by Jack Hunt
“This was what you were checking out that day?” I asked.
“My father built it at the same time he built the fortress. Only he and I knew about it. It was to be used as a last resort. In the event that the fortress or bunker was overtaken I was meant to go here.”
She climbed down the steel ladder. I followed her in. It was musty and smelled like water had leaked inside. I dropped to the bottom and heard water splash. A small amount barely covered the sole of my boot.
“Seems like you’ve sprung a leak.”
“Yeah, I don’t think he figured that the water from the creek would get in. It obviously wasn’t sealed as tightly as he thought.” She lit a lantern inside and the place became illuminated with a dim amber glow. There were two single beds, a desk, and chair. Several boxes piled up that I came to learn stored canned food and water. I took a seat on one of the beds and watched as she went to a drawer and withdrew a steel box that was rusted. She popped it open and handed me a photograph.
“This your mother?”
“Yeah, in better days.”
“How did she die again?”
She breathed in and I could see she was recalling a painful moment. Her brow knit together. “She ventured too far out and was bitten. What about yours?” she asked.
I handed back the yellowed, wrinkled photo. “Mine died a long time ago. Cancer.”
“So she never got to see this?”
“Nope. In many ways I think she was lucky. What did your father do?”
“Military, then he worked security for a large company in Denver.”
“What about brothers or sisters?”
“No. Single child.”
“Lucky,” I scoffed.
She smiled. “Oh, I don’t think Dax is that bad, is he?”
I met her gaze. “Depends. If you can reel off names of guns, talk military lingo, and have zero sense of humor. Yeah, he’s a swell guy.”
She jabbed me on the arm. Danielle opened then closed her mouth as if she was about to ask something.
“What?”
She took a seat beside me. “After this is over. I mean, you’re going to leave, aren’t you?”
I studied her face. The way the shadows danced on her features. The curls of her dark wavy hair dropped over the sides of her face. For the first time since being asked that question I wasn’t sure how to reply. Upon arriving I had been so gung-ho to move on. But over the past few days I had begun questioning my reasons.
I had only known Jess two years. Sure, we were seeing each other until all this crap kicked off but so much had changed. I felt an attraction to Danielle that I didn’t expect to feel. I was trying to wrap my head around it all. The way I felt about her. The way I felt about Jess. The heart is a complex thing. I had little confidence in my own. So often it had led me astray. Made me feel one thing only to make me question the very same thing later.
“You don’t have to answer that,” she said.
I don’t know why I did what I did next. Maybe it was just pure insanity, lust, or the knowledge that we might not see the next day. I leaned forward and kissed her. Pressing my lips against hers, I felt her return the kiss. Her tongue slipped into my mouth. In that moment all that had gone wrong, all the disappointment and struggle disappeared. And like that it happened. Or maybe I should say, like that it began. Something new between us. I pulled at her top, she pulled at mine as we unraveled each other. A water-soaked floor, the scent of rust in the air, and the thought of being found mattered not. Right there under the covers of some old bed we entwined, got tangled up, and lost ourselves in each other. For better or worse, it didn’t matter to us. Logic. Sensibility. Morals. They all fell by the wayside as did the world that once upheld them.
So much had changed and been stolen from us. The apocalypse had eaten away at our innocence and humanity. Changed us, turned us into those who would turn on another in an instant.
And yet down there, with each other we were once again human. We were flawed and broken but fully human.
* * *
We must have fallen asleep. Tiredness had overtaken us. Late nights, early morning waiting and anticipating an attack had taken its toll. Lying there with sheets partly covering our naked bodies I felt good. Danielle was still asleep. I listened to her breathe, watched her chest rise and fall. I felt no guilt or shame. Just peaceful bliss, something that I wished could have bottled and drunk when times of stress tried to rob us of that peace.
As I slowly moved her arm and shifted her to one side, she roused.
“Hey,” she muttered then smiled. I slipped back under the covers and met her lips with a kiss.
“We should get going.”
“How long have we been asleep?”
“No idea.”
I slipped back out and started getting back into my clothes. We were silent pretty much, only exchanging glances that let the other one know that things had changed between us. How sex did that was always a mystery to me. There was something deeper to it. Like a joining of something unseen.
“You going to take this?” I held out the metal box with the photo of her mother in it.
“Yeah, just put it over there.”
As I laid it down I heard a sound. At first it was subtle, more of a vibration than an audible noise. Slowly it became stronger until I could make out what sounded like helicopter blades. I looked at Danielle. We didn’t need to say anything, we both knew.
Rushing as fast as we could we climbed out and made a run for the fortress. There was no way we were going to be able to get there in time but as the sound petered out in the distance we knew it was heading for the fortress. This was the one time I wished I had a radio. No such luck.
“Weren’t their helicopters destroyed?”
“One of them was, I’m not sure about the other. Hell, for all we know it could be the good guys.” Fat chance but regardless, I entertained the thought.
We raced through the forest. My heart was beating in my chest. It was dark out which made it only that much harder to run. I tripped over branches and slammed into tree trunks a few times. The small amount of light that did make it through came from a crescent moon.
The closer we got the clearer we could hear the sound of gunfire. It wasn’t just one, there were several. I swung my assault rifle up, preparing myself to engage with the enemy. As we got closer I shouted to make sure they knew not to shoot us but it didn’t matter. No one was on the walls. Not even one of them. But the gunfire coming from inside the fortress didn’t let up.
As we got to the wall that had been repaired somewhat, we climbed up the stacks of wood laid earlier that day until we reached the top. That’s when we saw what was going on.
Everywhere inside the fortress were Z’s.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING AND DEAD
Decomposed lips drew back to reveal a messed-up set of mangled teeth.
“Say cheese,” I said as I unloaded a round into the Z’s head and saw what remained of its brains burst out the back. Danielle was beside me as we joined the fight. It was pure chaos.
“How the hell did they get in here?” I yelled as I fired my gun with one hand and swung a machete with the other.
Dax kicked a Z backward then landed on top, shoving a bowie knife through its eye socket. His face was covered in blood. I couldn’t tell if it was his own or someone else’s.
“Helicopters. It was fucking raining zombies. Those bastards.”
“I thought we destroyed the helicopter they had?”
“Obviously not. Three of them flew over unloading these.”
I hacked into the face of a woman. Women, men, kids, it didn’t matter now. You didn’t become attached to what was about to rip skin from bone. It wasn’t them anymore. Just fucked-up creatures; mindless bodies moving with one purpose in mind — to kill and feed. Did these things ever become satisfied? Full up? What happened to meat they ate? Did Z’s go for a number two once a day? Yeah, it was strange shit like this that passed through your mind when the
world around you no longer looked the same.
“They couldn’t have unloaded this many?”
There had to have been at least thirty or forty Z’s. Everywhere I turned. They had already taken down several men from the camp. That’s when I saw where they were coming from.
“They got in through the back exit.”
“But it was closed.”
“Obviously that fucker Liam must have let them in while his butt buddies were unloading zombies from the helos. I spotted him ducking out the exit.”
I slashed, chopped, and shot my way through the makeshift streets towards the exit area. Sure enough, when I got within eyeshot of it, I could see even more coming in. What was leading them? A pole with a huge slab of human meat was stuck in the ground inside the fortress. You could tell it was human as the ass and cock were still intact. The rest was just bloodied and torn. He had led them in, which meant he was still nearby.
I fought my way through three more Z’s with the help of Danielle.
“Where are you going?”
“To get that motherfucker.”
I could feel rage inside me that I hadn’t felt since Jason’s betrayal back in Castle Cove.
“I’m going with you.”
“No. Stay here.”
I moved through the opening. Unloading bullet after bullet into Z’s still following the scent of the flesh. Outside in the darkness I saw a flickering flame. It was short, and moving fast which meant he was trying to get away. Now I could have turned and continued to kill Z’s but I had a better idea. Or maybe it was just hate clouding my judgment.
I sprinted after Liam. Every step was a leap as if I was about to do the long jump. The brush was thick. Had he tossed the flaming torch maybe I would have lost him. At one point it stopped moving then it began again.
He knew I was coming. The closer I got the more bullets snapped and whipped past me. The fucker was firing at me. I sure as hell was not going to die by the hands of a pissant like him. My throat burned as I dashed in and out of trees. My foot caught on a tree root and I toppled ass over tit. In the process I dropped my Glock. I looked up to see Liam still bolting. My eyes scanned the ground. I groped around in the dirt for only a few seconds but it felt like minutes. I found it and shot back up.
I hadn’t stopped for a second to think about the danger of my actions. When your adrenaline kicks in and you are fighting the dead, it’s easy to lose your head. No one is cool in the heat of battle. You make split-second decisions and sometimes you get lucky, other times you don’t. Most of the time you land on your face.
Suddenly the flickering fire in the distance went out. He was gone.
There was no way I was going to catch up or find him now. He knew this. He knew the forest far better than I did. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. I placed my hands on my knees and exhaled hard. About to return to the fortress I heard a branch snap. I barely lifted my head when I felt the full force of a body landing on me.
Winded and with a mouthful of leaves I spat. I turned my head for a brief second then felt a boot hit me in the face. The pain shot through me.
“Get up,” Liam said. I didn’t respond. He kicked me in the stomach then followed up by slamming a fist into the side of my face.
“I said, GET UP!”
I groaned and winced at the pain as I felt blood trickle down from the corner of my mouth. The side of my eye felt swollen. As I hauled myself up, I got a better look at him. He must have given the torch to someone else. Made me think I was chasing him when he was preparing to attack me. I cracked my head from side to side.
“Is this how you repay your group?” I asked.
“Don’t try blaming this on me. This is your fault. If you hadn’t shown up, we would have been fine. You brought them here. Their blood is on your hands not mine.”
“And you think what you are doing now justifies anything? There are still survivors from your group back there.”
“They’re not my group. They never were. I was dragged here by my parents. They died because of Theo. Because of you. And now you are going to die.”
He pulled out a knife, then tossed the one I had dropped in front of me.
“Pick it up. Let’s see what you’re made of.”
“We don’t need to do this, Liam.”
“Shut the hell up and pick it up.”
I felt tightness in my chest and another shot of pain as I reached down and picked it up.
“Listen, whatever issues you have. This is not the time. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can go back now.”
Liam didn’t respond, he slashed the air in front of me and then began circling. We moved around in a clearing. Dirt beneath us, trees roots threatening to trip us, and only a faint amount of light coming from the moon.
It was an all-out war. A close-quarter death match. Both of us traded punches in between trying to slash each other. My clothes were torn by his knife. After ten minutes both of us were showing signs of shallow knife wounds on the legs and arms. From the outside it would have been tricky to tell who had the upper hand as we matched each other blow for blow and were both groaning in pain.
The sound of gunfire could still be heard.
“That’ll be the others,” he gave a smug grin finding delight in the thought that whatever plan they had concocted was working. The Z’s were to wear us down, distracted us, and force us to use ammo. In turn it would make it that much easier for the jarheads to attack.
“You really think after this Danielle is going to give a shit about you?”
“Shut up,” he said.
Both of us were trying to catch a breather in between a punch or a slash.
“Put it down, Liam. It doesn’t have to end this way.”
For a brief few seconds I think he contemplated it. He looked at his knife. His eyes dropped. Then he gripped it tight, a sneer appeared on this face before he charged me. We fell back into a tree stump. My knife fell to the floor as his came close to my chest. He was using both hands to push. I felt the sharp tip pressed against my clothes until it pierced as I tried forcing it back. He had a wild look in his eyes. I felt the knife going in ever so slowly. I let out a yell. I dropped down on one leg to gain more leverage. Using all the remaining energy in me I pushed back until the tip of the blade was out. We then got into a close-quarter struggle with the knife until I heard Liam let out a gasp. I looked down at the knife, trying to figure out what had happened.
It wasn’t in him.
When he dropped to the floor in front of me, there was a knife embedded deep in his back, and Danielle was behind him. Her hands were shaking. Liam looked up briefly. Blood trickled over the edge of his lips. He coughed a few times and stared back at Danielle in shock before he stopped moving.
I had no idea that this was the first person she had killed. Her face went pale as she went into shock. We might have lingered there long had it not been for the sound of approaching men. We could hear them chattering and branches breaking.
We double-timed it back to the fortress.
When we returned I was taking stock of those who were injured when I realized Dax wasn’t around.
“Hey, have you seen Dax?”
Elijah shook his head and climbed the ladder to join a few other men patrolling the inside perimeter. For a moment fear started to come over me as I wondered if he had gone out looking for me. Thankfully he appeared from below the ground. He’d been inside the bunker taking down those who were injured to the medical area.
“They’re coming.”
A look of confusion spread over his face.
“The jarheads.”
Dax began bellowing out orders to the people on the walls to prepare for an attack. It was a very surreal moment. I had grown up watching old movies of the wild west. Towns getting attacked by outlaws. But this was no movie. The men making their way through the forest were coming to kill. We had underestimated what resources they had available. Maybe they had a separate camp not far from the ski lodg
e? If that was the case, were there more of them?
“Baja, come with me,” I said heading back to the makeshift exit. “Give me a hand.”
We rolled several large barrels in front of the area we’d come in from. We pushed up any remaining wood that we could find and blocked it off as best as we could.
The sound of rapid shots came fast. Elijah, Benjamin, and the others on the wall were firing. I dashed over to the wall that had been partially blocked. Some posts had been inserted into the ground and sharpened at one end. A human could get around them but a Z wouldn’t have had much luck. Between these posts I spotted the first of the group. Above me Dax began firing.
We had no way of knowing how many there were. Could we have locked ourselves in the bunker? Yeah, but what use would that have been if they returned later? This was going down now. It ended tonight.
I had never been in a war. The assaults in Salt Lake City were the closest I had come to it. It’s a terrifying feeling. You have no idea if the next bullet is going to kill you or maim you for life.
Over the course of the next two hours we found ourselves caught up in the loudest gunfight I had been involved in. The noise of guns and shit being snapped up all around us was deafening.
Dax ducked down behind the wall.
“Johnny, ammo.”
I reached over to one of the small piles that we had dotted around the camp. I tossed up a fresh magazine. He slapped it into place. The heated battle didn’t seem as though it was going to let up. Eventually, there was silence. It was if they had realized that they were the ones at a disadvantage. We had killed at least ten of them. They had taken out four of ours before they retreated.
Once we had made sure there were no more hidden in the tree line, we all went down into the bunker. It was like witnessing a hospital after a brutal battle. There were men with bandages wrapped around their heads. Some of them stripped and groaning in pain while those who had some background in medicine treated them.
