by mike Evans
“Where were the soldiers, Fox?” Jay questioned.
“They were called out to try to help. Those that made it back were bitten and already infected. We put them down, cleaned up the base, fixed the gates, and took it as ours. Most people didn’t want to travel in Des Moines, I think. I fear a lot of them didn’t have more than the week’s food they would live on normally. In some cases, like one group we found at a mall, one next to a gas station, they had enough to make it for the first part of this hell. I can’t say I’d be surprised if there were a lot of people who just starved to death. Rather that, than the alternative of being eaten or turned into one of the freaks.”
Shaun got a fire going, setting a pot of fire by it so they could get it ready, and they went on the first of many runs. Shaun did not disappoint the boys. By the time the week was over, the boys all knew each other’s limitations. They had gotten over the news about Shaun. None of them had been overly happy that his father had started the apocalypse, but as they questioned Shaun about the dead in the city, they came to understand that just their group alone had taken thousands of these things out. The very fact that someone was in charge of trying to do something to rid the world of these things gave them the slightest tinge of hope.
When Shaun thought that they were ready, he went through their rations, wanting to know exactly what they had left. They’d eaten as much fish as they could stuff down their bellies, and most of them were sick of it by now. They’d never had so much bass in their life. Shaun advised them to be thankful for the food, because without the fish they’d have been out of their rations a very long time ago. Eating the way they had was why they weren’t starved by now.
Shaun frowned as he saw that they were not much better off than having no food at all. “We can take some fish with us. Wrap it in some paper or something. Maybe that’ll keep it fresh for a little longer. We should be fine if we eat it tonight.”
“You think that gutted fish are going to bring the dead that much quicker to wherever we are in town, Fox?” Jay asked.
“I have no idea. We could always put it somewhere on the outskirts of town in some shade, or up in a tree, and hope that we have the chance to come back and get it. Good chance that once we get moving, we are going to be on the move until we get what we need and get out of this town. Once we get the dead moving, there’s no fucking around, guys. You aren’t learning anymore once we signal the first of the dead. We can try to clear out the town, but most likely, our original plan is going to have to be good enough.”
“You sure this is a safe idea, Fox?” Ben questioned.
“No clue, Ben. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I don’t know.”
“Are we really guessing?”
“Until we know a smarter way to kill these things and we don’t have to pretend we have smart plans, it's all a guess. We could think we are doing something perfect and have everything go to shit… Trust me, I’ve been there and done that.”
Shaun grinned a little at his plan. He thought, even if it gave them five minutes in town, the four of them would be able to do some damage with that time. They climbed into the truck, driving back towards town. Shaun handed Ben the first of four airhorns. Ben shook his head, looking at them, not sure if there was a plan as stupid as this that he’d ever heard of. “Noise? That’s really the best we got? All this technology in the world and that is all we can think of?”
“Ben, just put a piece of tape around it, and point it toward town. If it doesn’t work, we move to the next town.”
“Yeah, that’d be great, Shaun, if there was another town. Our next stop is Davenport. We don’t have the gas to go driving around forever. At some point, we’ll be on fumes and then out,” Jay said.
“We take some chances, that’s what we do. If you wanted to stay safe, you should have stayed home. This life isn’t safe; there's no guarantees, shit gets ugly, and it can happen quick. A good day goes all to hell, trust me. I’ve seen it happen more than once, and I’ve seen friends lost because of it. It sucks, but if you let that shit eat at you, then it’ll tear you apart. I’m still trying to get things figured out.”
Jay got four pieces of duct tape cut and put them his legs so that they could be pulled off and wrapped around the squeeze handle. Jay looked like he was about ready to mess himself.
“Jay, relax man. It’s okay. You’ll be good. We have miles before they are going to be here. We really need their attention,” Brady said, trying to calm his friend.
“Oh, these are going to get it, that is for sure. After this town, we get some supplies and more guns!” Jay yelled as he ran and placed the horn on the ground. It started to scream as he ran back to the truck. The dead in town had started walking towards the sound at first, and the screams began to echo up the hill.
Jay watched, stunned for a moment. “Hey, that isn’t really catching their attention. They look like they are just walking. I thought they ran everywhere?”
Shaun got his binoculars out, scanning the dead, and saw very quickly that they weren’t walking, they were sprinting flat out. There were just so many of them that they looked like they were barely moving. That, however, was not the case.
“Jay, get in the Humvee, now!” Shawn yelled.
Jay was focusing on the dead.
“Jay! I said to get in the fucking truck now! Come on, let’s go! Hurry up! They aren’t walking, I promise ya, there’s more than we thought. Come on, the plan is working! Just lots of dead!”
Jay didn’t need it spelled out better. The idea that there was a horde, and that they were racing towards the four of them, was more than enough to get him moving. Jay jumped into the truck, taking the second air horn. Shaun drove much faster than he’d expected to, bouncing the truck up and down alongside the ditch he was driving in. When he slowed down, Jay yelled, “Aren’t you going to stop?”
“No, just get your feet moving when you hit the ground, and get your ass back in. Make sure it’s pointing towards them!”
Jay did as told, not liking it, but stumbled as he ran, not losing momentum. He looked like one of the dead for a minute as he got on his hands and feet, trying to not lose his momentum. When he got back right, he set it, pointing towards the dead, and thanked Shaun silently as he sprinted with a little more than he’d had to give the previous week. The training, he thought, would pay off tenfold if it continued.
“So, how the hell is that going to work if we just keep putting them every half mile?” Brady said.
“I got that covered. We just need to make sure we don’t give those things a reason to stop. We just make sure that they keep moving, regardless of everything.”
“I don’t understand,” Brady yelled over the engine.
“Just get those air horns to him as he needs them! We just need two more.”
Shaun slowed down, circling the truck around. He had his rifle in between himself and Brady. He took it, opening the door and dropping quickly to the ground. He took two deep breaths, looking through his scope and watching the grass, trying to account for what it would do to his bullet’s trajectory. Jay ran past him, jumping in, looking frantically at the dead, who were less than five hundred yards away.
Shaun adjusted until there was no doubt that he would hit his target. He let out half his breath as he squeezed the eight pounds of pressure needed to send that bullet to its final resting place. He watched as the can exploded in a puff of smoke. He wasted no time patting himself on the shoulder, then booked it. He could see that the approaching dead were veering away from the can now and towards the new noise. He jumped in the truck, punching the gas and smiling, feeling like they were doing something right today.
Jay patted him on the shoulder before he could see it. “Shaun! Shaun, do you see that? What are you going to do?”
Shaun looked up, seeing a second horde rushing their way from the other direction.
“Shit, we need to go back the other way! We aren’t going to be able to put any more of the horns out,” Shaun screamed.
“No shi
t!” Ben yelled.
He veered to the left, heading as far away from them as he could. “We’re sticking to the plan. We just need to make sure we get there faster.”
Jay was watching out the rear of the truck. “Hey, do you want me to shoot those things? They aren’t coming for those horns any longer.”
Shaun watched through the rearview mirror. The dead were coming straight for them, not veering any other direction. The second horde and the one from town morphed into one, becoming a mass that would put some hordes he’d seen to shame.
“You want me to start shooting at them, Shaun?” Jay yelled from the back. “Ben and me can start shooting; take them out in the legs. Maybe slow them down, trip them up?”
“No, I don’t plan on being in town when they finally make it here. We should have at least a few minutes before they get there. If we are lucky, maybe we will have five minutes, hard to say.”
“Hard to say?!” Ben yelled.
“Look, I don’t know—you have any idea how fast those things run, how far they can get, or how they can do what they do time and time again? If you want to stay in the truck and be a pussy, be my guest. But you get what you find in those stores. This isn’t a welfare system, and it isn’t our job to make sure you have what you need!”
Shaun watched the dead in the mirror, not caring what anyone’s response was at the moment. His only goal was to keep from crashing the Humvee and getting in and out of anything that looked to be of promise in the city.
Shaun felt fortunate when they made it to a paved road. He drove on the shoulder, doing his best to avoid the number of crashed cars in the middle of the streets. He noticed most of them were missing their doors or windows. There’d either been something that came for them, or else they had contained more Turned, and breaking the cars in half were the only way in which they would be able to escape the metal prisons.
Shaun was rubber necking, trying to make sure no dead were coming out of alleys or anything else. He looked desperately until he found a sporting goods store. When he did, he slammed on the brakes coming to a stop sideways in front of it. He ran out of the truck, not waiting or caring what the other three did. He pushed at the door and found it locked. Shaun didn’t hesitate, he shot the door four times in the lock and kicked at it until the door swung open. He looked around. It was dark and with the windows tinted, it made it even more difficult to see.
Shaun walked forward slowly, hitting the light on his machine gun. He took the gun across twice, trying to find anything he could. The store, much like the city, stunk of death. A hand gripped his ankle, making him jump instinctively while still attempting to walk. He tried to keep his balance as he fell forward. He heard something but did not know what the noise was. It sounded like someone rolling their fingernails on a table. He shone the light around, trying to see what it was. One of the dead was on the ground and coming straight for him. Shaun tried to crabwalk while still keeping the gun in his hands, something he knew was impossible.
He got up to his feet, aiming the light and rifle down, seeing one of the dead who’d been ripped apart from the waist down. Shaun’s stomach turned when he saw the blackened innards that the monster had. They were like dried tendrils, following him as he hobbled across the store’s tiled floor. Shaun looked at its nails, finding that was exactly what the sound was. They’d not stopped growing and were as long as his fingers. It swiped at Shaun, who kicked at them, not wanting to see what would happen if they scratched him. Shaun aimed to fire off a shot into its face but held back, knowing he wasn’t going to keep them away by shooting, they would find him quicker if he kept shooting. He pulled out his kabar knife, bringing it down through its skull and putting it out of its misery.
Shaun looked around quickly, making sure there was nothing else in the store that needed killing. When he saw nothing else, he wasted no time in scanning the store. Shaun saw a wall claiming fifty flavors and saw the letters MRE beneath it. He ran up to it, taking a pack and stuffing as many meals as he could into it. When he came around, he saw that they did indeed sell guns, but there were none to be had. The bullets were gone as well, except for a few cases of something he did not carry. Shaun shrugged, unsure what else to try to find. The time was clicking off like the sand in an hourglass, and he knew it was going quicker than he figured it was.
He ran back outside, looking around desperately, but did not see the boys or his Humvee. Tears began to push at the brink of his eyes. Betrayal, anger, hate, and so many more feelings that he could not handle feeling all at once, were running through his mind. Vivid thoughts of Mike from day one, and the dark things that he would do to these three, raced through his mind. Shaun ran out into the middle of the street, seeing that the dead were indeed making their way back, and that they were not very far from the outskirts of town.
“Fox! Fox, over here, come on!” a yell echoed.
Shaun’s heart leapt when he looked to the alley, seeing that they had moved the truck. He let out a breath that almost dropped him to a knee to give God a silent thank you. “What the fuck did you move the truck for?”
Jay shrugged. “Seemed like if they made it to town before you got out that you’d be coming from the alley, not out the front door, right?”
Shaun ignored the question, sprinting around and motioning for Jay to get out of his seat. He climbed into the back and Shaun shoved the giant pack and rifle into the truck. He hit the gas, peeling out of town.
“I got food. We still need gas, and we still need more weapons, but if we can find a place to sit and enjoy it, at least we aren’t going to starve. They had MREs inside, and I took as much as I could. I got some matches too. I think we are going to be camping again for a few more days, but at least we aren’t going to die from needing food.”
Shaun watched as the dead were flowing back into the town. He thought of what Clary had taught him, trying to figure out a way that they could do something to take care of them, and it hurt his heart that they could do nothing, not with what they had on them.
As they got out of town, they saw that there was a propane dealer. Shaun drove the truck straight through the fence. He dropped three grenades underneath the largest tank they had, then laid on the horn, not letting off of it until he saw the dead rounding the corner.
Jay was tapping him on the shoulder. There was no question that he was deservingly nervous. Shaun stayed still, keeping the horn down. He said, “We aren’t leaving yet… just another minute.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” Brady screamed.
“Going to see if we can get rid of a few of these; you never know, we might need to have this place as a backup. Might be better if we don’t have to worry as much about clearing out so many of these things. God knows there’s plenty of them here.”
“That’s great,” Ben said. “But really, what are you doing? They are almost here!”
Shaun punched the truck’s gas, pulling the pin on one of his last grenades. He still was a bit gun shy with them after using them on the ice and not getting necessarily the desired results that he’d been expecting.
Jay, who had his window down was looking in Shaun’s hand. “What are you going to do? You know that this is all propane, right? You have any idea what is going to happen if you drop that grenade?”
Shaun smiled in the rearview mirror, sending a chill through all three watching. “I don’t think that we will want to be around to find out what will happen.”
Shaun let off the pressure tossing it into the air and towards the largest propane tank. When he sped up and turned, he saw that there was a tank that was twenty feet high and fifteen foot across. “Oh fuck!” Brady screamed, hitting Shaun in the shoulder. “You need to go faster! You need to go faster, Shaun! Go faster, go faster!”
Shaun did not leave anything to chance. He was counting silently in his head, trying to remember if the grenade went on the second, or if it went the second after. The boys all watched as the Humvee accelerated to twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sevent
y miles per hour, and the engine screamed. Shaun was bouncing up and down. The boys were each reaching for their belts. Shaun wasn’t worried about it; if he was going to crash, he would want to get out of the truck as soon as possible, given he was even able to move when he did.
Shaun watched as it looked almost like slow motion. What once had been the large tank of propane, was now the small one and the least of his concerns. He saw the fireball erupt behind him. The fire sucked all the oxygen that it could, and the ground shook beneath them. Shaun went straight through the fence and was twenty yards off the property when the big one took off. The fire went in every direction, and the boys shut their eyes when the fire consumed everything, catching up to them quickly and spilled around the sides of the truck. The steering felt like it was going out, and Shaun prayed that they were on a straight road, hoping that they were going the right direction. The other three boys were screaming at the top of their lungs. Shaun didn’t let off the gas until the four tires all exploded from beneath them. He still did not let off of the gas. The smoke began to dissipate, and he saw the sparks shooting out from the sides.
