by Jay Morris
“I’m not either.”
I realized two things that morning: I didn’t care that she was taller than me and yes, she was my girlfriend. Then just like that they were in the vehicles were gone:
Rico and Elaine, Kyle and Deputy Weir, Mrs. Driscol and Mrs. West, Lieutenant Klein, Janey and Kelsey. My friends and my family. I trembled as I realized I might never see them again, Karen said
“Let’s all get some breakfast.”
As we headed back up the stairs I saw Mrs. Boudreaux, Mrs. King, and the Livingstons watching the distant tail lights disappear behind the tree line at the bottom of the hill. I realized that they were just as nervous, just as scared as I was. We all stared hugging and I thought it was going to turn into a cry fest when Mr. Livingston said
“Come on now tears ain’t gonna help no one, we got lots of work to do and we can’t do it on no empty stomach!”
From the bottom of the steps Lucy’s tiny, sleepy voice said
“Ain’t is not a word Grampa Livingston.”
Then the strong voice of Mrs. Livingston added
“You tell him sweetheart.”
Everyone laughed, even in her sleep Lucy was always ready to correct improper English, I laughed at the image of her in front of a bunch of kids teaching school, the I realized that would never happen.
I don’t remember what was for breakfast, but I do remember that we switched from silence to kidding around several times as different people tried to lighten the mood. It sort of worked. We set out things for us to do because as Mr. Livingston pointed out,
“That for us to sit around and do nothing while the others were gone was just plain selfish.”
There was garden work, cleaning, dishes, cooking, and weapon maintenance, over watch, and someone was to be watching Lucy, Gina, and Jordan while they worked or had play time. I was to take over watch from Tucker at eight, I had a little time so I took some, well, unwanted bits to the monster in the cage.
The monster seemed to be getting used to me because it didn’t get agitated when it saw me, it didn’t run and cower like it did when Tucker was around. I gave it the food then as I turned to sit in my regular spot I saw that Tucker had put a bunch of those little orange flags that you used to see at construction sites in a long row, each was about 10 yards between them. I sighed, another experiment. Another way to torture, what should I call it? It was a monster but I was getting tired of the generic term, we needed a name for them and Zombie was just incorrect. I sat down and watched it eat.
“Who were you before?” I asked.
It looked at me for a moment then returned to its meal.
“You will never get back to what you were before will you?” I asked.
I wondered what Billy would say, and I suddenly felt guilty for not thinking of him more often. I suddenly thought of the kind of name that Billy would have suggested: a Zarn. A Gorron, or a Draith, something like that, something alien, something scary. It made me laugh out loud, this startled the prisoner and it looked at me like it had never heard that before, and then I had it, I knew what it was; a Before.
I tried its name out a few times:
“Oh my, look out it’s a Before!”
“Is that a bear or a Before?”
“What were Befores before?”
“There are a least three or four Befores down there!”
The creature sat and watched me, it’s four part eyes moving in and out with each sentence as if it were trying to process it. The creature’s eyes went very wide, so much the exoskeleton shields were completely invisible and suddenly two shiny plates opened on its underside where the butt should be and brown liquid sprayed onto the ground. I laughed out loud again and the Befores eyes returned to normal as if to say “really?” I couldn’t stop laughing and said aloud
“Does a Before shit in the woods?”
The Before just sat there and watched me. I rose and told it that I would be back around dinner time. I stopped for a moment and said
“I’m sorry this happened to you.”
It clicked and whistled in response.
I was only a few minutes late but since I didn’t have a watch I figured that was okay. Tucker was scanning the horizon, he handed me the binoculars.
“Hey, John. There is either a fire or a dust cloud off to the East, best keep an eye on that.”
He said. I took them and asked him about the new rifle.
“Ahh, this is a Marlin guide gun, lever action, in .45-70.”
He said as he reached into his shirt pocket and handed me a huge round.
“Cheese whiz!” I said as I looked at it. “That thing is a cannon”.
“Yep, ‘supposed to kill anything in North America, those are 405 grain bullets as opposed to the 55 grain ones in the M-16.”
I handed it back and said “I hope so.”
“Tucker, where is your Thompson?” I asked.
“I gave it to Amy, just in case.”
He smiled sadly and started to head downstairs.
“Hey Tucker,” I said and he stopped “do you think they will all make it back?” I asked.
He stood there for a moment and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he wasn’t at all sure.
“I hope so.” was all he said.
Time seemed to crawl by, I didn’t see the smoke he described, not at first but eventually I found it, it was like a smudge in the sky, far off in the distance but it bothered me. It didn’t look natural. I kept checking the perimeter but my attention was drawn back to the smudge, it had looked larger for a while but now it looked as if it was getting fainter again. Mr. Livingston came up just after lunch, he was carrying a shotgun, all black, long and deadly looking. It was one of the semi-auto 12’s we had picked up at the gun shop. We talked for a bit then I gave him the binoculars and showed him about where the smoke had been spotted.
Something wasn’t right, I could feel it in my bones, in my stomach in my heart. I sat at the lunch table and looked at the clock. One P.M. five hours to go. I swallowed hard and felt the butterflies return. Mrs. Boudreaux brought me my plate, there were beans and canned pears with toast and a big glass of some kind of energy drink they made from a powder. When I finished I took the plate into the kitchen and asked her where Tucker was.
“I think he has gone up to that monster of his.” she said.
I didn’t want to see whatever it was he was doing so I decided to go find Lucy and Karen. Mrs. Hardy and Mrs. King with the girls were going over a bunch of coats, looking for damage, missing buttons, and broken zippers, whatever. I didn’t have to ask because Lucy explained that they were
“Getting all the coats ready for the snow that would be falling from the sky at any moment!”
Then she explained that she and Gina and Jordan were having a contest to see who could find the first pair of matching snowflakes.
“Really?” I said, trying not to laugh.
“Is that right girls?” I asked. Gina and Jordan both nodded vigorously, their big brown eyes reminding me of that little rabbit in that cartoon about the baby deer. That memory made me laugh too.
Back downstairs I went, 1:30, four and a half hours to go. I reminded myself that it only four and a half until the ambush, the strike team wasn’t due back till early the next morning. Karen and I walked out the front door and down the steps, I missed the MRAP of all things, I decided I liked the presence of the big steel vehicle and I missed it. We stepped out into the yard and I looked up at the over watch. I didn’t see Mr. Livingston but he might be walking the perimeter. We walked in silence down the drive towards the highway. When we reached the tree line we wandered among the trees even though it was fall and it was actually cool you wouldn’t notice it as long as you stayed in the sun but here in the shadows it was darn right cold. Karen stopped and turned to me she took my hands in hers. She stared at me for a minute before she spoke,
“We are boyfriend and girlfriend right?” she asked.
“Ummm, yeah of course.” I answer
ed.
“Then we should make it official.” She said.
“How do we do that?” I asked, not being real sure of the rules.
“We kiss.” She said.
Her cheeks turned bright pink. You know, when a pretty girl says something like that most guys do one of two things, some jump on the opportunity, some freeze up. I bravely did the latter. Karen took the rifle from my shoulder then we held hands, our fingers laced together. I realized I was getting dizzy because I was forgetting to breathe. She leaned over towards me, closed her eyes and puckered her lips. My God, I realized that she was incredibly beautiful and I really, really, really wanted to kiss those amazing lips. So I closed my eyes and gently pressed my lips to hers.
I want to tell you something, life can be scary, brutal, bloody, and painful but in that instance, that very moment I understood why people endure it all. That kiss was the single greatest moment in my life up till then and I thought it would never be bettered but I was wrong. She kissed me again and our arms wrapped around each other. My God, I loved her. I wished that moment would never end, she was strong and smart and we were together. I don’t know if it was 5 minutes or ten or two hours but I finally realized I was hearing engines, lots of them.
“Come with me.” I said.
Picking up my rifle I took Karen by the hand and we made our way to the highway side of the tree line. Coming down the highway was a school bus surrounded by at least forty motorcycles. Chained to the grill of the bus was David from the Post Office, I was furious, David was a dick but he didn’t deserve this, no one did. The bikes slowed as did the bus, they pulled over and crossed the over grown grass strip onto the service road. They were looking for us. Damn.
We ran crouched over just inside the tree line making our way towards the shooting blind. I heard a shotgun blast then another. They were answered by a rattling of rifle and pistol fire; Mr. Livingston was giving it a go. We reached the blind and scamper up the ladder and inside. The big .50 caliber rifle was gone but one of the Moisans that we had carried all the way from Tuckers house was there, it was scoped and there was an open metal can with at least 200 round in it. I handed the M-4 to Karen and said
“Fire when I do, okay?” and she nodded.
Fear and desperation in her eyes I wanted to tell her it would be okay but that would be a lie so I just smiled instead. I looked through the scope and choose a target, he was near the back and had what I thought was an AK-47 in his hands. Nearer still were three men and a woman taking cover on our side of the school bus.
“Karen, fire as many rounds as you can at those four by the bus, okay?” I said.
She nodded. There was another blast from the roof and when the invaders returned fire I blew AK-47s head off. Karen opened up on the ones by the bus, she had wounded at least two and the others looked like they couldn’t figure out where the shooting was coming from. One man started running and Karen cut the legs out from under him. The woman looked around, I saw the panic in her eyes, and I shot her in the chest, center mass as Tucker would say. It looked like she had been yanked back against the bus by a giant rubber band. She hit so hard the bus actually rocked a little. I tried to pick another target but they were hidden by the bus from my line of fire.
I looked over at Karen, she was frozen, probably in shock. The M-4 was silent, she had emptied the 30 round clip but in doing so had reduced their numbers considerably. I took out my M-9, racked the slide, took off the safety and handed it to her, she set the M-4 down and took the 9-M and waited patiently for me to reload and pack as many rounds as I could into my pockets. We stared at each other and I quickly kissed her and said
“Come on.”
We flew down the ladder and out of the woods towards the bus, if I could not see them then they couldn’t see us, most likely.
We scrambled across the grass and the gravel and leaned up against the bus. The four attackers were either dead or unconscious, all except the one whose legs had been shredded by Karen. He was moaning and started to crawl over to us,
“Help me! Please don’t shoot. Please.”
He was pathetic, maybe 19 years old; I know he was in agony, his wounds may have been fatal I don’t know. Karen trembled next to me and the pistol in her hand trembled as she shakily pointed it at him. I reached up and slowly pointed it to the ground and shook my head when she looked at me. I left the long Russian battle rifle and rose and headed over to him.
“Thank you! Thank you, kid I promise I won’t let them hurt you. Thank you.” He said.
Before he could say anything else I squatted on his back, drew my dagger, pulled his head back by the hair and drew the gleaming blade as viciously as I could across his throat. Just like Tucker had shown me. Disgusted by the spray of crimson blood and the huge pool of it expanding around my feet. I got up and ran back to Karen who was looking at me just the way I looked at Tucker and it made me sick.
I forced myself to look away from her and grabbed the Moisan Nagant and started to crawl under the bus to see what I might see. Karen was next to me, she had picked up the AK-47 and she handed me back the M-9. I put it in my holster and pointed at the charging handle of the AK. She slipped it back just a little and then let it go back, she nodded telling me it was ready to rock and roll. We peeked out at the front steps where the motorcycle gang was keeping Mr. Livingston pinned down with sporadic rifle and pistol fire. Twice he shoved the Stoeger shotgun over the edge and pulled the trigger, the second time one of the men attacking us, an older guy wearing a black leather jacket cursed as at least one 00 pellet and probably more got him in the shoulder and he went down.
Then I saw four of them rush up the stairs and a huge fat man kicked in the front doors only to be blown back by a huge blast. I shifted my gaze and saw Mrs. Livingston holding their old hammer shotgun, smoke trailing from both barrels. The fat guy rolled down the stairs and two of the others had to scramble to keep from being rolled over by their own buddy but the last one, he was on the porch and had stepped aside to let the fat guy attack the door. He held out a pistol and fired 4 times and I saw Mrs. Livingston fall away, and I heard screaming from inside. At first I thought it was Lucy but I realized that it was in French and from a woman far too old to be my little sister. There were more shots from inside and the two other guys had recovered and followed their buddy inside. Two more started up the stairs and I put a 7.62x54 right between his shoulder blades, I worked the bolt but before the other guy could turn around Karen sprayed him with 3 rounds from the AK-47.
Well that was it, they knew we were out here now. Several of the bikers turned and started to fire at us. A spray of gravel came up and I heard Karen scream in pain. I fired and missed, the biker started to head toward us thinking he must have got us both. He didn’t and he didn’t live long enough to figure that out. My next shot entered right at the chin and blew the back of his head out. Mr. Livingston was up and fired again, he must have reloaded because I think his shotgun only held five. Another biker was taken from the side, just under his arm pit, he had been pointing a big revolver at me. Another blast from the roof and another biker spun around and to the ground, several large holes appearing on the side of his face. Then I saw Mr. Livingston go down hard, his arms flailed wide when a large red stain appeared in the middle of his chest.
The remaining bikers split into two groups, four or five started to encircle me and the rest ran inside. I felt Karen pulling my legs, dragging me back from under the bus, I let her and we both got up and ran into the woods. Bullets hummed through the leaves around us, twigs flew from the trees. I remembered Tucker telling me that they sounded like huge bees flying by your ear. He was right.
Karen and I ran as fast as we could, ducking, diving, and zig-zagging. We ducked under a fallen tree and slid down a gully into a dry ravine. It ran parallel to the gravel drive so we turned 90 degrees and headed up hill. The sound of our pursuers growing a little more distant and when a huge elderberry bush appears we dove underneath it and lay in the grass. I relo
aded the Moisan and she checked her magazine, she her hand up twice with her fingers splayed. Ten rounds left, I had plenty but the bolt action rounds wouldn’t fit in the AK. So we lay there silently.
I heard several small rounds, like a .22 or something then a shotgun blast and they too were silenced. “My sister” was all I could say and I started to climb back up the side of the ravine.
“Wait! Johnny! Wait!” Karen pleaded.
“We have got to do something, we can’t leave them like that.”
She looked at me and I knew she was scared, Hell, I was scared but we just couldn’t. Then I heard a huge gun go off and then there was an explosion and smoke rose from the far side of the lodge. Then a second explosion even louder than the first, this one from the circle drive and there was actually a black mushroom cloud, like a mini-nuke. Then a terrible blast, almost like an explosion but not quite, there were screams of agony and rage, then a second round and a third.
“Tucker.” I said.
We heard the bikers who had been following us run back towards the lodge to face the new threat.
“Come on” I whispered.
Together Karen and I started up the hill. We made it to the side of the building and I peeked around front, at least two of the motorcycles had been blown to bits and most of the others had been tossed around as if by a giant child having a tantrum, burning gasoline was everywhere. Several newly dead bikers had joined their pals on the ground. Several others were on fire and two more I recognized as some of the ones who had been following Karen and me were dead, I know this because the one wearing a fringed jacket was missing his head and the guy wearing an army fatigue jacket covered in patches had his guts spread out all over the front yard.
There was two more bikers still standing both were firing into the woods, I turned to Karen and she nodded we opened up on them from behind. My first shot missed but my second took the closer ones’ knee out from behind, it practically severed his lower leg. Karen fired at least 8 times and two hit home and while my target pitched backwards, Karen’s fell forward.
