Last Man Standing (Book 3): Zombie Decimation

by Lockwood, Max

  When he knocked on the door of the dark mansion, a man had answered the door with a crazed look in his eyes. While the officer was telling the well-groomed man about the noise complaint, he saw something strange out of the corner of his eye. It appeared to be a doll arm lying at the top of the stairs.

  Then, he saw the blood. As it turned out, a concerned neighbor had heard what sounded like screams but didn’t want to appear nosy. When the screaming didn’t stop, she called the police anonymously. The father, drowning in suffocating debt, had brutally murdered his wife and three young children in an attempt to start his life over in the islands.

  The police officer, newly married with a child on the way, struggled to get the images of broken bodies out of his mind after he searched the house, hoping each dismembered body would be the last one he found. The precinct paid for the young officer’s counseling, but it wasn’t enough. He resigned after ramming his cruiser into a tree after hearing the scanner report a noise complaint in his area. It turned out to only be a college party gone out of control, but everyone knew he was a danger to be around. It wasn’t his fault—he just snapped under the most horrifying circumstances he could ever have imagined.

  That story came to mind when he thought about Thomas’s odd behavior. There were several parallels between the young officer’s call and Thomas’s life experiences. Thomas, though he was doing what was right and necessary, had witnessed the annihilation of his family to the virus. Also, Alec had a sneaking suspicion that Thomas had been exposed to something that had caused him to be physically ill. If his trauma manifested itself in physical illness, there was no telling what it did to his mental state. Alec believed that Thomas had been struggling to stay strong for a long time and had finally snapped. It happened to Will and now it was happening to Thomas.

  Like the young police officer, something must have made Thomas think that he was in danger. Perhaps he saw an infected person out of the corner of his eye or had a flashback to an earlier moment. Whatever it was, it was scary enough for Thomas to believe that he needed to get off the motorcycle and run away from Alec. Alec was frustrated that his only mode of transportation was now ruined, but he could hardly be mad at Thomas. When it came down to it, it wasn’t his fault that he was so screwed up. Alec just wished that he could have waited until they were in New York to go into meltdown mode.

  Not far from the entrance to town, Alec thought he saw drops of blood on the ground. He checked his own painful abrasions to make sure they weren’t leaking. But when he touched the raw skin, he realized that it wasn’t his blood on the grass.

  His stomach did a flip. What if Thomas was seriously injured and was hiding on the side of the road? Alec wasn’t ready to see Thomas in a bad state. If the Infected got to him and he was mortally wounded, then that was another person Alec had failed to protect.

  Taking a deep breath, he followed the red droplets that turned into small puddles through tall grass and into a clearing. There, he found a man he had never seen before, the color drained from his face.

  Alec leaned down and placed two fingers on the side of his neck, checking for any signs of life. The man had crescent-shaped wounds on his arms and his head was turned to an odd angle.

  Once Alec could confirm the man was dead, he wiped his hand on his pants, as if he was washing his hands of the situation. He wasn’t surprised to see the dead body, but he felt unnerved that Thomas was still missing.

  That was until Alec heard heaving sounds from behind a tree.

  Alec lunged forward to find Thomas lying in a fetal position in the grass. His hands and face were dripping with blood. He took a shuddering breath and sobbed into his bloody hands, coughing and retching as he tried to catch his breath.

  “Hey, what happened?” Alec asked, rushing to his side. “Did that man attack you?”

  Thomas continued to cry, tears and snot carving little rivers through his bloody face. “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean?” Alec pried. “Where are you bleeding from? Are you hurt?”

  Alec twisted the top off his water bottle and poured it on Thomas’s hands. Then, he drizzled some on a handkerchief and wiped down Thomas’s distraught face. Alec handed the stained cloth to Thomas to wipe at his eyes and nose.

  As far as Alec could tell, once the blood was wiped off, it didn’t return. Either the injury was minor enough that the wounds had already clotted, or the blood didn’t belong to Thomas. By the way he was crying, Alec feared the latter option made the most sense.

  “I don’t know what happened,” Thomas choked. “It looks bad. It looks really bad.”

  “No.” Alec trailed off, trying to comfort the kid, but he was absolutely correct. Alec didn’t want to think that Thomas was capable of murder, but there wasn’t really another explanation. What made things more confusing was that he absolutely believed Thomas when he said he didn’t remember anything.

  “How do you feel?” Alec asked cautiously, making a mental note of where his gun was on his person. Hurting Thomas was a last resort, but if it came down to it, he would have to protect himself.

  “Not great,” Thomas admitted. “I feel dizzy and confused again. Where’s the motorcycle?”

  “Stopped working,” Alec said flatly. He didn’t want to make Thomas even more upset.

  Alec studied Thomas’s face. He had stopped sobbing, but his eyes were still leaking tears. He didn’t look infected, but his behavior was suspect. If he’d killed another man with his bare hands and didn’t remember it, then he had to have been infected.

  Alec didn’t know what to do. Knowing that there was a promise of a cure, he wanted to take Thomas to New York to be treated by Elaina and her new team. He didn’t seem to be too far gone, so if they hurried, they could possibly make it there before the virus consumed Thomas’s body.

  On the other hand, it was common sense not to spend time in close quarters with an infected person, no matter the stage they were in. The Infected were unpredictable and highly dangerous. If they were in a car together, it wouldn’t take much for Thomas to infect Alec. He had his gun and could fire off a few shots before Thomas could blink an eye, but it was still too risky.

  “What are we going to do?” Thomas whimpered.

  Alec gritted his teeth. He knew that inviting Thomas to come along with him was incredibly reckless, but he couldn’t abandon him. A cure was within their reach. He had already lost so many of his companions. He couldn’t bear to lose any more. Plus, Thomas had once saved his life when it would have been easier for him to let Alec die. Alec owed him the same in return.

  “We’re not far from the next town,” Alec said reluctantly. “Let’s try to find a new car. Barring any more roadblocks, if we can find a car, we might be able to make it to New York in a day or two.”

  “Something’s not right with me,” Thomas protested. “I’m afraid that I’m dangerous. I think I may have killed someone.”

  “We all have,” Alec said wearily, trying to reassure Thomas. Unfortunately, the man Thomas had killed was probably not a threat and didn’t deserve to be killed. But that didn’t matter anymore. Alec knew that sometimes, the best thing to do was to put things in the past. That was much easier said than done, though.

  “I’m scared,” Thomas said again.

  “I know,” Alec said softly.

  “Are you going to shoot me?”

  Alec turned and looked into Thomas’s fearful eyes. He looked back down at the ground, unable to face the reality of the situation. He didn’t want to, but if Alec were being attacked, he might have to.

  “I’m not going to shoot you,” Alec said firmly. “We’re going to find a car, then we’re going to get you to a doctor. You’re going to be fine. I just need you to hang tight and keep it together until you get help, okay?”

  Thomas sniffled. “You really mean that?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded. “I’ll try.”

  As they made their way back onto the road and continued walking toward the
nearest town, Alec felt nervous about bringing Thomas along with him. He just hoped that if things got bad, he could shoot Thomas from behind. He couldn’t imagine being the last thing Thomas saw before he died. But Alec was faced with the reality of the situation—he could take Thomas into town, but there was a good chance he’d be leaving the town alone.

  7

  Sitting in her empty dorm room, Bethany stewed over her brother’s change in character. She had told him on more than one occasion that he was making a terrible mistake by joining the militia.

  It had hurt to watch Thomas go through the same thing Mark had. Both of them had entered the base with hesitation, only to buy into promises to be taken care of and respected.

  This was one of the few ways Bethany differed from her brother. Mark was friendly but not particularly outgoing. Bethany was the same, but she never felt the urge to be anything but the exact way she was. Bethany had no problem being a bit of a loner from time to time. She preferred staying in to read over going to high school parties with all the preppy kids. She always felt more sophisticated than the others. She was an old soul trapped in a young person’s body.

  Mark, on the other hand, always wanted more for himself. He wasn’t unpopular, by any means, but he was never the center of attention. He often got tongue-tied when talking to people he thought were above him. When he stayed at home on Friday nights, it was because he got too nervous to ask out girls that he liked and they already had plans by the time he’d worked up the courage to talk to them. He was never really satisfied with his social standing. He wanted more.

  Though she thought Mark was a little smarter than he appeared, Bethany wasn’t completely shocked that he’d joined the militia. The prospect of protection and glory were enticing, but Bethany knew the cost immediately. Her brother didn’t seem to notice when he was being used.

  Then, his character changed. Mark went from being a quiet guy to the life of the party almost overnight. Back when the base was still under construction, the siblings were separated into different areas of the building during their quarantine period. By the time the building was finished and the two were reunited, he was leading new recruits around the grounds with a big smile on his face. He was popular and more confident than ever.

  Watching Thomas fall into the same trap was the final straw for Bethany. She wasn’t even certain that Thomas had wanted to join the militia. He just wanted to keep everyone happy. When he was taken away by the guards, she saw fear in his eyes. They were going to hold him against his will, just because they could.

  In the aftermath of the explosions, all available workers dropped their other duties and worked together to ensure the building was secure again. This left a lot of gaps in security. Guards who were tasked with nothing else but standing in front of locked doors were whisked away to put up drywall or stack cinderblocks. Bethany silently thanked whoever it was who’d caused the damage. It would make her escape much easier.

  She had thought about it for a long time and decided that she would have to risk stealing a vehicle to escape. She had done it once before and she would have to do it again. When it came to athletic ability, she knew that she could not outrun someone with brain-altering viruses injected into their blood. If she wanted to stand a chance, she would need a little horsepower.

  The entrance to the building was still being worked on, so there would be a lot of former guards rebuilding the front of the base. If she got into one of those trucks, she would be reported and hunted down in a heartbeat.

  But in all the pandemonium, she discovered that there was an underground garage where extra vehicles were kept. This was more for storage purposes because there were not enough soldiers on hand to fill all the vehicles. But as everyone worked to assess damage to the building, she heard an officer tell a new soldier to check on the underground vehicles that could be accessed through the locked door on the patio. The officer was also generous enough to give the soldier the number for the door code, which Bethany then committed to memory.

  There was no better time to steal a car. Everyone was busy with new orders. There wasn’t time to sit around the cafeteria or play pool. Bethany was jittery. She may just get away with it—again.

  She walked nonchalantly down the hallway as if she were going to grab her afternoon cup of tea and return to the library to page through old magazines. Instead, she carelessly splashed hot water over a bag of English Breakfast and examined her surroundings. Bethany pretended to sip her cup of tea while she scanned the room. There was an elderly gentleman sweeping a pile of dust into a dustpan, but he didn’t seem to realize that anyone else was around.

  Quietly, she set the cup down on the round table and walked toward the patio. She punched the numbers into the door lock and turned the handle when the light turned green. Then, she disappeared behind the door before anyone noticed she was not where she was supposed to be.

  Expecting to find a giant garage, Bethany was surprised to see a few offices in the hallway of the dimly-lit parking structure. She silently walked down the giant concrete ramp, careful to stay in the shadows. Unfortunately, she was not alone.

  At the bottom of the ramp, there was a hinged metal box on the wall. Bethany had a good feeling that it was full of keys to the fleet of vehicles in storage. Through the window of the door at the end of the hallway, she could see shiny black vehicles, just waiting to be driven.

  “I’m in the garage,” Mark’s voice said from underneath the ramp. Bethany pressed her body against the wall and watched her brother walk down the hallway, just feet below her.

  “Good,” Dr. Vincent’s voice sounded from the radio in Mark’s hand. “I’m going to visit some of the new recruits today and I want you to be present. You’ve been a tremendous help around here, and I want to use you as an example of how a model soldier behaves.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Mark gushed. “What did you have in mind for the recruits? Do you want me to take them on a tour of the facilities or explain what we do here?”

  “I’d like for the new men to visit the laboratory. I’ve recently finished a new strain and I want to try it out. How many candidates do we have for the next step?”

  “Five, if I’m remembering correctly. We’ve had some difficulty in bringing in new recruits lately. They all seem to run away.”

  “That’s unfortunate,” Bretton said, sounding bored. “I was excited to see how this one would do on a larger scale.”

  “What about the women?” Mark asked. “We have a lot of capable women in the general population whom we haven’t even spoken to about enlistment. Why can’t we recruit them?”

  Bethany’s stomach churned. If her brother had his way, she would be captured and infected against her will. The fact that her own brother was trying to sell her out and not protect her from the horrors of their unnecessary war sickened her.

  “In due time.” Bretton chuckled. “But I like your enthusiasm. For the time being, I’d like for you to ensure that our female residents are docile and happy. We don’t want any trouble from them until my newest creation is ready. If you want, we can distribute medication to ensure everyone is calm. But that’s a last resort. I want our subjects to be pure when it’s time to administer the strain.”

  “Yes, sir,” Mark answered. “I’ll see to it. Thank you for trusting me with such important work.”

  Bethany seethed. If she weren’t trying to make a clean getaway, she would have marched up to Mark and socked him in the face. But she waited until he retreated into an office and closed the door behind him.

  Once the coast was clear, Bethany scurried down the rest of the ramp and made her way to the key box. There was one soldier in that part of the basement level, and he didn’t appear to be a formidable opponent. He was a scrawny teenager who wore small wire-rimmed glasses and a uniform that was several sizes too large.

  Bethany felt the tip of the knife she kept up her sleeve with her fingertips. She had pilfered it from the cafeteria after ordering a steak. The steak was ove
rdone, but the knife was just right. If used correctly, it could seriously injure someone in case of emergency.

  However, when she looked at the kid, she didn’t know if she had the heart to kill him. He looked so innocent. He was likely infected and could kill at a moment’s notice, but as he stood awkwardly near the key box, he looked like any other kid. Besides, he probably didn’t ask to enter the militia and become infected.

  As Bethany approached the young soldier, she tucked the knife back into her sleeve. She wanted to try other tactics first.

  “Excuse me,” she said sweetly. “Is this where I’m supposed to get the keys to the Hummer? I was told to get a vehicle so I could pick up new recruits from the other compound.”

  “Oh, really?” the soldier asked, a little confused. “No one told me that.”

  “Yeah, I know. Things have been kind of crazy around here lately,” she said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. “Would it be too much to ask to help me out? I don’t want to get in trouble for not picking the new soldiers up on time.”

  The soldier seemed very nervous by her presence. He squinted at her as if he were trying to read her mind. Then, he slowly opened the metal box on the wall, revealing keys on tiny hooks.

  “You said you’re taking a Hummer?” he asked. “Which one?”

  “Uh, they didn’t specify. You know how it is. I think any of them would be fine. Is there one that’s faster than the others?”

  “Maybe you should take this one,” he said hesitantly, taking a set of keys from a hook. “When you get past that door, just click the lock button to find it. Then, there should be a sensor inside the vehicle that lets you enter and exit the door. When you get to security, just tell them that you’re picking up new recruits. I’m sure they were notified.”

  “You’ve been such a big help,” Bethany said, resting her arm on the kid’s shoulder. He blushed.