It was almost funny how Lehman and Darius looked away. I wonder if that was some type of reticence, or simply fear of Santos? Sadie looked away, repelled.
In any event, only Bonnie was really watching as I pushed Santos’ head back with my left hand, nuzzling his neck with my almost-puking mouth, while I manipulated the blade with my right. Once I had a decent grip. I drew the blade across his neck, right above his Adam ’s apple, then cut him again and again, as fast as I could. I could hear a loud noise; later I realized it was me screaming “Die motherfucker die” over and over again. I was seeing lots of blood, but I could tell my cut was not deep enough. The blood was not the deep crimson of arterial blood and it was not spraying out, just pattering on the floor.
Santos, with a look of betrayal and shock, smashed me in the face with his head while Lehman pried my blade out of my hand. Happy to say I cut him pretty good, too.
Chapter 34: Jack’s Journey—Almost the End
I raced deeper and deeper into the bowels of the Armory. Finally, I heard Kate, screaming like a banshee. Others were yelling and squealing as well. I swung around a final corner and raced into a small chamber crowded with bodies. I passed a big Mexican looking guy lying injured or dead on the ground outside the door. Looked like the gorilla guy I shot outside the Bat Cave. I could see Kate, Santos and a few other people in the room.
Santos was bleeding like a stuck pig from multiple head and neck wounds. Kate was practically naked, laying on a bed in there in a daze. I could tell what had happened, or almost happened, and I saw pure red. Things slowed down to super slow motion.
I lined Santos up with my Beretta, only to notice that the slide had locked back. There was no magazine in it. I must have dropped it, then fired my last shot. And I had no more mags. What a fucking dumb shit I was. Killed Mike’s girlfriend, ruined the element of surprise, and showed up empty at the most important gun fight of my life.
Santos and the others, except for Kate, all raced at me. I flung my Beretta into Santos’ face but naturally missed. I pulled my Ka-Bar and braced for the attack.
There were two big guys, two women, and Santos. Five on one. The first, a big skinhead, was holding a fire axe in his bleeding hand. The other guy had a framing hammer or something. I could see Kate trying to slow him down. He went to whack her with the axe, but Santos screamed at him to stop. He did.
The women were unarmed. I could not tell what they were doing. They did not seem eager to attack me, which was fortunate because I was outnumbered. But they were coming at me.
As I held my Ka-Bar in front of me with my right hand, the skinhead swung the axe. I tried to move back but hit the wall, bouncing back towards him. I went for his belly, but the axe hit me in the arm and I dropped the knife. My hand and arm were completely numb, and I knew I was badly injured. Maybe killed, I thought.
One of the women tackled Santos and brought him to the ground. I heard Kate scream “Bonnie--No” then Santos simply twisted the woman’s head all the way around. Her dead body dropped bonelessly to the floor. The skinhead’s feet got tangled up in the woman’s body, and he lost his balance, going down heavily.
My last memory was the other guy swinging that hammer at me. I tried to block it with my right arm. The other woman tried to get in the way, but she was no solider. Luckily for her, Santos knocked her down before the hammer could hit her. Just as I noticed that my arm was just hanging there, limp as a noodle, the hammer nailed me above the left eye. I went under.
Chapter 35: Kate’s Diary—Bitter Reunion
I was in shock to see Jack. Amazingly, my first thought was embarrassment and shame at him finding me “with” another man. Followed by regret that I had been unable to kill that bastard Santos. It all happened so fast.
First, Jack rushes in. He has a perfect set up, but his gun is empty. I can’t believe it, after all of his lectures and speeches. Standing there with his slide racked back and a confused look on his face. He’s done a lot of stupid things in his life, but this is a masterpiece.
Santos leaves me, dripping blood but definitely not mortally wounded. Bonnie tries to stop him but he killed her without even thinking about it. Twist and snap. She was a gentle soul and never had a chance. Sadie also tried to interfere with Darius but to no avail. She ended up knocked out on the floor.
So it was three on one, and it didn’t last long. Lehman struck Jack on his arm with an axe, and Darius hit him in the head with a hammer. I figured it was over. I was sure that Jack was dead. Just then, Luis got off a shot from the doorway that hit Dale between the eyes followed quickly by a second shot to Darius’ chest. Luis slumped to the ground, passing out from his injuries, a look of profound regret on his scarred face. Looked dead to me.
Santos, still pouring blood from his neck and face, turned to me with a triumphant sneer.
“I’ll take you now, bitch. Big Shot Jack is dead. Your son is dead. Once you give me my son you’ll be dead, too.”
I had picked up the razor blade that Lehman had dropped, but I knew that Santos would have his way. The weapon was just too small.
He approached, gripping Lehman’s axe in one hand. He was fully aroused, at least by his modest standards. I could not believe that he could do this after what had just happened. But I knew that he would not do it to me.
I held the blade to my throat. Santos stopped, with a confused look on his face. I had somehow gained the upper hand. His little plan did not work with me dead. I looked around, and noticed Sadie and Luis just beginning to stir. I cut myself a bit to distract Santos, who gasped when he saw the blood flow. Probably a deeper cut than I intended, because I started to gray out.
36: Mike’s Journal—Just In Time
Ian and I ran as fast as we could down to Santos’ compound. We found a total bloodbath. A bloody guy, looked like Macias, dead or unconscious outside the door. My dad, apparently dead, on the floor with Lehman and Darius, who were clearly dead. Lehman had fouled himself in death and the smell was appalling.
A dead woman and another almost dead woman slumped against the wall. Santos, standing frozen, his back to the door, with an axe in his hand. And my mother, naked on a bed, holding something to her throat, presumably a blade based on the blood sheeting from a cut on her neck. This tableau was enough to fuck you up for life, unless you had the advantage of already being fucked up for life.
Ian and I didn’t even hesitate. Ian moved to the left so that he could shoot at Santos without hitting my Mom. I moved to the right. My angle was not as good and a miss or through-shot could have hit Mom, so I went for the legs. Ian blasted Santos in the back with five loads of buck as I shot him in the ass with a full fifteen round magazine. Most of this was after Santos was already on the floor. I reloaded and emptied a full magazine into his head and neck just to be sure. When we were done, there were more holes than Santos remaining.
37: The Mop Up
Afterwards, Mike and Ian, exhausted beyond exhaustion, slowly mopped up. Ian field dressed the huge hole in Mike’s face as a temporary fix to staunch the bleeding. He held Mike’s face together with field dressings and duct tape, knowing that the scarring would be heinous.
Except for a few humans, most of whom Mike allowed to leave under threat of death if they ever approached the Farm or any of its citizens, they killed everything that moved. Any backtalk, any hesitation, and they mowed the humans down. No mercy.
Actually, there were two exceptions. Kate insisted that Luis and Sadie not be killed, and in fact that they be allowed to return to the Farm. Mike shook his head but relented, figuring that Luis would die from his injuries anyway.
All of the brains, wolves, and shamblers who had remained were killed. All of the babies in the nursery were ended. Ian and Mike noted, though, that some of the cribs were empty.
They killed several of the Inner Core, who were sort of dazed and powerless after the deaths of Santos and Mariana. Some type of psychic link had been cut. But they knew that some of the Core, some of the brains, and many l
ower zombies had escaped. As always, there had just been too many to kill.
As he dug through a pile of the dead, looking for survivors to kill, Ian heard a gasping moan. He dug deeper. It was Marvel.
“Of all of the fucking assholes to survive, I can’t believe Marvel did!” exclaimed Mike.
“Yeah, we have rednecks in Britain, too,” chuckled Ian. “They’re always the last to die. Want me to do it?”
Mike thought for a bit, then replied, “Let him live. At the end, he tried to be a human. He regrets what he’s done.”
Marvel cowered at Mike’s knee, hugging and begging forgiveness. “I’ll do anything you want. Anything. Just tell me. Please, please. Don’t send me away.”
Mike struck him across the face, using his open hand. Once, twice, three times. “Get out, Marvel. Don’t mistake my compassion for weakness. If I ever see you again, if I ever even hear of you, I will kill you and everything you love--if you love anything. Slowly and painfully. You have two seconds to get out of my sight. In fact, you better get down below the Mason Dixon line and never come north of it again. Tell any looters or shitheads that we will come and kill them if they ever come up here. Got it?”
Marvel limped slowly away, head held low. Ian’s gun on him the entire way.
“That fucker will hurt you some day, Mike.”
“I bet he’ll try. Or maybe he’ll spread the word to stay away from the Farm. More likely, he’ll get eaten within ten minutes after he leaves this place. He was nude and unarmed when he left, after all.”
The two chuckled as they continued their grim task.
Chapter 38: Aftermath
Kate sobbed, holding Jack’s unresponsive form. He breathed shallow, gasping breaths, one after another, his mouth set in a rictus of agony. She could see that a portion of his skull had been partially crushed by Darius’ blow. When she put her hand there, flakes of skull and even some gray matter stuck to her blood covered hands. Like many head wounds, the torn and tattered scalp bled violently. All Kate could do was wrap it, hoping to get Jack back to the Farm before he died.
She hadn’t even really noticed how severe Jack’s other injuries were. Jack’s right arm was partially severed just below the elbow. Kate wept as she tried to reattach it. It flopped loosely, connected to the upper arm by only a few strings of flesh. Jack’s hand was cold and white, curled almost into a fist.
Sadie convinced Kate that it had to be removed, now. Otherwise the bleeding could not be controlled. Gangrene would set in, and would kill Jack. The arm was too damaged to save.
Kate nodded, finally resigning herself to it, and Sadie quickly amputated, then cauterized the wound. Jack remained unconscious throughout, muttering a bit while they sawed through the ligaments and tendons as his gore spattered on the floor below.
Chapter 39: Return to the Farm
The trip back to the Farm was a somber affair. Ian and Mike found a vehicle, a Chevy Silverado four door, while Sadie and Luis guarded Kate and Jack.
Ian decided that they had to blow the entire armory before leaving. At least block it off so there was no exit for anything left down there. He rigged several pallets of C4 on a five minute timer, then joined the rest in the borrowed Suburban. Jack was laid out in the middle seat, comatose. At least he’d had one lucid moment when he grinned at Kate, tried to reach for her, saw his missing right hand, and passed out again.
As they drove away, the armory imploded right on cue. Ian and Mike exchanged a glance. They knew that the eradication of all zombies had to be the priority from now on. Otherwise, there would be no peace. No safety. No life at all.
The group arrived back at the Farm the next morning. They had noticed sentries and check points along the way, so they knew that the word had spread. Finally, a mile from the Farm, they were stopped at a well manned checkpoint, commanded by the newly one-eyed Christina and a bunch of strangers.
Christina and Ian almost got into it, then realized that they were kindred souls when they each got a good look at the other. They lowered their weapons, chuckling a bit. Knowing that they’d get to know one another better over time. Christina reminded Ian of his late wife, Martha. He reminded Christina of Cleve, somehow.
Christina wept when she saw Jack’s head wound and missing arm. She’d never seen Jack down and out like that. Usually he was moving around, laughing, talking, active. Now, he was a virtual zombie. Still alive in a sense, but not really there.
She noticed Mike’s thousand yard stare, Kate’s distracted babbling and wild eyes. Jack had brought them all home, but the price was so high.
Christina told them how stragglers had been coming in since the battle, most of them decent folks. Jim had let them all in, but had set them up well away from the Farm itself. He’d decided that a loose alliance was better than risking close contact. No one could be trusted anymore.
Christina escorted the silent group back to the Farm.
Chapter 40: Kate’s Diary—Reunion
I was ecstatic to see my Bobbie and my Sean once again. Many days, I’d known—really known--that I’d never see them again. Thank God I’m wrong so much.
They’ve grown a bit, and they threw so much at me at once that my head was spinning. Bobbie’s horses. Sean’s water supply. Bobbie’s rabbits. Sean’s chickens. They’d been busy, and they were actually thriving. A bit of light in all of the darkness.
They were heartbroken to see Jack. The only good part was that Jack could sense that they were there. I could see the start of a smile, then he reached with both hands, then remembered he had no right hand, and hugged first Sean, then Bobbie very weakly with his left, as he tried to conceal the stump on the right. Even though he passed out right away, I was glad to see he was starting to come back. Maybe. We can hope.
Chapter 41: Mike’s Journal—Change of Plan
Even though he came to save me and Mom, and even though he succeeded, and pretty much sacrificed himself, I don’t know how I can ever feel the same about Jack. He killed the only girl I’ve ever loved. How could he do that to me?
Not only that, but he completely botched the “rescue” of Mom. Something changed forever. Now, when I think of him, I think of “Jack,” not “Dad.” That part of my life is over.
I guess time will tell. I do feel bad for him because he’s so hurt. How can he function in this world with only one arm? A damaged brain? He’s not the same. I guess he’s paid the price for what he’s done, but I can’t forgive him. Not yet, anyway.
Anyway, Uncle Jim brought me through the Farm and the Fort. They’ve been busy. There are only a few signs of what they call the “Battle of the Farm.” The Fort is impressive. The fields are growing, the herds are increasing, all seems well. Except for the eternal threat of zombies and looters.
It will be my life’s work to protect the Farm. To eradicate the zombies. To kill marauders and looters. To create a safe haven for my family, and for humans. Including Jack, I guess.
In fact, Ian, Christina and I are going out tomorrow. Luis will be with us, too, but needs to heal first. We will not stop until we’ve cleared an area of at least fifty miles around the Farm. It will be all out war, until we are safe or I am dead.
Epilogue:
Some months later, Albert Miles furtively carried a squirming human baby into the basement of the Burlington Town Hall. He carried it by palming its head with his freakishly huge hands. Opening a trap door behind a huge boiler, he backed down a long ladder into a rank sewer tunnel. As the baby squalled, Albert walked down the tunnel, swinging the baby with his long arms, dreaming of Santos, feeling his loss. Santos his master, his love. Gone, because of that horrible bitch, Kate, and her evil husband, Jack.
After a long walk, Albert reached a stair that led up to a utility room. Rina, one of the few Inner Cadre to survive the final attack, let him into the room.
“They will be happy to see food,” she silently communicated.
“Yes,” he replied, making no sound. “It has been days since they’ve eaten.”
“It will not be enough for them.”
“I will feed only him. The One. Santos’ heir.”
“He misses his mother and his sister. And his father.”
“Does he know?”
“Yes, he knew immediately. He has grown. He eats everything, including most of the other male spawn. He sends his message to all within his sight. He is the true Heir.”
Albert entered the hidden nursery behind the utility room. There, ten cribs housed four small beings and one larger one. The Heir of Santos. The surrounding cribs were spattered with blood and gore. As was the Heir’s crib, which was full of discarded and cracked baby-sized bones.
Albert lowered the baby towards the Heir, who snatched it from his hands, wrung its neck, and drank deeply from its throat. The Heir violently cracked the skull on the edge of the crib and thrust his fingers into the brain, scooping them greedily into his mouth.
Albert regarded the Heir closely. It bore a close resemblance to Santos. It was large and well developed, considering its age. It did not have Santos’ effeminate beauty, though. Its eyes were set close together, its brow heavy and beetled. It seemed a mix of human and zombie.
“Maybe the worst of both”, Albert thought. “ The thing had a look of inbred idiocy,” Albert opined. “Maybe I should kill this thing before it comes too powerful,” Albert daydreamed, forgetting to shield his thoughts. “Maybe I shall be King.”
But the Heir was fully capable of reading Albert’s thoughts, whether he tried to hide them or not. Its capacity for communication had grown far faster than Albert could have imagined. Its power already dwarfed Mariana’s at its peak.
Zombie Dawn II: A Zombie Apocalypse Sequel Page 7
