After The End

by Melissa Gibbo

  I swear to God if they try to hook up right next to me, I’m going to beat them both senseless. And if she tries to start girl talk like this is a slumber party, I’ll kill myself.

  Troy and Cal took the first watch, whispering as they checked the windows and looked for items of use that may have been missed. I drifted to sleep thinking of my night with Daemon and the look in Troy’s eyes.

  CHAPTER 21 SEPTEMBER 21st–22nd YEAR 2

  The past two days had been uneventful, making the evening’s search almost pleasant. Our party had already located everything on the list including baby books and supplies by 4AM. Driving into an upscale neighborhood, we’d only run down a few dozen fleshies.

  My heart began to let in a glimmer of hope as I realized how few of the corpses remained and that most of those seemed utterly beyond concern; we may be able to resettle in town one day. The thought of being able to reconnect the pathways to other cities and find more survivors like us was intoxicating.

  After moving the wreckage of a Hummer and a Cadillac, the convoy pushed further into the gated suburb in our quest for daytime shelter. Scorch marks, bleached bones, and torn clothing stood testament to previous looting. Ahead of us were scattered bodies on formerly manicured lawns.

  I noted the crushed or fragmented skulls; these corpses wouldn’t be stalking us. Troy stared at the bullet hole in a small cranium at the stop sign. There was a bit of skin holding the jaw to the rest of the head, the arm of another carcass still within the mouth. He and I locked eyes and nodded to other to move on. Seth pulled into a driveway and cut the engine. The other two vehicles followed and we geared up to assess the location.

  I realized his reason for deciding on the house when I saw the garage. It could have easily held five or six cars. Inside we found an Infiniti SUV, a Harley motorcycle, tools, camping equipment, sporting items, and fishing rods for the ocean. Our vehicles were brought inside for the day and we moved into formation to clear the mansion itself.

  Silently, we checked each room on the first floor. Nancy pointed emphatically at the open cans on the kitchen counter; someone had eaten here very recently. I gripped my sword more tightly and felt a bead of sweat run down my neck. Everyone froze as the reality sunk in: we have no idea how many people are in here or what arms they may be carrying. The ground floor was empty. No Dead or living lurched at us as we swept for hazards.

  As I stood at the foot of the hardwood stairs, Cal grabbed my elbow. He whispered as he held me in place.

  “Someone is snoring up there. I only hear one heartbeat and no other movement. Perhaps we should remain here and await our host’s arrival.”

  I lowered my foot from the step and glanced at each of my companions. Seth kept looking at Troy for direction, while Troy just watched me patiently. Forrest and the others had already lowered their weapons and waited for a choice to be made so they could get some rest. I spoke as low as possible.

  “Fair enough. We’ll stay down here for now. We won’t touch anything inside, it’s already spoken for, but we will leave a note at this guy’s door explaining our presence and that we’re not a danger.

  Sleep is in shifts as usual. Whoever is on shift will sit here at the base of the stairs; when they hear whoever is up there stirring, quietly wake everyone in the other room.”

  Cal, Troy, and I sat down for first watch as the others trailed into the living room to unpack. The old vampire smiled as we watched Troy stand back up and follow them. I’d tugged the Roman’s sleeve to keep him from rising when Troy had given him a tilted nod. As soon as he was out of sight, Cal chuckled.

  “Why so uninterested in the gentleman’s company, I wonder.” He teased. “Could it be that you worry you’ll be tempted?”

  I blurted out a hushed “No.” and pulled my bag of fruit and meat from my bag.

  “Ah, the lady protests far too quickly to be true. Are you concerned for Daemon’s feelings?”

  I winced at the thought of him being hurt by me before realizing I hadn’t done anything. I hadn’t even intended to consider doing anything that would hurt Daemon’s feelings. I glanced at the elder vampire and saw him grinning.

  “Squirrel, the boy will have to accept not having you, just as you will have to move on from him. Although it may pain you, it is the only option. For now, there is a young man who is a nice alternative. Daemon will carry on just fine; he has centuries to find another woman. You’ve tested your luck too much already; let the lad go.”

  He gave me a gentle pat on the arm and began to scribble out a note for our unknown patron. Soundlessly, Cal floated up to the door and slid the paper underneath. The next two hours we sat in silence, the conversation echoed in our minds but had concluded with his words. I couldn’t argue with Cal; he was right. But just because we both knew he was right, didn’t mean I had to acknowledge it.

  As Troy and Seth relieved us from our post, footsteps were heard overhead. Seth hurriedly woke the others and our bags were packed and hoisted again. At my urging, weapons were ready but not drawn. In a tense huddle, we waited at the bottom of the elegant stairs like nervous prom dates. The carved maple cherub at the end of the banister laughed as the shuffling upstairs stopped by the door. There was a flurry of movement behind the door and all around that room for the next full minute. We stood like statues, muscles taut with anticipation.

  Finally the doorknob turned and there was a crack of light on the wall.

  “Hello?”

  I cleared my throat.

  “Hi. It’s okay, we don’t want any trouble and we didn’t touch any of your stuff. We just needed a place to stay until tonight.”

  “How many is ‘we’ exactly?”

  I did a quick head count.

  “Eight including myself. Are you coming down?”

  The light disappeared and we heard footsteps circling for a moment.

  “Why did you people come after me if you don’t intend to kill me? Are you with that big guy who has those tourist kids?”

  Puzzled faces looked at me; my confused face looked right back.

  “We didn’t know anyone was here until we heard you snoring. What guy with the tourists? Can you come down, or can we come up please?”

  “No. No, don’t come up. I’ll come down, but I’m bringing my weapons. Don’t shoot me or those zombies will start marching towards us.”

  I relaxed a little.

  “Not a problem, we don’t have any guns on us and we don’t care much for fleshies either.”

  Slowly, the door opened and a graying man in his forties eased his way down the stairs. He held a pistol with a silencer in front of him and a military saber hung on his hip. The man stopped halfway down and holstered his gun.

  “Forrest? Bubba is that you?”

  Stunned I looked behind me for Bubba, but he had pushed past and was climbing the stairs two at a time.

  “Vincent!”

  The two men hugged tightly while we watched the tearful reunion. All the fear and worry dissipated as we witnessed that hope we all secretly carried: finding a loved one safe. The embrace was marked with mutterings of ‘I thought you’d died’ and ‘Can’t believe I found you’.

  And then they kissed. It was passionate, to the point that the forgotten crowd at the base of the stairs became simultaneously entranced with staring at the floor or wallpaper. I think Jake was the one who mumbled ‘get a room’ causing the couple to break their prolonged embrace.

  “Sorry, ya’ll. It’s just that, well, I done forgot y’all was here. Folks, this is Vincent. Vincent these are some of the people I been living with outta town a ways.”

  I stepped forward to shake Vincent’s hand, followed by each of my companions – Jake needed an elbow to the ribs to bring his manners to him. After Cal did a brief glamoured Q&A, it was agreed that Vincent would gather his stuff and join us. Both he and Bubba appeared overjoyed and inseparable. Pleasantries exchanged, we sat and had a nice breakfast as a group and got to know Forrest’s boyfriend.

  Vinc
ent was a former Army Captain, hence his dress sword and sidearm. He’d figured out the Dead followed gunshots, and had acquired several silencers on a raid of his own. During the outbreak, he and Forrest had been separated and their townhome destroyed.

  Vincent managed to survive by living off of the land and scavenging empty homes. He’d been alone all year, having opted to observe strangers before approaching; the few bands of survivors he’d seen had been vicious or stupid enough to keep infected with them. The group he’d spoken about earlier were cannibals.

  ***

  Our enlarged crew rested through the day. Forrest and his boyfriend caught up and reminisced on the second floor while we slept peacefully on the first. I woke in the afternoon to the smell of Spam in baked beans and corn cooking on the Sterno burners. The party gathered around the glory of warm food and we mentally prepared ourselves for the night’s journey home.

  Vincent had seen the cannibals the day before. From his descriptions, Seth confirmed they were his neighbors from before the outbreak. The big guy had been the Neighborhood Watch Captain and a rep for the HOA. His recon also established what I’d been worried about; they were somewhere between our current location and our home camp. With a roughly sketched map, we debated possible alternative routes home until the meal was finished. During a lull in the search for options, a scream fractured the air outside the house.

  I rushed to the foyer window, moving the thick curtain the barest amount to peek outside. The sight on the opposite yard made my stomach quake and my heart drop. I couldn’t breathe when I found the source of the scream. Cal stood next to me, with his eye at the peephole. Crowded behind us, the others began to push for a view. Troy took one look and shoved them away.

  “Trust me, you don’t want to see.” He mumbled. His tan face paled and toned arms shook.

  Worried expressions and fidgeting hands waited for an explanation, a plan, and some assurance. I turned to them and gestured to the stairs. Wordlessly, we trailed up the elegant staircase and into Vincent’s bedroom. Cal took up a post watching and listening out of a tiny corner of the window. I tried to find the words.

  “The murderers we’re trying to avoid, um, they’re across the street. It looks like those Brazilians, Maria and Fernando, are being tortured and eaten on the front lawn. I can only guess about the rest of their friends.”

  I stared at the carpet, each thick fiber catching the light differently as I stared at them for an idea. We couldn’t leave and we couldn’t stay.

  We’re boned.

  Several minutes passed, the hush punctuated sporadically by weaker and more desperate screams from the teenage girl. I barely heard the boy as they cooked him alive over a small fire. Both of the tourists were naked and beaten; Maria was covered in blood between her legs and on her chest. I struggled to grasp the right answer for the situation. Caelinus spoke softly telling us what was happening so that we wouldn’t have to see it ourselves.

  “They are cutting off strips of the boy’s skin and eating him alive. One man just cut a thin strip along the lad’s ribs and up near his armpit and yanked it free. They’ve already raped both of them in turns. Their leader is questioning them in Spanish; he wants to know about the fortress with all the people. The one with the two flying blood-drinkers and the women and food.”

  I don’t know if he was listening or reading lips, but he kept translating and updating us.

  “He keeps asking how to get to our camp. The man in charge is cutting her fingers off by the joints and burning the nubs to keep her alive longer. His men are chewing on the fingertips and sucking out the marrow while they laugh about the ‘fun’ they had today.”

  He faced us momentarily.

  “Apparently, they consumed her toes and nipples this morning during their parade of violations. The girl is pleading with him; she can’t remember where the place was. The boy has stopped begging and is now praying in between his coughs.”

  He turned away from the scene again and took a slow breath.

  “We cannot help either of them. They will die and it will be slow and wrought with agony.”

  He shut the door Troy and I had been walking towards.

  “We may be able to protect our people, but not by a frontal assault in the daytime. Those men have you outgunned and evenly numbered. This is one time, where our pact may be your only chance to survive. And I will likely need your blood to heal. For this to work, night has to come.”

  I rocked slightly with frustration. I couldn’t get the sight of his hair singed to the scalp out of my head; I couldn’t block out his skin being severed from his muscles for the enjoyment of those savage men. My ears rang with her cries and his prayers. I could hear Fernando dying far from home, praying in a foreign tongue, and I recognized the familiar lilt and timber to his prayer. I quietly prayed along with him even as his voice grew weaker.

  “Hail Mary, full of grace…”

  Tears rolled down my cheek as we sat on the bed and floor. We huddled in the noiseless gaps between their painful words and the raucous laughter outside. I crept to the window and watched one of the bastards slice off a portion of the boy’s butt cheek and bite into it while staring into his eyes. The cannibal grinned widely as a trickle of meat juice wove a path down his chin. The man spit a small piece into Fernando’s mouth and burst into renewed humor. They took pleasure in their misery.

  Troy draped his arm over my shoulders as I wept at the fate that could await our friends back home; the torment echoed through the empty streets and the peals of joy from its creators mocked the suffering we all pitied. Cal had long since stopped detailing the causes of the noises, but stood witness to the atrocities until the girl’s voice became hoarse and the boy’s went mercifully silent.

  I felt the air beginning to chill as the sun crept towards its bed. The tears halted as I stood and stretched. The others followed suit gradually; they were dominoes following blindly.

  “We need to prepare. I refuse to let those people commit those heinous acts on our people. As soon as night falls, we have to be ready to act.”

  Jake twitched while he spoke.

  “What exactly are we going to do? Those Brazilians are way past saving and those assholes have more guns than a Tarantino film. We should just stay here and bail when they’ve gone; we can rush home and beef up defenses. Besides, they don’t know where camp is.”

  Nancy and the other guy stood by Jake in agreement.

  “Won’t work. That crew is raiding for gear, just like us. Odds are, they’ll be staying a day or two and eating the rest of the Brazilians and eventually they’ll probably search this house.”

  Jake’s face fell; he’d aged years in the last few hours.

  “Maybe we can outrun them. Just peel out in the trucks and lose them on the way home. I didn’t see a car, maybe they’re on foot.”

  Vincent stepped forward and began to stretch to touch his toes.

  “They had a couple of motorcycles and a car last time I saw them; they can follow or track us. I only have a couple of guns, but I’m a good shot and I know Forrest is, too.”

  “And of course, there is a vampire here who has centuries of experience in stealthily hunting and killing humans.”

  Cal had said the words so quietly it reminded us all of the level of our own voices.

  “Here’s the plan,” I took control of the conversation again “ Jake, Nancy, and uh, other guy get into two vehicles and be ready to drive as soon as we’re in position. Forrest and Vincent will gather and prep all the guns we have and load the ammo we got in the sport shop.

  Cal will head out the back and do his best to discreetly kill some of the cannibals and fly back any weapons he gets off his victims. Troy, Seth, and I will load the supplies into the trucks and position ourselves to fire as soon as we roll out of the garage.”

  I took a breath and looked to Vincent and Cal for guidance as our military men.

  “Any tips guys?”

  “I’d say we should have Cal focus on ki
lling off the handful of guys in the house, so that we can run over and shoot down the ones in the yard. We can’t risk an enemy getting away and coming back later with a grudge and a larger force.”

  “Precisely my thoughts. After we’ve eliminated the threat, we must gather items from that property and return to camp quickly as the gunfire will attract unwanted attention from the Dead.”

  Cal stood with a bearing that was ingrained over years of Roman training as he doled out his advice and carried his belongings to the SUV. A muted chorus of nods set the plan in action.

  Vincent’s guns turned out to be not just his 9mm Beretta sidearm but also an M16 rifle, a Colt 45, and two revolvers. He had silencers on each of the pistols and a bayonet for the M16. Properly armed, we waited in the garage for the return of our Undead ally. It was nearly ten minutes we sat in the dark room before the kitchen door opened.

  “Sorry, there were three of them inside and I thought it best if I took my dinner before the shooting starts.”

  Cal held a duffel bag out to us. It held almost a dozen more firearms and various clips loaded with munitions.

  “Let’s get this over with and return home.”

  I grabbed one of the rifles to add to my silenced handgun and turned off the safety. Our team mounted the truck beds and entered the SUV, readied our weapons, and gave a thumbs-up to Cal. The vampire threw open the garage door as the engines roared to life. He flitted to the other yard and plunged his fangs into the nearest man’s jugular, shaking the startled man like a wolf devouring a steak. We drove at the four remaining adversaries firing rounds as they clamored for their weapons.

  Our drive-by netted us two wounded rivals before the battle began. Their leader made it to his rifle and began returning fire; a stream of holes went up the side of the F150 wounding Troy in the arm. Seth took Troy’s gun and fired at the assailant. Another of the enemy men fired into our driver’s side, killing the guy Jake and I rode with.

  Jake turned off the engine and wrenched the steering wheel under his control. Before coming to a stop, we spun out and hit the curb, plowing down one of his men and sending the lead cannibal into the night with his remaining two comrades.