing development that we thought we took out; he was watching us the entire time. When we were done for the day all I heard or felt was the shot or what came out of Aslin. A second later he took out McQuaig. We never saw it coming. We were up here for hours without any issues. We killed hundreds of them, Clary, hundreds and that mother fucker took them out!”
“Shaun, it’s okay, tell me where you are and I will come get you myself. We will all come get you. It is going to be okay.”
Shaun just stared at the dead, thinking how anyone he had gotten close to was just biding their time until they were dead. He said, “It isn’t going to be okay, Clary. Anyone that gets close to me gets hurt, gets shot, or gets killed.”
“Shaun, where are you, buddy?”
Shaun looked at the radio and picked up McQuaig and Aslin’s rifles and gear before hitting the transmit button. He said, “Do me a favor, Clary, tell Ellie I love her.”
Clary said, “We can be there in ten minutes, Shaun, don’t do anything stupid.”
“You guys know how to kill the dead now. There’s no reason you need me here to do it. I’m going on my own, at least anyone else I meet isn’t going to be as close as you guys. I might come back…one day. Sorry about Aslin. I know he was like a brother to you, Clary.”
“Yeah, he was, and you are like a son. Don’t leave, Shaun. We can’t afford to lose anyone else. You are going to break Ellie’s heart.”
“Just promise me you’ll take care of her, Clary. I’ll take the radio with but don’t sit waiting for it to come on.”
*****
Fox Property
Shaun used the flashlight. The hill he had been up and down hundreds of times seemed shorter than before. His legs did not burn when he made it to the top. He looked at the wooden cross where his dad rested. He walked over to it slowly sitting down and resting against a tree. He said, “Hi, dad, sorry about this. I meant to do better, we all did. I wanted them gone, I wanted them dead and to right things the way that I know you would have if…if they wouldn’t have taken you from me as well. I promise that I will right this. If it is the last thing that I ever do, I am going to take them out.”
Shaun sat there through the night. He did not want to let the emotions in but there was little he could do. He sat with a fire watching the shadows dance on the ground near the burnt cabin that he’d grown up in. He thought the entire night until he had plans on wha
t his next moves were going to be. As the sun started to rise Shaun went back down the hill.
Chapter 29
2 weeks later
Shaun sat on the roof of the building. He’d been watching it for hours waiting to see if there were any of the dead. He’d found the address in a phone book in a part of town that looked abandoned. When he thought that there was nothing to worry about he made his way down to the street and ran across to the alley that he hoped would lead to a side door. He didn't know if the store was going to be empty but he figured there had to be something to eat. The food that he had picked up along the way had been few and far and between. He had second guessed many times going back to the base but the thought of Aslin and McQuaig on the roof had put the thoughts to sleep.
When he ran up to the alley one of the Turned who’d been hidden behind a dumpster came out of nowhere. He raised his rifle, ready to take aim, when a foot from behind him slid his feet back gripping his rifle and tossing it to the side. Shaun barely saw what was happening before it had. The man stepped over him quickly carrying something glistening by his side. The Turned leapt into the air coming at him and jumping off of the wall. The man did not as much as flinch. When the dead came near him he brought up the blade once directly under its neck letting the force of its jump do the work. The Turned’s head spun to the side and the decapitated corpse landed a few feet from Shaun.
When he turned around he saw a man that he was confident was of Chinese descent. The man had a sword that Shaun could only guess was a samurai sword. The stranger wiped the blade with a rag and Shaun pushed up from the ground. The teen in him couldn’t keep himself quiet. He said, “What the hell did you do that for? I was trying to get some food, all I wanted to do was take out the dead. You got a problem with guns?”
The man responded, “Guns are loud, you are loud. You want food, you find somewhere else.”
