by Jack Hunt
There were about fifteen soldiers left behind. Every single one of them was on alert. So much for hoping they would be too drunk to function.
I turned to see Ben moving in, Thomas closely following. A steep hill ran down behind the rental area. Under the cloak of darkness, they were hidden but if their idea was to sneak into the rental they had to have been out of their mind.
I felt I was reliving a scene from Salt Lake City.
My mind drifted back to my conversation with Ben in the café many years ago.
“Now you know what’s going down. Your father doesn’t want you anywhere near that place when we move in.”
“Fuck my father.”
“You know I could probably arrest you here and plant some dope on you?”
“Are you threatening me?” I said, leaning forward.
“I’m telling you what your father instructed. His orders were pretty clear. That you weren’t to be anywhere near that factory when we raid it. I was to make sure of that at all costs.”
“You go back and tell my father that I’m done listening to him. If he wants to arrest me, go ahead.”
“Elijah, can’t you understand, your father cares?”
I scoffed. “Yeah, he’s the real father of the year.”
That evening I was in that factory when Benjamin and the SWAT team raided. I had seen them approaching, creeping in. I was the only one who knew they were coming. In many ways I was hoping they would arrest me. But that wasn’t to be the case. By the time they showed up, all hell had broken loose. Z’s were everywhere.
Crouched down, I knew this was it. There was no easy way to do this. It was all going to come down to a full-on assault. I got up and raced through the forest to an area that gave me a good clear shot of the front entrance to the rental area. I pulled the pin holding the grenade tight and tossed it towards four men standing outside. It hit the ground. Two of them registered it but before they could flee it exploded. Their bodies were tossed like rag dolls.
I threw the next grenade towards those who were now rushing towards their fallen comrades. They fared slightly better. A few limbs blown off but they were still alive even if they were squirming around on the ground in agony.
Time was ticking. I figured the others in the jeeps would have turned around by now and be making their way back. I had one final grenade. I kept a hold of it because Benjamin had already tossed two of his and taken out even more soldiers. Thomas followed suit.
I advanced on the compound with my assault rifle using controlled bursts.
Benjamin slipped around the corner of the rental. Thomas provided cover while I approached from the east side and took out those who were firing at Thomas. Once Ben was inside it was just a matter of time now. I felt my pulse racing fast. My heart was pounding in my chest as I sprinted up to the lodge. I opened the door and ducked my head around the corner. Two shots fired and I pulled back. I had seen five more jarheads inside. I pulled the grenade and lobbed it across the floor. I heard it slide then explode. Seconds after smoke and dust poured out of the door I went in and fired on the remaining injured. I snatched up a few handguns, and a flash bang that one of them had on him.
As I came out I heard the rumble of approaching vehicles. This was it. I moved up to the corner of the lodge. Across the way at the other corner of the rental was Thomas.
“How many grenades you got?”
“One left.”
Come on, Benjamin.
I had no idea what was taking him so long. I gestured to Thomas to toss the grenade the moment the jeep came to a halt. The soldiers didn’t stand a chance. As their vehicle came to a halt and they attempted to jump out, Thomas tossed the grenade. It rolled under the vehicle. The explosion was so loud my ears were ringing. Soldiers in the jeep behind hopped out; Dixon and Marvin were two of them. Those idiots didn’t see it coming. I tossed the flashbang, which blinded the fuck out of them and then unleashed a rain of bullets that showed no mercy to who they hit. Dixon and Marvin dropped. Ben might have wanted them to live but I sure as hell didn’t. Maybe they hadn’t told them about us, perhaps they didn’t kill us today but they sure as hell weren’t going to take our side. If asked later, I would tell Ben they got caught in the crossfire. Maybe Ben was a humanitarian but I fucking wasn’t.
Three more jeeps of soldiers had reversed. They weren’t as stupid as the others. Under the cover of darkness, it would have been suicide to keep going.
Benjamin burst out the door, his assault rifle on the ready. Following behind him were Johnny, Dax, Baja, and the others. They had no weapons. Ben directed them to where Thomas was while he covered them. Bullets continued to fly as the soldiers stood behind their jeeps up on the crest of the hill and took potshots. A useless endeavor but one they must have felt was better than doing nothing.
Ben must have spotted Dixon and Marvin lying on the ground as he cast a glance at me that made it pretty clear he knew I had done it. I would deal with his shit later, right now we were still in the thick of it. We weren’t out of the woods yet.
Thomas led the others who were unarmed back into the forest away from the firefight. Benjamin remained and signaled for me to go. I pulled back slowly, my eyes scanning both sides of the lodge. While darkness was working for us to make it harder for them to get a clear shot, it was also working in their favor. What I didn’t see were three guys who came down from the left side of the lodge.
The first bullet hit me in the shoulder. I felt the sting and burn as I tried to twist around and fired back. The next one hit me in the thigh. Ben was already heading towards the tree line when he heard the shots. I turned and twisted back around hoping to get up but my leg was in agony.
Had it not been for Ben I wouldn’t have got out of there. He fired round after round until he took two of them out and the other one made a run for it. Racing over to me, he didn’t say a word, he threw one arm over his shoulder and pulled me up.
“Guess that SWAT shit does come in handy,” I muttered.
He didn’t find it amusing. I couldn’t care less either way. Dax came rushing over and helped him drag me into the tree line while Thomas and Johnny took over providing cover. I was bleeding badly from my leg. I didn’t know if it had hit an artery or not but I found out later that what felt like piss running down my leg was blood.
The following thirty minutes were the most painful moments of my life. I had been shot before in the city but this was hardcore. My last memory was of listening to Ben harp on about how stupid I had been and he had good mind to leave me there to die. I then briefly heard the names Dixon and Marvin as if he was questioning my involvement in their deaths. The rest became a blur and then everything turned to black.
* * *
My eyelids fluttered. Light stabbed my eyes and my mouth felt dry as I woke. I was lying on a soft mattress. Someone had stripped my clothes. A thin grey cotton blanket covered the bottom of half my body. I could sense the presence of someone else in the room, though my eyes hadn’t adjusted.
“He’s waking,” a female voice said. I blinked hard.
A few seconds later Benjamin came into view at the side of me.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
I cracked my head from side to side. “Like shit.”
He nodded slowly.
“Where are we?”
“Back at the fortress.”
I exhaled hard. “That was a wild ride.”
“Did you kill Dixon and Marvin?” Ben asked.
I swallowed, hesitating to reply. “Maybe you could get me a drink.”
He stared into my eyes as if they might give up the answer.
“Look, does it matter?” I said.
“Life matters, Elijah. All life matters.”
I breathed in, then winced from pain in my shoulder. “No. The answer is no, they were caught in the crossfire of others shooting behind them.”
Benjamin studied my face. I could see he wasn’t convinced. He turned and got a cup of water and handed it to me. I
went to take it but he held on to it.
“Do you know why your father tried so hard to reach you?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes and huffed. He released the cup and I brought it to my cracked lips and drank. Afterwards I replied, “I have a rough idea.”
Benjamin clasped his hands behind his back and paced the room.
“No. You have no idea. So let me tell you. Though I know you won’t believe it, he really did give a shit about you. He thought he could reach you before the gang life got its hooks in you.”
I scoffed. “Right, like that makes sense. I was in the gang for years while he was trying to save me.”
“You don’t get it, do you, Elijah? He wasn’t trying to stop you from joining. He was trying to prevent you from killing. Once you do that, there is no going back. It changes you. Life gradually has less meaning.”
“Says the one who killed for a living.”
“Out of self-defense. They attacked police, innocent people.”
“What are you trying to get at here, Ben? Spit it out.”
“Dixon. Marvin. They weren’t a threat. They could have killed us but they chose not to.” He paused. “Not everyone wants you dead, Elijah. But you can’t see that. Perhaps you are lost. Beyond the reach of saving.”
I shook my head.
“Maybe I should give up on you.”
With that Benjamin turned and walked out. Was there any truth to what Ben said? I lay there looking at the door, thinking it over. Why had I killed those two men? There had been a moment when they saw me at the corner of the building. They never raised their guns.
But I shot them in cold blood.
I thought back to the first time I had shot someone. Had they really done anything to me other than be in a rival gang, wear the wrong colors, enter the wrong part of the neighborhood?
As I lay there allowing my mind to wander through the past and present, I felt conflicted but didn’t know why. I wasn’t proud of my past. Those who I had killed were just a means to an end — to maintain my status in the gang.
“Hey! Elijah my man,” Baja came into the room with Dax, Johnny, and Specs. “Ben said you were awake. We just wanted to come in and thank you for coming back for us.”
I raised my hand and Johnny clasped it.
“How’s he doing, doc?” Dax asked a lady who had medical experience.
“He’ll live. But he needs to rest a while.”
“How long before he’ll be ready to leave?” Johnny asked.
“Five days, maybe slightly longer. Depends on how well he heals up.”
“You hear that? You’ll be out of here in no time,” Baja said, swigging back on a beer.
“What now?” I asked.
Johnny took a seat. “We’re going to help them rebuild this place. Fortify it and stick around for a week just to be sure they don’t show again.”
“You think they will?” I asked.
“There were still enough of them alive when we left.”
“But come on, they wouldn’t be crazy enough to risk another attack. Right?”
“All we deal in are the crazies. So yeah, I think they would,” Dax replied. “Except this time if they come, we’ll be ready for them.”
CIRCLE THE WAGONS
We readied ourselves for the second wave of attacks. It wasn’t a matter of if it would happen, only when. Bennett wasn’t dead. I saw him among the remaining soldiers. He wasn’t going to give up.
The way I saw it, they would probably regroup. We were looking at maybe less than twenty-four hours until they rolled up here. A section of the fortress was down. That would need to be repaired. Ideally we could have used metal but there was none. We certainly didn’t have the time to go stripping cars down on the highway or scavenging.
With Elijah and Specs injured and few people from the camp remaining, we were already at a disadvantage. We couldn’t leave yet and we couldn’t take them with us. Some of them had already voiced their concerns to Thomas who was being treated in medical. The people seemed lost without Theo. It wasn’t like they didn’t have men who could make decisions for them but I think the reality of the world beyond the walls had finally sunk in.
Nowhere was safe. If someone wanted to get at you, they could.
I walked out of the medical area leaving Elijah inside with the others. Outside Benjamin stood smoking a cigarette. He glanced at me.
“For earlier. Thanks,” I told him.
He snorted. “I have to wonder if it really mattered. They are only going to attack again.”
“But at least this time we’ll be ready.”
“How many do you think there are?” Dax said, joining us.
“Maybe twenty? It can’t be more than that.”
“And there are thirty-four of us?”
“Actual bodies, yeah, but actual people who can defend this place?” Specs shook his head. “Maybe ten, the rest are women and kids.”
“How are you holding up, Specs?” I asked.
“Okay, I guess.”
I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to lose a hand. Sure, he had dodged death but now he had to live out his life with only one hand. We took for granted having all our limbs intact. We didn’t have to think about how much it would affect trying to do simple tasks. Or even the emotional impact. I had heard of people losing limbs and spiraling down into deep depression.
It was the beginning of the end for some. Yet Specs, I figured, would come up with some wicked ass gadget that would function as a hand in no time. That was if we were all still alive tomorrow.
“You really think they are going to come back here?” Danielle pulled up beside us. Our little gathering outside was growing as others listened in.
“I didn’t see Liam or Bennett among the dead, so yeah.”
Dax breathed in deeply. “Well, we better get to it. We are going to need every man or woman who can lend a hand. We need more wood. We need to repair that hole in the wall.”
“I don’t think we have time for that,” Ben said.
I turned back. “Why?”
“Think about it. How long did it take to build this place?” he asked Danielle.
“I don’t know. My father and others built this a long time before I was born.”
“And the wood?”
“It was brought up.”
“Right. You aren’t going to cut down bloody trees and repair that hole. We just need to jam it with what we have.”
“With?”
“The huts. Let’s break a few of those up and pile the wood.”
Danielle shook her head. “Really, you think that’s going to keep them out?”
“It’s not meant to keep them out, Danielle. It’s for the Z’s. The last thing we need right now is to have flesh eaters stumbling in here.”
“Go ahead. Do it,” Dax said. “I’m going to make sure everyone is armed and ready.”
* * *
The hours passed without any sign of them. Z’s were the only ones that showed up and at least it wasn’t a herd. Just a few stragglers that must have made their way here from the highway. I helped break down some of the huts. We made a line and passed the wood along. It didn’t take long to create a makeshift stack of wood. It was like lining up sandbags against a flood that we fully expected to come. Once it was done, we set up guards on the perimeters of the fortress. Two on each of the four sides with another one in each of the four corners.
After eight hours without a single sighting I was just ready for them to show up.
“What are they waiting for?” I muttered to myself.
“Probably nightfall.”
It made sense. The only way they were going to be able to get close enough was under the cover of darkness. Thomas wanted us to leave. They would deal with them if they came. Until then their people would stay in the bunker beneath the ground. He said there was more than enough supplies down there and protection from the outside to last several years.
But that was no life. No, none of
us would have it. We had encountered enough of these lunatics on our way out of Castle Rock to know that they wouldn’t just roll over and let bygones be bygones.
More hours passed and soon night became day.
None of us slept and now we were feeling it. Maybe they were hoping to wear us down. Then and only then when we were exhausted and suffering from sleep deprivation would they strike.
We rotated that day making sure that we at least got three or four hours’ sleep. Two more days passed without anyone showing up. We had begun to think that maybe they had decided that risking more lives was foolish. A few of us even ventured out to hunt for food. It wasn’t that they were low, they had more than enough canned goods and MREs but we wanted something we could sink our teeth into. At least that’s what I thought it was. Truth be told there is only so long you can live in fear of what might come to kill you.
“I’m sorry about your father,” I said to Danielle. For someone who had lost her father she was handling it pretty well. Other than the night she witnessed his death, she hadn’t cried. It could have been that she was still in shock. Death had a way of affecting each person differently. Some would cry uncontrollably, others wouldn’t be able to get out of bed, and some would look absent and numb to it all.
“What he did…” I trailed off
“He did because he felt guilty. He wouldn’t have been able to live with himself. Knowing that others had died because he hadn’t been ready to face what was beyond the walls,” she said.
“None of us are ready. Just some of us have to face it,” I said.
She nodded. “Can I show you something?”
“Sure.”
We moved through the forest. I kept looking back over my shoulder as we got further away from the fortress. I knew the others would wonder where we had got to. We walked for what seemed like an hour until we go close to the area where we originally met. A small creek divided up the forest. Danielle stopped and began removing branches and moss from the ground to reveal a steel container. She lifted a handle and I peered inside.
