Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 7): The Trinity

by Chris Philbrook

  “Hey what the fuck Kev? Where’s the M203? What gives? You holding out on me?” Adrian asked incredulously.

  “The fuck you need a grenade launcher for? Are you fucking serious?” Kevin asked, just as incredulously.

  “Kiss my ass. I’d rather have it and not need it, than need and not have it,” Adrian said, sulking.

  “Yeah well when you’re in better shape and you can prove you can carry the weight of the grenades we can revisit this conversation. Until then, you’ll just have to be satisfied with five hundred plus rounds per minute out of your fully automatic rifle sir,” Kevin sipped his tea.

  “I wonder how many rounds it’s gonna take to drop that fucking ghost?” Adrian asked to the air, admiring his weapon.

  “Just one if you aim it well enough.”

  *****

  Two more days had passed since Adrian had received his gift from Kevin.

  “Movement,” was the single word that Hal uttered over the comms when the image appeared in the dark of night again. He’d seen the insubstantial flash of movement in almost the exact same spot as the other night. It was right at the very base of the rear gate.

  Not far away at all Adrian and Kevin sat in the maintenance garage office, looking out over the parking lot through dingy glass windows. The two men had just finished reminiscing about a night in Iraq they’d spent on the roof of a home, waiting for insurgents to attack their FOB. The men’s quiet laughter died abruptly when they heard Hal.

  “Rear gate?” Adrian asked quickly as the two men leapt to their feet.

  “Aye. Same as before,” Hal responded.

  “We’re mobile. Everyone else get moving as well. We’re headed to the back gate to follow,” Adrian said to everyone listening as he and Kevin bolted out the door, heading towards the massive wooden gate that separated their small amount of reclaimed world from the wilds filled with undead beyond.

  *****

  Adrian’s heart hammered in the dark as if it were trying to push its way out of his chest straight through his ribs. All of his running and working out had brought his body back from its withered state, but he was still nowhere near the man he was prior.

  He took one slow step after another in the dark depths of the forest that surrounded the school. The trees here were still thicker than he wanted, and the undergrowth was the same. It required careful planting of the feet to avoid tripping, and to keep good lanes of fire. Adrian wore on his brow the standard issue night vision gear the Air Force men used when they were active duty. The light amplification technology skewed the towering trees, squat stones, and fallen timber into a visual maze of green hues. He hadn’t used night vision equipment since his days in Iraq, and he was stumbling around nervously, trying to see where he was going as well as look for danger coming from every direction.

  At the rear gate they had seen nothing. No footprints, no rope, no markings on the ground to indicate the passage of the living. The camera didn’t pick up which direction the figure had moved off in, so when Kevin and Adrian exited the thick and high walls of the settlement, they stuck together out of habit, moving as a pair. Ranger buddies live together, and Ranger buddies die together. The two men moved in sync, performing a lethal task they had perfected years ago on the same battlefront they had just remembered fondly.

  Kevin was twenty paces to his right at most. Adrian didn’t need to look over to find him he simply knew that would be where his friend was. The others that had joined them on their hunt under the moonlight were scattered across the forest in an approximation of a line. They were sweeping outwards to search for signs of the passage of the tiny ethereal creature that had foiled their wall and gate. After nearly an hour of searching in the frigid air of the December night, nothing had been found.

  Adrian heard a miniscule noise far off to his left, towards where he believed Fitz was walking. Adrian’s hearing had been damaged by years of intense gunfire, but this noise reached him. He swept his weapon in the direction of the noise and focused on the black and green landscape of the night. He activated the microphone at his throat to tell the others of the strange noise, “Noise. Between Fitz and I. Twig breaking maybe.”

  Three voices responded, acknowledging Adrian’s message. The Mohawked man pressed forward slowly, freezing when his enhanced vision picked up on Fitz’s body. He was closer than Adrian realized. The two men closed in on an area of rocky ground that appeared to be the remnants of an ancient field of boulders, long since overgrown by the trees and brush of the upstart forest. Dead space between the piled up stones created ominous hiding spots that caused Adrian’s heart to flutter hard once more. Adrian’s mind began to race wild, returning to that dark moment when the bullet impacted the back of his neck. He felt tightness in his chest, and an illogical burning in his neck. His focused mind wandered, remembering details better left in the past. His breathing was getting out of control, and his face, despite the cold air, was covered in nervous sweat. He choked down the anxiety that was moments away from paralyzing him.

  “Contact,” Fitz said with ease. Fitz lifted the muzzle of his weapon and stroked the trigger smoothly, shattering the quiet of the dark wood. The fully automatic flashes barked from the tip of the barrel, sending the night vision into a flurry that made Adrian blink. He should be used to that, but wasn’t. The tremendous roar of the automatic gunfire shook the branches of the pine trees, freeing a fine white mist of snow to cascade down. It appeared like thin green speckles of fog falling from the tree cover to Adrian.

  As Adrian struggled to maintain his breathing, and shove down the memories that threatened to take over, he saw another flash of movement. It came over the top of the largest stone directly in front of Adrian, and came straight at him, plunging down from above. Adrian’s muscle memory moved his new rifle up at the tiny form that had launched itself at him. As it flew, suspended almost in slow motion in mid air, Adrian’s finger was paralyzed with fear. In the green tint of his vision he saw as clear as his reflection in the morning mirror that he was aiming at a young girl, garbed in tattered, dirty clothing.

  As the tiny girl’s feral face twisted up into a snarl, Adrian spun his rifle butt up, clipping her right on the jaw. Her emaciated form tumbled to the frozen ground, limp and unconscious. Adrian stood over her facedown body as his chest heaved. He licked his lips and forced his breathing to obey him.

  Breathe. Breathe. It's over. It's over. It happened and is done. You are alive and well. You are safe. Focus Adrian. Focus.

  Within a few seconds he felt his heart fall back into line. Kevin, Fitz, and Kyle, another of Kevin’s men surrounded him almost immediately, and took stock of the tiny form. They didn't notice Adrian's dismay in the darkness, and for that the big man was thankful. Fitz dropped to a knee and rolled her over, revealing the tiny girl’s face. She could be no more than thirteen, and looked gaunt. It was no wonder she left no footprints in the hard ground.

  “Ho-ly shit that was close,” Fitz said, rubbing his cheeks nervously with his free hand. He’d nearly blown a small girl in half.

  “Nice call brother. Good instincts,” Kevin patted Adrian on the shoulder, congratulating him on his restraint.

  Adrian knew fear, not restraint or experience had stayed his finger. He would’ve pulled the trigger the same as Fitz were it not for the staggering cowardice and confusion that had prevented him from doing so.

  Adrian smiled at his friend, keeping his secret, and his shame to himself.

  *****

  Adrian sat in the cool plastic school chair, watching the freshly cleaned girl sleep. She was a stranger, that much they knew. Michelle and Lindsey couldn’t place her age, but they both agreed with Adrian’s first assessment. She could be no older than 13.

  The girl slept curled into the fetal position on a single bed in a central bedroom in Hall C, the dorm that the most militant of the settlement’s survivors lived in. Someone had taken the time to nail a few boards across the window, preventing her from being able to escape. In the room wi
th Adrian and the sleeping girl was Michelle.

  “How is she?” Adrian asked.

  Michelle wagged her head, showing indecision. “I don’t know. She woke up in the morning, freaked out some. Didn’t say a word to anyone. I had to have Joel hold her still. She tried to bite me, and actually bit Joel on the forearm. Fortunately, she isn’t undead. Joel nearly had a heart attack.”

  “I can totally empathize.”

  Michelle looked over to Adrian, her eyes filled with a sincerity towards him he had yet to see from her. “I wanted to thank you for not shooting her. Fitz is beating himself up over nearly killing her. I’d hate to see you return to action and have your first incident be shooting a little girl.”

  “Yeah there’s no coming back from that emotionally. I don’t need that problem. I’ve already got 99 problems. Fortunately, a plow isn’t one.”

  “What?” Michelle asked, laughing.

  “Never mind. Old, bad joke.” Adrian smiled at his own stupidity. “What now? Is she salvageable? Can we fix her? Is she a fully baked cookie or do we still have some dough to work with?”

  “I really don’t know. She needs food, water, warmth, safety. From the looks of her, she’s been eating next to nothing for a very long time. Judging by how she didn’t speak, and tried to bite us and scratch us, it stands to reason she’s been alone a very long time. Might be weeks before we get anywhere with her. Anywhere at all.” Michelle seemed sad at the girl’s prospects.

  Adrian sighed. “Well, if she becomes too much of a burden we can have a long and hard discussion. But let's avoid that as long as we can,” Adrian said, but Michelle knew from the tone of his voice that talk would probably never come.

  “Adrian, we’re the Trinity formed. We’re here to save mankind. If we can’t save this one little girl, what hope do we have of saving the entire world? This little girl is one more test. One more hurdle to jump.”

  Adrian looked deep into the woman’s eyes, and let the statement sink in. He feared the worst was yet to come for what remained of his friends and family.

  December 19th

  My heart has never pounded so hard.

  I can’t go into tremendous detail right now, because I am fucking exhausted, but last night we made contact with, and apprehended the wraith on the video. Despite all the fucking weirdness, and visual shenanigans, it was just a young girl. 12 or 13 at most.

  She’s dirty, skinny, and straight up feral. I left Hall C where we are keeping her about an hour ago. Michelle is sitting with her, keeping her company, and making sure she's safe. She tried to bite a few of us, and was held as a result. We’re trying to keep her safe. Michelle wants to try and rehabilitate her, and I’m all for it. I don’t know what the sense is though. I mean shit, we’ll give it a few weeks, and if she isn’t better, we can’t keep devoting resources to a crazy little girl.

  But as Michelle said, maybe we HAVE to. Maybe we HAVE to try and support this kid. Maybe that’s the point in all of this. Maybe showing compassion, and dedication is part of what we need to do to reclaim this shit filled world back from the hell that was vomited onto it? Maybe that's the mark of compassion that we need to show to get out of this clusterfuck.

  I don’t know. I’m thinking I might just wash my hands of this, and let Michelle deal with it. Maybe I should stick to things I understand, like firing pins, and bolts, and magazines. And porn.

  Fitz nearly stitched the little girl last night when we were searching for her. She showed up on camera and we mobilized fast. Long story short, Fitz sees movement in the woods near some large rocks, and he just opens up. Luckily nothing hit the girl, and like a goddamn acrobat she jumped over a rock, and more or less right on top of me.

  I had her dead to rights with my brand spanking new M4A1 too. I couldn’t pull the trigger. I froze. It was like, too much to do. I don’t know how I managed to recover in time, but I swung the butt of the rifle up, and caught the kid on the chin instead of shooting her, sending her to la-la-land by the time she hit the ground. Good luck on both our parts I suppose.

  Fitz is beating himself up pretty hard over this though. He almost killed a little girl, and it is sitting hard on him. I just talked to him for a few minutes, and he’s putting his head back together again. I’m worried he’s going to start suffering like I am. Or have been.

  I need to rest. I only got an hour of sleep this morning after all of last night’s hullabaloo. I’ll try and write more in a day or two. Hopefully she starts talking, and we can figure out if she’s just a lost, dirty kid, and not some kind of spy for another group that’s new to the area.

  -Adrian

  December 22nd

  Well some things have come into focus here since I last had time to write. Not a ton of things, but a few bits that have made life make a little more sense.

  I forget which day and when. I think it was the 20th? Maybe the 19th? Anyway, we mounted a pretty intense search of the woods in the back of campus to try and find out where what when why and how the fuck that little girl was able to move about so easily. The first few items discovered were key. We found a twenty foot length of rope with a small anchor attached to it. It must’ve been taken from one of the rowboats down on the school's waterfront. The anchor and rope combination were being used by the girl as a makeshift grappling hook to get over the rear gate.

  This makes her strange appearance much more sensible you see. If she scaled the gate, which really isn’t all that much of a feat with some rope, when she dropped down on the outside, her body would literally just “appear” on the camera, as if she materialized. Two of the guys tested the trick the other night, and it’s spot on. She could free the rope with a fairly good tug, and she slipped away to stash the rope in that batch of rocks where we found her.

  From there, the team found a path worn through the woods that ran for about three miles. Littered along the way they found wrappers and empty boxes of the food we were missing. They didn’t collect all the trash, but from what Joel and Blake were saying, it was a dead match for what I felt we were missing. Jenna was very pleased to hear that. Turns out our own people were not thieves, just some random little girl from the woods.

  So anyhoo, we tracked the string of garbage back to a hunting cabin on a road to nowhere. It’s apparently an access road that leads to some power lines. Probably a road used by hunters and the utility people to get into the area where the large power lines are. They found the cabin, and breached it.

  Inside were the bodies of two adults, one male, one female. Spread around the corpses were dried up flowers, and pictures of a family that the girl was a member of. I haven’t visited the cabin yet, but they say the girl is in all the pictures. Blake said the bodies were mostly skeletal, but still had some juicy bits, which means that cabin was ripe. He also said that the mother appeared to have bite marks on her, and the father had a large wound to the head that was probably done with an axe or shovel. Mom looked to have been hit in the head with same weapon.

  I never worked as a CSI, but I’d say somehow Dad went ape shit, bit Mom, and Mom put him down with a garden weasel or something. That leaves our poor girl twisting in the wind after she has to brain her own fucking mom to stay alive.

  The cabin did not look recently lived in. There was no available heat, though there was a woodstove (which we will be removing and transporting back here immediately) and there was no food stored there. It appeared that the girl had been visiting there, like it was some kind of memorial for her parents. The guys grabbed a few changes of clothes for the girl (which was a waste, because they are all ripped and torn to crap) and they headed out. At the cabin on exit they engaged two zombies that had shambled into the area. Drawn by noise or perhaps movement.

  What that tells me is the girl was living here on campus. I wonder where? We searched the FUCK out of this place the other day looking for food, and found nothing. We are planning a search of outlying areas on campus where she might’ve been able to hide a tent or something. I think she was living i
nside the walls. I wonder if we trapped her inside with us when we were building?

  Hard to say. Operating on some theory here.

  Something that I am also wondering, is that if she is connected to the small groups of undead that we keep finding in random spots on the wall? Remember the other day Mr. Journal when I had to engage what? Five at the rear gate? I wonder if she had made noise outside the wall, and led them back here where they would just stand like dumb shits and wait for her. We see them first, take them down, and the girl is free to come and go as she pleases again. It makes a LOT of sense to me. The dead are drawn to movement, and if she was moving back there she might've drawn in the dead we had.

  I don’t know if it explains the group of undead Abby found near Hall E fully, but if Abby really did see this chick round the corner of the dorm, and saw some undead at the wall at the same spot, then there is a damn good chance the two facts are connected.

  Sigh. More questions I suppose.

  School is up and running. Michelle has been preoccupied with dealing with our new guest, and as a result, despite her being in charge of the school, she’s spending less time there than she should. She’s handed much of the teaching off to the aides, Melissa and Kim. They’re teaching basics that are age appropriate, and they’ve enlisted the kids in fun teaching activities like cooking, and making bracelets and stuff out of the endless fucking craft supplies here on campus. I was given three bracelets today, and Melissa told me to expect much more. I’m wearing all three. I think it’s important to validate the work these kids did, and frankly, they’re pretty cool. Very colorful.

  We’ve already begun the work on constructing the towers. Waiting for a few days was a good idea as it let the wood we’d been cutting down cure and dry. We were out of the good stuff anyway, and the few days of rest were nice. Good on the carpenter’s blisters, and it saved some backs from some sore nights.