by Rescue
"I'm sorry," Dr. Cahn said. "I just thought that we should introduce ourselves if we are going to be sheltering here with you tonight."
"My name's Rod, your name I don't care about. This is my house and you are welcome to stay here as long as you pay. Other than that, make yourselves comfortable. The carpet is as comfortable as it gets." The young boy never took his eyes off of the pack as he spoke to the doctor.
"Now look here..." Shawn began, but Dr. Cahn held up a hand to stop him.
"Listen, Rod," the doctor said more calmly than anyone could have imagined. "How long have you been here? Where are your parents?"
"Twelve days. Parents dead. What do you care? Anything else?"
This boy's attitude was really starting to step on the last nerve of everyone there.
Shawn had had enough of the attitude. "Hey, you listen here..." he said as he reached down and grabbed the arm of the young boy. The boy moved faster than any of the men could react. The small .38 caliber revolver was planted firmly into Shawn's neck and the hammer clicked back. Glocks were raised in the direction of the boy, red dots from their laser sights dancing across the boys chest and face. Everyone froze.
"I think everyone needs to relax," Dr. Cahn soothed. No one moved for several minutes, hoping someone else would be the first to relax. Alex watched the eyes of the boy; they were murderous and filled with hate.
"Put the guns down," Alex ordered. Still no one moved. "Everyone, stand down!" The roughness in his voice seemed to break into the reverie of the others and slowly each man began to lower their weapon. Alex's Glock was still trained on the boy.
"Aren't you going to put yours down too?" the boy asked Alex, his eyes never leaving Shawn.
"No," Alex replied as a matter of fact. "You and I are going to end this stupid situation, one way or another. You kill my friend, I kill you. Simple. You put your gun down, so will I, but not before. I'm going to protect my own, so you better get used to that." Alex's hands were rock steady, his voice calm as if this were something that someone would expect to see on any given day.
The tense situation continued for a few moments more before the boy flinched. He took his eyes off of Shawn to glare at Alex. "Fine, but this is my house. You are guests here just as long as I say. I'll talk to you however I want, got it?" The question was an ultimatum, not a request. Alex knew there was no point in arguing further so he relented.
"Fine," Alex said. "Now, lower your weapon and let my man go."
"You lower yours first," the boy demanded.
"That wasn't the deal we made. You lower your gun, then I lower mine, and you are allowed to talk to me any way that you want. That's the deal you agreed to." Alex's voice was calm and even, but the other men in the room could hear a slight change in tone, one that started to border on impatience.
Silence stretched again and sweat began to trickle down side of Shawn's face. He was holding up remarkably well for someone who had a gun to his throat, but the stress was starting to wear on him. "Tell you what," Alex started when he noticed Shawn's stress, "how about I just order my men to kill you right here, right now. Then I get my pack back, this house to ourselves, and no shit-ass, scared punk of a kid throwing ultimatums in my face. What do you think about that?"
The boy looked around the room at the seven heavily armed men standing around him. "I'll kill this one before you could get a shot off..."
"And I've got seven others that can fill his place adequately," Alex interrupted. "You on the other hand, will be dead."
"And why do you think that would bother me? My whole family is dead and I'm stuck here in this god-forsaken house all alone. Death doesn't really scare me right now." The boy's voice was trembling, betraying his true feelings. He was scared and locked into a situation that he could not get out of easily. The boy was trying everything he could think of, and everything just pushed him into a corner more and more.
"Okay, have it your way," Alex said stepping forward and raising his gun slightly to take aim on the boy's forehead. The boy broke.
"Okay, okay, okay!" he yelled, throwing his hands over his head and pushing himself back from Shawn. "Don't shoot, man. Don't shoot!" Tears streamed down the boy's face and his voice cracked. This kid was just a kid, trying desperately to be a man.
Alex immediately dropped the barrel of the gun towards the ground and removed his finger from the trigger. Shawn breathed in deep gasps of air, relieved that the .38 was no longer jammed in his throat. Luke was at his side, an arm around the man asking if he was okay and looking at his throat for signs of injury. The doctor moved towards the boy.
"Stop right there, doc," Alex commanded. His gun raised again in the direction of the boy, but the barrel was lower than where the boy was sprawled on the ground. "Drop the gun, son. Drop the gun before I have to put a bullet in you." Alex's gun started to raise again, the red dot of his laser sight tracing a line across the floor towards the boy. Desperately, the boy threw the gun into the corner before curling into a ball and covering his face, sobbing uncontrollably. The red dot winked out and Alex returned the gun to the holster on his hip.
"He's all yours, doc," Alex said as he turned back to his men. "Let's get this place secured. Plan is still in place, we're moving to the second floor. Clear the first floor, move the gear upstairs and we'll blockade the stairs on our way up." Alex looked over his shoulder to the doctor and the boy. "He's to join us. Get him cleared and upstairs as soon as we have secured it. Under no circumstances should he be armed."
Alex dropped to the floor near the opened pack and began placing the contents back inside. "I'll designate guard shifts once we're secured on the second floor." He glanced out the small patch of uncovered window to the darkening sky outside. "Let's get this moving. It's getting dark outside."
-----
The house was clear of any deaders, as the men had suspected. Alex however, would not allow anyone to slack in their assigned tasks. The first floor's barricades were checked for stability, each reinforced again as the need arose. Once the second floor had been cleared, Dr. Cahn and the boy were moved there so that the doctor could continue his examination. Once the barricades were secure, Alex moved the team to the second floor along with the doctor. Alex and Liam had removed two doors from their hinges and these were secured in place over the steps. Alex explained that this would prove to be nearly impossible for any zombies entering the house to navigate since their brains did not allow them to problem solve or perform two tasks at once. Namely, walk up the stairs and hold on to the railing so that they would not slip back down. Heavy furniture was placed at the top of the stairs as a last stand should the zombies get through.
"Luke, Trapper and Hayden, you are on first watch. If anything comes near the house, come and alert the others, but do not engage. Keep track of where any contacts go; we may have to deal with them in the morning before heading out. You understand?" Alex's felt like he was speaking to children instead of grown and capable men. "I'm sorry if I sound blunt, but I want everyone to understand that we are in hiding here. This is not our hill to die on." Nods of approval came from every man in the room. "Everyone else, try and get some rest. It's going to be another long and rough day tomorrow, and we are leaving at dawn. No heros tonight; we're all just shadows."
The three men on the first watch shift quickly met to divide up tasks and lookouts before heading to different corners of the house. The remaining men looked around the room, not really sure what to do with themselves. "There are beds in the other three rooms," came a weak and timid voice. The doctor found out that the boy's name was Rod Fischer, and he was only thirteen. The boy had been on his own for almost two months after his parents were infected with the virus looking for food. He had been alone in the house, rationing what little food he could scrounge together, huddling in a closet at night for protection. Rod was severely malnourished and sleep deprived.
"It's amazing that he lasted this long," Dr. Cahn said walking up to Alex. "I'm not sure you can blame him too much
for what he did tonight..."
"Anyone can be held responsible for their actions, Doc," Alex interrupted. "We can't just let common decency and humanity fall by the wayside in times like these. More so now than before this world came crashing down."
Dr. Cahn shook his head in disagreement. "That boy has been through hell, and you want to punish him for surviving..."
"I never said I was punishing anyone, Doc. You assumed. He can't be allowed to act however he wants." Alex looked towards the boy who was huddled in a corner of the room asleep. "That's probably the first time he has really slept in God knows how long," Alex mused and looked back at Dr. Cahn. "And to think he almost missed it because he nearly got a bullet in his head." Alex paused to let his words sink in. "Acting irrationally and without thought will get you killed, especially in times like these. You've got to use your brains to survive." Alex put a hand on the doctor's shoulder and squeezed, trying to reassure the man and make him realize that Alex understood where he was coming from.
"So you're ex-marine, right? Special Ops?" a voice asked from across the room. Donovan Murphy sat against the wall, an Army MRE steaming in his hands.
"What makes you say that?" Alex said, trying to deflect any serious questions away with his tone of voice.
"Come on, man. I've been in the Marines. I've seen those nose-in-the-air Special Ops guys more than I care to count. Or even wanted, for that matter." Donovan pushed himself up from the floor and crossed the room to face Alex. "You've at least been trained by Special Ops. Whether you've seen actual combat or not is different, but you've got that swagger about you..."
"I was in the Army," Alex interrupted. "Staff Sergeant, two overseas tours. Got out a few years ago." Alex did not like the direction that this conversation was going and tried to walk away before it continued.
"Bullshit," Donovan chuckled. "There's not an ounce of Army on you. It's Marines, man...I know. But why are you so secret about it?"
"Lots of reasons, and it was the Army," Alex answered, his tone becoming defensive and argumentative. "Lay off."
"Now wait a minute," Marshal joined in. "I'm a little curious about all of this now," he said as he too crossed the room to join the other two men. "After you put two bullets in John this afternoon, I think you owe everyone an explanation for lots of things. Just why are we following you? And what's so damn important that you won't own up to your military service? What's the matter, you frag an officer or something?"
Alex lashed out against the man, shoving him hard enough that Marshal fell back, sprawling to the floor. He was on his feet again, angry, but not daring to come at Alex. "Liam kept asking you to fess up to something. Just what did you do, huh? What do you need to come clean about, and why should we take your orders? You're the one who got us into this mess in the first place..."
"Hill got you into this mess," Alex snapped. "Hill is the one who put a gun to your families heads and made you come, not me. Don't you dare try to push the blame off of that bastard!" Liam and Shawn were rushing into the room now drawn to the sounds of the commotion. The three men on station craned their heads in the various doorways trying to figure out what was happening. Alex bit at Liam. "What did you say? What did you say about me, huh?"
"What are you talking about?" Liam asked, his hands raised in front of him in surrender. "What do you mean, 'what did I say?'"
"About my time in the military, what did you say?" Alex demanded.
"Calm down, man, I didn't say anything to anyone!" Liam's face was lined with confusion as he tried to figure out what was going on.
"But you told us," Marshal jumped in, "you said in the car, earlier today, that he needed to fess up. That he needed to just tell us the truth. The truth about what?"
All eyes locked onto Alex as he fumed, but remained silent. This was not what he had expected or wanted. The truth of his past was hard enough to reveal to his wife, the woman that he shared his life with. But not these people, some of them almost complete strangers, were demanding to know his secrets.
"Tell them," Liam said in a low voice. "Tell them, and tell me. What in God's name are you hiding? What could you have done that was so bad..."
"I didn't do anything," Alex said. "I didn't do anything that was wrong, I just had to fix a problem...had to take care of a problem."
"What kind of problem," Dr. Cahn asked in his soothing voice. His years of medical practice, especially dealing with young kids, had taught him well how to calm a tense situation. Alex's eyes turned on the doctor and softened. One person in the room had relived his last two months to the doctor already tonight. Alex figured that maybe it was his turn. He looked from the doctor back to Liam and let out a defeated sigh.
"What do you all know about China?" he said.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Secrets Revealed
"I don't believe this," Marshal exclaimed. "This is the biggest load of bullshit I think I've ever heard."
"Really," Liam cut in. "You think that's a bigger load than the dead outside that we're hiding from?" Liam's gaze was piercing and Marshal shrunk under Liam's stare.
"What happened to the girl?" Dr. Cahn asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer but compelled to ask.
"What do you think?" Alex replied. "The lieutenant killed her, viciously. Literally skinned her alive, simply because she refused to marry some twisted old fuck with two other wives." Alex shook his head and chuckled softly. "The lieutenant begged for them to let him do it. In fact he pushed the whole thing to the head of the village."
"He was sick," Dr. Cahn said.
Alex quickly cut back at the doctor. "No, doc. He wasn't sick. What he did to that girl was sick, but he was evil. Pure, unadulterated evil, and he got exactly what was coming to him." The smile that had graced Alex's face only a moment before was now gone, replaced by a sadness and hate for what he had experienced.
"What happened to him? What happened to the lieutenant?" Dr. Cahn asked. Alex still wasn't sure that the doctor really wanted to hear everything that he had to say, but the doctor kept asking, knowing that Alex needed to speak, to explain everything to them.
Alex shook his head again, clearing the cobwebs from his memory of that day. Taking a deep breath, Alex looked up at the doctor and smirked. "I killed him," he said as a matter of fact. "Killed him like the pig he was, and killed the sick fuck who accused her. I cut them, I hurt them and I made them bleed. I wanted them to know exactly how that girl felt as the lieutenant was cutting the skin away from her." The smile was gone, now replaced by tears that ran down his face freely. Alex's voice quavered almost imperceptibly as he continued.
"I skinned the bastards, skinned them alive just like they did to that girl. They screamed and pleaded; they begged me to stop, but I wouldn't. And when the shock set in, and they started to not feel the pain anymore, I slide my knife across their throats and watched their life drain away." Alex's voice was shaking so much by now that he was almost unintelligible. He fought to keep back the great racking sobs that threatened to over take him. Everyone in the room remained silent, both out of shock and respect for the dead. Once Alex had gained control of himself again, he spoke again in whispering tones. "They got what they deserved."
Silence hung over the group as everyone waited for Alex to regain his composure. When someone finally spoke, it was his friend Liam.
"And no one did anything? Either to stop you, shit or even help you? You're damn right they got what they deserved."
"Are you condoning what he did?" Alex wasn't sure if the shock in Marshal's voice was genuine or put on. "He killed those two in cold blood..."
"They got what they deserved," Liam interrupted. "You cut someone apart like that, you torture a young girl because she wouldn't give it up? Damn right they got what they deserved."
The look of disgust on Marshal's face was almost too much for Liam to keep a straight face. "What happened after they found out what you did?" Marshal asked. "Not much apparently.
"Actually," Alex said, "they didn
't do anything."
"What?" Again, the shock in Marshal's voice seem more of a put on than anything real.
"Nothing. The government couldn't just admit that they were in China, illegally mind you. They certainly couldn't afford for it to get out just WHY we were they, now could they?" Alex spoke directly to Marshal. "There's a lot to be said for secrets. Sometimes they need to stay that way."
An awkward silence spread through the group as no one knew what to ask next. Alex's story seemed almost too impossible to believe, but given the fact that they were now fighting their way through hordes of walking dead, no one could really find the nerve to question the validity.
"So it's true," Donovan spoke from the outside of the group. He was leaning against a wall, arms crossed with a furrowed brow as if in deep thought. "Everything is true." He pushed off the wall and strode slowly to rejoin the group around Alex. "We had always heard rumors about it. Rumors about where Lieutenant Elliot wound up." He laughed softly and looked Alex in the eyes. "Actually, the rumors were a bit more hard to believe if that's even possible." Donovan held out his hand to Alex. There was a pause before Alex took the proffered hand and shook once. "The man was a butcher," Donovan said softly. "The horror stories that were told about serving under him...there is not a man living or dead that he commanded that would not believe you a hero."
A smile crept across Alex's face before Marshal spoke up. "What?!" he said. "Are you serious? He killed the man in cold blood..."
Donovan whirled on the man, bearing down on him and forcing him move back. "You have no clue what this man was like. You couldn't possibly understand," Donovan said, still forcing Marshal back until he slammed against the wall behind him. "The man was a butcher, a psychopath of the nth degree. Scores of men and women were hurt, even killed because of this man."
