by A. J. Sikes
That had been his dad’s rule about people, the only thing Jed had to remember the man by.
“What’s the plan? Shit’s fucked up out there.”
“Yeah, I’d heard,” one of the New York guys said. Dude was tall, like Bree, and had a funny looking nose, like on those old puppets made out of paper and painted all kinds of colors. He had big lips and a lazy right eye that pointed off to the side of his face.
“C’mon now, Marks,” Bree said. “Man’s just in out of the storm. Got that SAW, too.”
Jed caught it that time. Bree kept eyeing the SAW, and he got a hungry look in his eyes when he mentioned it. Jed held the weapon up tighter and let his finger go loose around the trigger guard so he was ready to fire if he had to.
“I was with the 401st,” he said. “We had some civvies in a bus back there at the bridge. But we couldn’t get into Manhattan on the trucks. Bunch of cars were all smashed together there. Some people got shot just driving. I figure they must have been infected or something. You see that when you came through?”
“Nah,” Bree said quick. “Must’ve been right after we got over the bridge. Told you all them civilians was driving out of Manhattan. Bet that was them.”
If Bree was holding wild cards in his hand, he was playing better than Jed ever had. He still couldn’t figure if the guy was being straight with him or not. Something was up with the dude, and Jed felt like time was running out to get the truth. Daylight was fading, and he did not want to be stuck in a ruined storefront with these guys over night.
“Rally point was supposed to be up here somewhere, wasn’t it?”
Bree gave him a look and Jed figured it out in half a beat.
Supposed to be.
A lot of shit was supposed to be for Jed when he got back to New York City. But watching a damn zombie plague eat the place alive wasn’t part of the bargain. Getting stuck with a bunch of dirtbags wasn’t much better.
“So we just chilling here? What are we doing?”
“We’re fucking dying, dude,” Marks said.
“Yeah,” Sharpe added. “Maybe you didn’t see it, but the city’s fucked. The Army’s fucked. The Marines are fucked. I guess the Navy’s all right, but that’s because the fucking squiddies are out on their boats. Not here in the shit waiting for a damn zombie to jump on their ass and start slamming away like it’s fucking prom night.”
“Dude, will you please shut up,” Harney said. “I’ve had about enough of your mouth.”
“Yo,” Bree cut in on the fight before it got started. “Keep that shit in your pants ‘til you find a toilet.”
“So you’re in charge now?” Jed asked.
“Yeah,” Bree said.
Jed hadn’t spotted his rank before, and he didn’t see any on him now. His tab was missing. Guy was probably bullshitting, but the other dudes weren’t up in arms about it.
The echo of gunfire from out on the street rattled into the storefront, putting every man on alert. Jed stayed to the side, but kept the SAW up. A flash of movement in front of the store startled him and he sent a burst out through the broken remains of the window. Glass shattered and pinged off the other shards already on the shop floor.
“Cease fire! Cease fire!” someone yelled from outside. “Friendly!”
Bree was up close to Jed and put a hand up for him to cease fire. “Yo, hold up with the SAW, Welch. Hold up. Save that ammo.” Bree went forward with his rifle at the ready. He called out, “Hey, who’s out there? We four-oh-one. Civil Affairs.”
“US Marines. Lance Corporal Maloof. I got three guys with me. We’re coming in.”
Jed lowered the SAW as the four Marines came into the storefront. They managed to get in without tripping over the mannequin. Bree greeted the first guy to come in. He said he was Maloof, and he introduced the other men.
“Pinzler, Tracy, and Stevens.”
They were all white dudes. Maloof gave a few words of command and the three Marines formed a perimeter at the front of the shop. They lifted their weapons and scanned the area, taking in every inch of the scene. One of them stayed facing out to the street, roving his muzzle back and forth while the other two switched between watching the street and watching Bree and his guys.
“The rally point is moved two blocks away,” Maloof said. “There’s a fire station there that’s supposed to have survivors. We just got word from your actual on that.”
“You got radio to them?” Bree asked.
Maloof nodded and patted a mic slung over his shoulder.
Jed didn’t miss the cagey look that went over Bree’s face.
I bet these guys did do something really fucked up to get away back on the boulevard. Like worse than running away fucked up.
“We’re heading to the fire station,” Maloof said. “Who’s in charge here?”
He looked at Jed when he asked the question, but Bree spoke up before Jed could say anything.
“That’s me.”
“You’re an NCO.”
“Yeah, E-4. Corporal.”
Maloof didn’t buy it, that was clear. And Jed didn’t either. Bree might be E-4, but he was a Specialist at best.
“Who do you want on point, Corporal?” Maloof asked, and Jed could see he was fucking with Bree, trying to catch him out. When Bree didn’t answer right away, Maloof saved them all the trouble.
“We’ll put Stevens up front. Your squad can take the middle, Corporal. Me and my guys’ll cover the rear. Stevens, move out.”
Jed watched the Marine step to the shattered window and check the street. He was gone a beat later, outside and out of sight. Jed heard his footsteps crunching through broken glass on the sidewalk.
“Let’s go,” Maloof said. “You on the SAW, what’s your name?”
“Welch. I used to be in the suck before this. Got picked up by Army Civil Affairs.”
“It isn’t the suck, Marine. It’s the Corps. You move out with us.”
Bree and the other guys looked like they would try to fight it, but Maloof held himself like an NCO, and gave orders like one. Bree waved at Sharpe, Marks, and Harney to join him by the window. Jed went to stand with Tracy and Pinzler. They followed Maloof out after Bree and the other Army guys left, and not for the first time that day, Jed found himself happy to be back with other Marines.
Maybe this is how it’s supposed to be. Only one way to find out, and that’s to keep on keepin’ on.
Jed let that chant run through his mind as he followed Maloof’s team down the street. Up ahead, about twenty meters, Stevens moved through the ruined mess of broken glass and smashed up cars, switching his aim left and right with every step. Jed hefted the SAW and did the same, watching high then low, and praying he wouldn’t have to squeeze the trigger again until they were all safe inside somewhere.
Upper East Side, Manhattan
Meg ran back to the shutters and climbed up to look out the window. Three soldiers were out there, facing off against a single monster in the middle of the street. It skittered back and forth on its claws, like it was trying to keep them penned in. One of them lowered his weapon and flinched, then turned back to look over his shoulder.
The monster on the street flew forward and tackled the man, right in between the other two soldiers. Meg slammed a fist against the steel shutter.
“Who’s out there?” Jason said, coming up beside her.
“The Army. Soldiers. I don’t know!”
They both watched through the window as the two remaining soldiers killed the monster and the man it had brought down. Then the soldiers moved out of sight, coming across the street and in their direction.
More gunfire crackled from somewhere nearby. Then shouted commands and yelling. One of the soldiers outside ran into the street and was waving at someone. Meg tried to get a look at who he was signaling, but her attention was ripped away by Jason whispering, “Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
A swarm of the monsters poured out of the buildings across the street. Meg’s breath caught in her thr
oat as the other soldier she’d seen stepped into the street and started shooting at the monsters. But there were so many.
There’s no way he’ll hit them all. Those men are going to die.
Upper East Side, Manhattan
The fire station was just two blocks up, Maloof had said. Those were the longest two blocks of Jed’s life. He could just make out Stevens up at the front, moving in a crouch and darting his muzzle up and down, left and right, as he went. Every few paces, he’d give the signal to hold up while he rushed ahead a bit. Then he’d backpedal and wave them forward.
Every time they stopped, Jed imagined the monsters jumping from the windows to take out the civilians and the LT from before. But nothing came down on top of them. Maloof had put him at the very rear, behind Tracy and Pinzler, so at least he could get away again if he had to.
“Keep that SAW up, Welch. And watch our rear.”
At the next corner, Jed spotted the fire station halfway down the block, in between two high rises. The station faced a street that t-boned into the block. A fire truck sat halfway around the corner of the side street; the truck had smashed into the nose of a car there.
Stevens crouched at the near end of the fire truck with Bree and the others just a few meters behind him, all hiding behind a smashed up taxi cab that the truck must have creamed. Maloof, Tracy, and Pinzler held up a little bit behind those guys; they hunkered down around an SUV the fire truck had swiped before it hit the cab. Red paint streaked the taxi and SUV in long lines that looked a lot like blood, only it didn’t drip down the side.
Jed sat on his heels with his back against a newspaper stand on the sidewalk. He tried to get a look at Stevens, hoping the guy would move out to the fire station so they could get off this damn street.
“Welch, you watching our ass?” Maloof asked from over his shoulder
“Yeah,” Jed said, turning back to look the way they’d come. He didn’t see anything so he went back to eyeballing the back of Steven’s helmet, willing the guy to just move the fuck out and bang on the fire station door.
“Welch, last fucking time I’m telling you. Watch our ass.”
“Yeah,” he said, catching Maloof’s eye. “Rah.”
Maloof turned away from Jed, shaking his head. He patted the others on the shoulders and they moved up to where Bree and his guys were hiding. Maloof tapped Bree on the back and said something to him. Bree’s face pinched up fast, like he was pissed off and about to start swinging, but he went back to that goofy grin of his just as fast. Bree and Maloof said a few more things to each other; their mouths moved but Jed couldn’t hear what was being said. Then Bree had his guys come back closer to Jed, near the trashed SUV.
“Yo, Welch.”
“Yeah.”
“Maloof said to give me the SAW. You go on up and join them. Here,” Bree said, handing over his M16. He put it on the ground next to Jed and held his hands out for the SAW.
Jed kept his eye on the fire station door for a beat before unslinging the heavy weapon. Bree almost snatched it out of his hands and whipped the sling over his neck and shoulders in a single motion, like he’d practiced doing it.
Probably was a SAW gunner himself. Dude for sure ain’t no fucking corporal.
Jed lifted Bree’s rifle and made to move out, but Bree put a hand up.
“Ammo, man. Give it here.”
Bree almost had the SAW aiming right at Jed’s gut. And his finger was on the trigger.
Jed lifted the ammo pouches off and set them on the ground next to Bree. He knew he’d just fucked himself and the rest of the team, but there was nothing he could do. It wouldn’t matter if Jed was infected or not. Bree would light him up if it meant he could get away with the SAW in his hands. The guy was nuts.
“It needs a reload,” Jed said, moving off to join the Marines by the taxi cab. When he came up, they were talking over how to approach the fire station.
About time somebody starts thinking. We’re fucked if we stay out here.
“Gotta get up there. Signal them to open up,” Maloof was saying as Jed came up.
“If they’re still in there,” Pinzler said.
“Fuck else they gonna be?” Maloof said back, but seemed to rethink the idea a second later. “If they’re compromised, we’ll shelter in place nearby. The other teams are supposed to rally here at the intersection. We should pop smoke. Stevens, you still got it?”
Stevens shook his head. Then his eyes met Jed’s.
“Welch?”
Maloof spun around. “Welch, what—where’s the SAW?”
As one, the group of Marines looked back to see Bree and his guys sneaking off the way they’d come. At the corner, Bree turned around and put Harney down with a short burst. Bree and the others were out of sight half a second later.
Jed rammed his elbow into the taxi cab.
“Dammit!”
A scraping sound shook Jed and he looked everywhere to find the source. The door to the fire station was opening. But nobody came out. No Marines to wave them inside, and no firefighters to welcome them in either.
The street was dead silent.
Silent like your daddy’s own grave.
His mom used to say that to him. Back when she still wanted him around but didn’t want to answer his questions.
You just be silent, Jed.
He wondered why that memory came back to him right now. Of all the things he could think about, why’d he go back to his mom and how much of a bitch she’d been when he was a kid?
The sound of rushing water broke his concentration and he looked at the fire station door again. Water poured out from under the door, but it looked dirty as fuck. Then Jed realized what he was seeing and nearly threw up.
A flood of bloody water, mixed with bits of who the hell knew what came spilling out from under the door. It was like someone had a fire hydrant turned on in there and was shooting it out into the street the way Jed and Chips used to do with little kids in the summertime.
Only this wasn’t the kind of water you’d want to go splashing around in. He could make out body parts, arms and legs, and whole torsos with limbs still on them. Except these weren’t human bodies. Some of the monsters must have got inside the station, but if they were being washed out, that meant it was still safe to get inside.
The bodies and blood continued to spill into the street until the flood suddenly stopped. The door didn’t go back down right away. Jed wanted to run up there and tell whoever was inside that they were out here.
The crunch of glass under boots came to his ears and Jed snapped his head up. He and the other Marines all scanned left and right. Maloof shuffled forward, around the cab’s front bumper
“What do you see?” Stevens asked.
“Nothing.”
Jed had grown pretty damn sick of waiting for dudes with no rank and no sense to tell him what he already knew. And this waiting shit, plus they were down a SAW because of fucking Five-Finger Bree . . . No, because of Jed’s stupid ass letting it go. They were out in the open and under-armed.
“We gotta get inside. Let’s go, man.”
“We’re supposed wait here for the other teams to rally,” Pinzler said. “Then we go in.”
“Nah, man. Let’s go already.”
“Keep that attitude under wraps, Marine,” Maloof said, coming back from around the cab’s bumper. “We were told to hold, we hold.”
Jed had it, right there.
Marine? I ain’t no fucking Marine.
“This ain’t the Corps anymore, man. Look the fuck around you and tell me where you see the Corps. Tell me where you see anything but shit or hell. Man, fuck this.”
Jed ignored Maloof’s face and the hand he put up. With a grunt, Jed moved out into the street. The fire station door was going back down now. He jogged toward it, but froze after a couple of steps, stopping in the middle of the street. A shriek sliced into the silence around Jed. He spun around to see a monster on top of the fire truck; it was wearing a ripped up AC
U and still had boots on. The thing stared down at the other Marines.
Another shriek followed from about a block away, echoing through the urban canyon between the buildings. Jed lifted his rifle, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.
Nothing happened.
That sonofabitch!
Jed backpedaled like mad, dropping the magazine as he moved. Maloof and the others came up and fired at the thing on the truck. It went down, but two more leaped up to take its place. They’d been hiding behind the truck.
Fucking waiting us out. Shit!
Maloof got one of them on the truck, but the other one leaped and scrambled to avoid the Marine’s shots. Pinzler pivoted and fired just as Stevens dodged to one side. Pinzler’s shot went right into Stevens’ back. Jed couldn’t move as he watched the Marine go down on his face.
“Fuck! Watch your fire!” Maloof shouted, twisting around Tracy and letting off a burst at the thing just as it jumped from the truck to the top of the taxi cab. Every bullet missed. It flew forward then, launching from the cab in a jump to land behind the Marines, putting it between them and Jed.
“Welch, move it!” Maloof shouted. He, Tracy, and Pinzler held their aim on the thing, but they couldn’t fire with Jed standing behind it. The Marines shifted to their left. The monster followed their movement so it was still in between them and Jed.
Things are smart as hell. This is not real. This cannot be real.
Jed shifted left and then right, backing up as he moved, but the monster must have heard him moving, or somehow sensed where he was. It stayed smack between him and the other Marines. Jed was on the sidewalk now, and had fished a new magazine from his pouch. It was his last one.
He could run and hide somewhere.
Jed ditched the thoughts of abandoning the other Marines. He’d do what he could to help them out, but he was still getting inside the fire station whether they came with him or not. He slammed his mag home and charged his weapon. The monster in the street leaped toward the other Marines with its clawed hands out. Tracy’s face went white and he dropped his weapon, putting his hands up like he could hide from the monster. It tackled him, putting him on his back right between Maloof and Pinzler.
