Whatever It Takes To Survive

by Mike Staton

  Kat thought she heard the soft click of a weapon being raised. She backed swiftly away from the door. She nearly lost her balance and toppled down the stairs when one foot suddenly slid out into thin air.

  She recoiled, darted her eyes up, then back down the stairs. Neither direction presented an immediate solution to her predicament as neither had an escape route for her.

  Up had Gloria, which packed far more punch than her dinky .22. She could also fire off the flare gun, and… It was a long way down if she jumped from the steeple. It would take all of two seconds to find her on the stairwell or at the top of the tower. She raised her .22 and backed down the stairwell. If she were lucky she could hide among the shadows and take the men down one by one.

  She put steel into her gut. These were the men who’d destroyed her home and casually remarked with disappointment of how long it was taking to rape this town. She licked her lips and backed down a couple of the dark steps. Someone rattled the door. Kat froze for a moment.

  A solid thud shook the door and dug the chair into the carpet. Kat skirted backward down the stairs as a second impact shook the door.

  Chapter 22

  Percival stormed across the sanctuary of the church. His flashlight beam cut a swath through the darkness granted by the boarded up windows and the earliness of the hour. He’d not slept, one part coughing from Samuel, one part anxiousness for his missing team member. His missing savior and friend.

  The corpses outside should have been the first indicator something was amiss; fresh zombies with clean headshots at the outer wall of the church. To Percival, the holes in the heads of the zombies looked too large for Kat’s .22 and he couldn’t see her wasting precious .30-06 bullets on a tiny, comparatively, horde assaulting her position. And the bullet holes had been made straight on, rather than at a downward angle.

  When Kat’d not been at the front entry way to greet them, it’d sent all sorts of red flags up in his mind. Lieutenant Adams didn’t seem too concerned, however, waving his worry away with a ‘she’s likely still in her nest at the top of the steeple.’

  And with that gram of information, he’d set out to check there first. Regardless of the noise he made in doing so. He hit the door at the back of the sanctuary hard enough to pop it clear into the wall on which it hung.

  “Percival! Slow down!” Samuel charged after him.

  Percival hit the stairs at a dead run, ignoring the man behind him. He swept up the spiral staircase two at a time, his flashlight bobbing a beam ahead of him. There was no way that Kat wouldn’t have heard them by now.

  Of course, charging headlong into her hiding spot might get him shot. And she was a good enough shooter to not miss. “Kat? Kat! Are you here?”

  He rounded the top of the stair and out into the very top of the steeple.

  “She’s not here, Mister Polz,” Andrina whispered to him. “The door to this stairwell was barred by the broken chair you hopped over to get this far. Someone’s come for her and it wasn’t you.”

  * * *

  Kat heard the door slam open and the chair topple with the third strike. A cascade of lights from flashlights aided her in her descend to the basement.

  “Someone’s here. Tried to bar the door with a stupid chair.” A softer male voice chased her downward. “Yeltz, you’re with me checking the steeple. Hall, you’re with Restro. Start on the basement. Go by the numbers, no stupid risks, you get me? We’ll join you shortly.”

  “Yes, Corporal,” Hall, baritone, answered.

  * * *

  Percival shook the dead teacher’s thoughts out of his head as Samuel caught up to him.

  He drew in a deep breath and took a slower look around the top of the steeple. There was a discarded, multicolor blanket near the multifaceted cross at the center of the steeple, but nothing else to even indicate Kat’d ever been there.

  “Percival?” Samuel’s voice cut through the haze that’d suddenly enveloped Percival’s mind.

  “Downstairs. She might be downstairs.” Percival pushed past Samuel and sped down the stairs. He passed Lieutenant Adams and Judith at the landing for the second floor. He called out: “She’s not up there,” as he passed them.

  He heard responses, but didn’t recognize the words in his rush down the stairs. He hopped smoothly over the demolished chair that his dead teacher had clued him into. He landed, stopped for a moment and checked the chair. It’d dug into the carpet enough to leave twin tears.

  Evidence enough for him to continue quickly down. Maybe she’d caught them flatfooted in the basement and taken down everyone who’d caught her in the church. Maybe she was hurt.

  His pace quickened as he bounded down the stairs. He hit the landing hard enough to cause him to stumble and almost trip. His light swept around the new space he’d entered and illuminated blank, cream walls decorated with various Christian pictures and posters.

  His beam froze on a dark hole punched right through Jesus’s forehead.

  * * *

  The light grew in intensity and Kat spun on her stair. She moved as quickly as she could while remaining silent down the remaining stairs. Two heavy footed men followed after her.

  She hit the basement floor and dashed forward. If she could hide… She shook her head. There’d be no hiding. Corporal Simon knew she was there and she doubted that he’d give up looking until she was found. She cursed herself for leaving Gloria in the tower. It was further evidence of her presence.

  As she kicked herself for the stupidity and for letting them get to the church unnoticed in the first place, a man in Army green digital camouflage rounded the bottom stair and swept his flashlight across her.

  She raised her .22 and popped a quick two shots at him without hesitation or thinking. The first splintered the drywall next to his head. The second rang off his helmet and lodged lead across the ceiling.

  “Fuck me!” A burst of automatic fire from Hall’s M16 tore chunks out of the wall near Kat as he ducked back into the stairwell.

  “Watch your fire!” Corporal Simon shouted from above. He sounded distant and dissonant. “We need them alive to answer questions.”

  * * *

  “Shit.” Percival swept his flashlight over the wall. Someone’d peppered the wall with a spray of gunfire. He’d come to recognize bullet holes in plaster and drywall nearly as well as when they were in a body. He took a couple steps into the room and turned back to the way he’d entered. He swept the light over the wall and spotted a single tiny hole.

  “.22,” he muttered to himself as Samuel hit the landing.

  Samuel’s hand shot up and deflected Percival’s flashlight beam. “Watch where you point that. Just about blinded me.”

  “Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!” Percival swore several more times as he turned away. The .22 hole was right at head level. Someone had chased Kat down here and a firefight had ensued.

  * * *

  “He nearly blew Hall’s head off!” Restro’s voice was surprisingly gentle sounding.

  “Then keep behind cover for now,” Simon’s reply came after a moment’s hesitation. Apparently he’d not heard her .22’s softer shots.

  Kat kept her .22 raised as she backed away. Her heart found her throat and she couldn’t keep track of how many rounds she’d fired. Two or three? She silently cursed the lack of stopping power presented by her .22. Gloria would’ve made short work of the helmet that’d shattered her .22 bullet.

  “Whoever’s in the basement of this church,” it sounded as though Simon had reached the corner of the basement stairwell. “Lay down your arms and no harm with come to you. We’re all jumpy and I won’t hold your assault of my man against you.”

  “Meaning the greatest amount of offense, fuck you.” Kat reached the hallway leading to more classrooms and storage. She could pick one and hide, but that’d only delay the inevitable. And they, or at least one of them, wanted her alive. That wasn’t true in the opposite direction.

  “That’s not a wise answer, miss,” Simon said.


  “A girl shot you dude,” Restro chuckled.

  “Fuc—“ Hall was cut off by a stern whisper that Kat couldn’t make out.

  Nor could she quite hear what passed between the group of soldiers next. She backed further into the hallway and right up to the second doorway. She stopped just in time to hear the soft clatter of a grenade on the carpet.

  * * *

  “What?” Samuel’s gaze swept the surroundings as well, taking in the damage done in the fight that they’d missed. He brought his light to head level near the door. “Shit. What’s that you’re standing on?”

  Percival looked at his feet. A tiny scorch mark resided near the toe of his left boot. He swept his flashlight around the room once more and found the dull, black, discarded casing of a grenade of some sort.

  “Flashbang.” Lieutenant Adams appeared at the door to the stairwell. She took a quick glance around the room. Her flashlight settled on something at the base of the wall. “She’s not here, but put up a fight.”

  “No shit.” Percival swept away from her. If he spent any more time near the woman, he might do something he’d later regret. He walked further into the basement.

  “This is YOUR fault,” Samuel practically shouted. “You left her behind!”

  Percival swept his light past the partially closed first door and went right to the completely open second. He paused and crouched down by a couple splotches of crusty brown. Someone’d bled down here, and recent enough that with a little spit, the brown turned back to red.

  * * *

  Kat ducked quickly into the room as the grenade went off with a chest shattering ‘whomp!’ and a blinding bright flash. Kat barely shoved the door closed before disorientation slammed her to her knees and rolled her senses. The world rang with a bad case of tinnitus, likely only her earplugs had saved her from a worse fate. She’d even suffered only slightly from the flash, but it was enough to render her marginally disabled.

  She scrambled for her rifle as she saw the door she’d shoved closed pushed strangely silently back open. Two big men with slightly overlapping outlines stood in the doorway. He wore the same green digital camouflage as the man she’d shot. It took her a moment to realize it was the same guy who’d caught her initial bullet on his helmet.

  She swept her .22 around only to have it roughly kicked from her hands by Hall. He followed through and brought his M16 to point at her.

  * * *

  Percival stood and shook his head. “Fuck me, Kat. You’d better still be kicking.”

  A crash drew him back into the hallway.

  Lieutenant Adams had Samuel on the ground in a bent wrist lock. “Tensions are tight, right now. So I’ll forgive you for this transgression against my person, Samuel. Try it again and I’ll break your arm.”

  Samuel grunted in response. He struggled futilely and briefly against Lieutenant Adams’s hold. She twisted ever so slightly and he let out a squeak of pain and froze.

  “Do you get me?” Lieutenant Adams kept hold on Samuel’s arm as her helmeted head rose to gaze at Percival.

  “He gets you, Lieutenant Adams. Let go.” Percival stopped as the hallway opened up to the small room where the firefight had erupted.

  “I’ll hear him say it.”

  “I get you. No touching the angry little chick. Gotcha,” Samuel grunted.

  Lieutenant Adams threw his arm down and took a swift step back.

  Samuel rolled away from her and sat up, rubbing his shoulder. He shot a glare of pure venom at Lieutenant Adams.

  “Samuel, head up and find Judith. Get to the top of the steeple and recon.” Percival watched Samuel not respond to his words. He cleared his throat and spoke louder. “Samuel! Find Judith. Watch for the dead and living from the steeple.”

  Samuel’s head snapped to face Percival. A burning rage practically gave light to his eyes. He punctuated the look with one long bout of hacking coughs. When he stilled from the coughing fit, he pushed himself to his feet. “Consider it done.”

  He turned and moved into the stairwell.

  Lieutenant Adams started to move after him.

  “Lieutenant Adams? A moment.” Percival rested both his hands on the top of his M16 as it hung from its sling. He did his best to ooze patience and calm.

  Lieutenant Adams froze at the base of the stairs, her back to him. Her shoulders rolled forward for half a moment before straightening. It was almost as though she’d simply been stretching them, before she turned around. “What is it?”

  “I’m not going to lambast you for putting Samuel on the ground. He likely deserved it. But, as you said, tension’s high.”

  “Get to the point, Polz. If you’re going to shout at me for Kat’s missing status, you can go ahead and blow it out your—“

  “Hardly. It wouldn’t help her or me.” Percival cut her off. “I think this situation is your fault and a bad decision, but it’s not going to help us get her back. I need to know what the plan is.”

  “You snobby little shit.” Lieutenant Adams’s helmeted head shook back and forth.

  “Name calling isn’t getting us where we need to be.” Percival made the conscious effort of not folding his arms over his chest. “We’re wasting time.”

  Lieutenant Adams shook her head once more. She pulled her helmet off. “Got the map with you still?”

  “I’m not accustomed to pitching things that might be useful to me.” Percival shifted his M16 aside and took the map out of his inside jacket pocket. He held it out to her.

  Lieutenant Adams plucked the map from his fingers and opened it. She moved to a nearby table, set her helmet down, and spread the map out. She slid her flashlight off her carbine and held it high enough to illuminate the map clearly.

  Percival moved up next to her and looked down at the map. “We’re here. And the horde is here, though it would seem that whatever noise was caused here last night or early this morning was sufficient to bring about a few of the stragglers given the state of the lawn.”

  “Some of those corpses were there when we scouted the place yesterday.” Lieutenant Adams swept her finger to a spot due north.

  “That didn’t raise a red flag?” Percival asked.

  “Saw a Humvee here or so. It stands to reason that they may be holed up in that vicinity.” Lieutenant Adams ignored his question. She swept her finger around several surrounding streets. “We start with a scouting from the steeple here. If we’re dealing with morons or careless SOBs, they’ll have left the Humvee out in front of wherever they’re calling home here in the town.”

  “And if they’ve trekked back to the campsite we came across the other day?” Percival folded his arms over his chest as he studied the map. The campsite wasn’t on the creased and folded piece of paper. It didn’t stop his gaze from trailing off the map’s edge to the approximate place it would reside.

  “We deal with that prospect when we get to it.” Lieutenant Adams rested her hand atop her helmet. “Campsite’s half a day’s hike from here. Too long to risk being wrong. If they used the Humvee to carry her away…”

  “What?”

  “Did you check the rest of the rooms down here for her?” Lieutenant Adams asked. Her gaze swept away from his and studied the darkness past him.

  “Just the one. Was a fight in it, couple drops of freshish blood on the carpet.”

  “From what we’ve seen, these guys collect their dead but leave the others behind.” Lieutenant Adams turned away from the map entirely and clicked her flashlight back to the rail on her carbine.

  “If they’ve suffered casualties from the communities they’ve been attacking.” Percival lifted his light to shine into the darkness once more. “She didn’t answer my calls.”

  “If she’s nothing more than a corpse, she wouldn’t be able to.” Lieutenant Adams’s tone came out harsh and terse. She moved ahead of Percival and into the darkness. “As little as I want to admit it, I’m looking for a corpse, not Kat.”

  Percival snapped his mouth shut with a click of
his teeth. He clamped down hard on a wave of grief as he told himself they’d not find Kat’s cold, stiff body down here. He took several deep breaths to calm himself as he followed Lieutenant Adams to the first room. A classroom. It didn’t take long to search it and move on to the next, the same he’d poked his head into.

  Lieutenant Adams bent down next to the spots of blood on the cream carpet. “Not much here. I’d not think this came from a serious wound, maybe a nick or something.”

  “We’re putting together a puzzle that we don’t know the shape or size of the pieces. Or even what the overall picture is.”

  “Yet.” Lieutenant Adams rose from her crouch after sweeping the room with her flashlight. “We don’t know the puzzle yet. We know the picture is one of a fight between Kat and her assailants. The assailants, we assume, are the rogue military unit here.”

  Percival shook his head at her cold and clinical tone. He backed out of the room and moved down the hallway and into the next room. The search went silently and by the time they finished the final room, a cramped storage area with far too many stacked tables, it became blatantly obvious that Percival’s original assumption had been correct.

  * * *

  Not thinking clearly, Kat shoved the barrel aside and slammed her palm into his femoral artery and small fist into his groin in a swift one-two-three combo that dropped him to the basement floor.

  Kat pushed herself to standing. She tried to deliver a finishing stomp to one of Hall’s three throats only to get blindsided by a Mack Truck which had no business being in the basement. The impact drove her into the darkness of unconsciousness.

  * * *

  Percival realized Kat had fought someone and lost.

  He led the way back to the initial room and scooped his map up. He folded it neatly back into its rectangle.