by Max Lockwood
Alec pursed his lips. “You saw the tapes, though, right?”
“Yeah,” Michael replied.
“So you saw that I played things by the book. Also, you realize that we’ve just been given orders to shoot all infected and dangerous people. We have to follow orders.”
“I know,” he conceded. “Sometimes, it’s hard to accept the fact that things are different now. This virus is killing hundreds and spreading at a rapid pace. All rules for the way we live our daily lives have gone out the window.”
“It’s rough,” Alec said, looking out the window, “but we have to do the best we can. Are we good?”
Michael looked up at Alec. “Yeah, man, we’re good.”
The pair awkwardly shook hands and drove off to their assigned area. They looked straight ahead as they drove, waiting for the initial awkwardness to wear off. At the very least, there was no outward resentment between them, so Alec felt a little safer in the event that his partner needed to save his ass.
“Look out,” Alec said, pointing to a man crossing the street twenty feet from an intersection. Michael slowed down, keeping a close eye on the man.
“I can’t tell if we’re just in a bad neighborhood or if that guy’s got it,” Michael said. “What are the signs to watch out for again?”
“Extreme outbursts of rage in typically docile people. How are we supposed to tell if we don’t know the people? Otherwise, grayish skin, bloodshot eyes—that also describes some drug users.”
“This shit is messed up,” Michael said under his breath. “I guess we should just leave people alone until they’re trying to do something, right?”
Alec shrugged. “I guess. But then again, if we let an infected person go, are we just allowing them to be free for when they feel the rage coming on?”
Alec and Michael thought about that for a few quiet moments. There was no code of ethics as far as the virus was concerned.
“Up there,” Michael said, breaking the silence. “Do you see that crowd of people?”
“Yeah, I see it. We’d better check it out.”
The pair pulled up to a gas station where five or six people had gathered around a car. They were pounding their fists on the frame, shouting at whoever was inside. Michael flicked on the siren lights in hopes that the crowd would disperse. The odd mismatch of people from every demographic didn’t seem disturbed by the police presence in the slightest. That was a bad sign.
“What do we do?” Michael asked, his brown doe eyes looking anxiously at Alec. He wasn’t much older than Alec. Alec wondered what the sheriff’s plan was by sending two rookie cops out into a bad part of town together. Maybe he didn’t think they’d have a good chance of survival and they were the most dispensable. He tried to push these thoughts out of his head so he could focus on the work ahead of him. He had too much potential to be treated like a pawn.
“We do our job and break this thing up,” Alec replied.
He got out of the car with authority and Michael followed closely behind.
“Step away from the vehicle,” he called to the gathering. “I mean it, or else you’ll be in the back of my car in cuffs.”
No one listened. Instead, they started pounding on the car with more force. Through a small space between two bodies, Alec could make out the face of a middle aged man, a look of pure panic on his face.
“I’m not going to say it again,” Alec yelled. “This is your final warning to back away.”
After being ignored for the second time, Alec reached for the bundle of zip ties in his belt. There were too many to take in now. He’d have to leave the lot of them on the curb.
“Alec, look,” Michael said in a hushed whisper.
He followed Michael’s eyes to one of the men surrounding the car. Through a tear in his shirt, he could see angry red boils erupting on his skin.
Alec’s eyes widened. These people were almost certainly infected. But he didn’t want to make a fatal mistake. He grabbed his nightstick and poked a man, prompting him to turn around and face him.
The man looked like a skeleton covered in too-loose skin. His sunken eyes darted back and forth with no clear direction. A scarlet rash covered his neck and the back of his hands, and his mouth gaped open in a snarl.
Alec quietly drew his gun and aimed at the man. “Sir,” he said steadily, “put your hands on your head.”
The man took two steps toward him, his expression unchanging.
“On the ground,” Alec pleaded with him.
Alec took a quick glance to his left. Michael was aiming a Taser at a man who had also lost interest in the person in the car.
Suddenly, Alec heard a horrific scream and a zap of electricity. Then next thing he knew, Michael was on the ground and the rest of the group had turned toward him. With careful aim, Alec fired a round into anyone who came within a few feet of the two officers.
When the bodies had settled, Alec nudged each one with his boot just to make sure they were dead. Michael scrambled to his feet, looking both alarmed and a little sheepish that he had nearly been taken out by them.
“I didn’t think we’d have to kill them,” he said, looking pale.
“I was hoping we wouldn’t have to either,” Alec replied. “Take a look. Definitely infected.”
Michael covered his mouth and nose and squatted down to get a closer look. “You’re right. By the looks of them, if you hadn’t finished them off, they would have been dead in weeks, days even.”
Alec strode over to the man in his car and gently rapped on the window with his knuckle. The man reluctantly rolled the window down.
“Good afternoon, sir,” Alec said casually. “Did any of these people come into physical contact with you during the altercation?”
“No, no,” the man said, clearly shaken. “I haven’t been in physical contact with anyone for days.”
“That’s good to hear,” Alec said. “Are you from here?”
The man nodded so hard, his wire glasses nearly fell down his nose.
“The mayor has advised everyone to stay put for a while. Do you have a safe home to go to?”
“Yes. I just went out to get food for my family. We have enough for a few days, yet, but we’re running low.”
Alec sighed. He wondered how many healthy people like this were in similar situations.
“Give me your name and address, and I’ll see if I can have rations delivered to you,” Alec said. He hadn’t been ordered to do so, but if necessary, he’d make the delivery on his own time.
“Go straight home, and don’t stop for anyone,” Alec said after collecting the man’s information. “Let’s get back out there,” he said to Michael. “I have a bad feeling there’s a lot more of this out there.”
Michael still looked pale as he quietly drove around the neighborhood, looking for any sign of trouble.
“Was that your—you know . . .” Alec asked, trailing off. He was never great with comforting people.
“My first time in a shootout?” he clarified. “I guess it’s hardly a shootout when only one guy has a gun,” he said quietly. “I’m fine,” he said a little louder. “It’s just a little startling to have someone infected with a deadly virus run straight at you.”
Alec dropped the subject. If Michael was anything like Alec, he would have a lot of booze and sleepless nights in his future. If Michael wanted to voice his concerns with Alec, he would listen. Otherwise, he would just mind his own business.
On the other hand, he was feeling a little smug now. He imagined that most of the officers could now sympathize with what he did to that infected teenager not long ago. There was a good chance a few of his fellow police officers were making the same decisions.
The rest of the day followed the same pattern. They would approach a riot, ask people to stand down, and when they inevitably chased after them, they would draw their weapons and fire. Out of ten of these riots they encountered, only three people appeared to be healthy. They weren’t showing symptoms, anyway.
/> By the time night fell, they were just shooting anyone displaying symptoms. Before, the officers needed to see violent, life-threatening actions toward themselves or others. But eventually, that became too much work. They shot and killed anyone who had the virus rage in them or any of the physical signs. By nine o’clock, they had shot nearly thirty people, only about twenty of which could be identified.
After shooting down a particularly nasty few, Alec was exhausted. He stopped seeing the infected as people. Now, they were just monsters in need of extermination.
Resting behind a burning car for a moment to catch their breath, Alec looked over at Michael. His shivering seemed odd for the situation, given the fact that they were next to a smoldering ball of metal.
“Are you okay, man?” Alec asked. In his short career, he had yet to see anyone snap in the line of duty, but he assumed this is what a ticking time bomb looked like. “I think we should head back to the station.”
“Do you?” Michael snapped. He glared at Alec, his eyes looking dark.
“Take it easy,” Alec said. “That last one was pretty messed up. No one would blame us if we called it a day. I’m sure we made it a lot longer than some of the others.”
“Fuck off,” Michael snarled. “I’m surprised that you want to go home. I thought you loved to shoot down civilians. I bet you’re having your best day on the job.”
Alec furrowed his brow. He didn’t know Michael well, but he knew that he was typically a pretty easygoing guy. Alec wondered if he was having a psychotic break from all of the killing they’d had to do. Alec already felt desensitized to the violence, but he knew that he would have nightmares for months.
“I don’t like this either,” Alec argued, “but we really have no choice. Get back in the car and drive us back to the station. We need some time to decompress.”
Michael didn’t move. Instead, he glared at Michael, his lips curling into a sneer.
“Fine,” Alec said exasperatedly. “If you don’t want to go, I’ll just leave your ass here. I’ve had a long day, and I’m not going to sit around and babysit you because you can’t keep it together for ten more minutes.”
Alec felt a little guilty for being so hard on the guy who was clearly suffering some mental issues, but he was pretty fed up with the situation himself. As he walked toward the car, he heard the sound of a gun being loaded.
“Take another step and I’ll blow your brains out,” Michael growled.
Alec slowly pivoted so he was facing Michael. Michael had sweat pouring down his pale face.
“What’s going on, Michael?” Alec asked in a gentle voice. “Is there something you want to say?”
Michael rubbed his neck. “No,” he said casually. “I just don’t want to see your stupid face anymore. You’ve ruined the precinct with your shoot first, ask questions later attitude, and you don’t deserve to work for the city anymore.”
Alec looked at the spot where Michael kept touching. On the side of his neck were four red, jagged lines that were tinged green on the edges. He was infected, and the virus was moving though his veins quicker than anyone could have predicted.
There was no reasoning with him. He had dealt with too many infected today to think that saving him was an option either. Michael was dead, as far as he was concerned. The only problem Alec had was making sure he didn’t kill him first.
“Put your hands where I can see them,” Michael said, rubbing more vigorously at his wound.
Alec complied, trying to figure out how to unholster and fire his gun while being held at gunpoint himself.
“Turn around,” Michael added. “Slowly.”
Alec obeyed, slowly shuffling his feet until he was no longer facing Michael. It was completely dark now. The lack of light from the cities made the stars so much brighter. He looked into the glittering abyss, aware that it could be the last sight he ever saw.
“I’ll tell the station about everything,” Michael slurred. “They’ll hear about all of the killings you committed tonight. They’ll know how I saved the city from your destruction.”
He had worked so hard to become a police officer, and for what? Not only did he have to commit atrocities against sick citizens, but now he was about to be killed by one of his own. Alec looked up into the starry sky, felt the cool breeze of the night surround him, and then heard the gunshot.
Chapter Seven
Walking on the balls of her feet down the tile corridor, Elaina followed the echoing shrieks. Her stomach churned as she neared the commotion, knowing that she wasn’t well-equipped to engage in a fight. Physical education had always been the bane of her academic career, and she was fortunate that she was naturally quick on her feet. She could run forever, but the moment she had to lift anything heavy, she was useless.
For Elaina, her flight response was much stronger than her fight response. However, spending most of her upbringing indoors, she rarely used either. For the first time in her life, Elaina Morgan found herself wishing she would have listened to his father and spent a little more time doing physical activity. Or, at the very least, enrolled in a self-defense class.
The hallway was dark, but when Elaina squinted, she could see three shapes in the distance. They continued walking through a doorway into the school library.
Looking in from the window, Elaina saw the three people illuminated by the light from the exit signs and the motion-sensor emergency lights. One of the men looked to be in his thirties or forties with a thick neck and a trucker cap on his head. Chubby rolls poked out from underneath his too-tight t-shirt.
The other man looked even younger than Elaina. Tall and lanky, he had a mop of shaggy brown hair that touched his shoulders. The older man was definitely the leader in this duo, as the younger man always observed the other man before acting.
Between them, a slender bicep cupped by each of the men, was a girl in her late teens. Something about her seemed familiar, but Elaina couldn’t put her finger on it. Her straight, long hair hung in curtains around her tearstained face.
Elaina continued to watch from the hall, waiting for the right moment to step in. She was positive that she couldn’t overtake the men, even with the girl’s help. She looked exhausted already, and Elaina wasn’t about to make up for any strength deficit.
“I’m sorry we took you away from that old guy,” the ringleader said menacingly. “But I know you’d rather be with someone like me. I’ll keep you safe from the virus. I’ve got a bunker and a couple of shotguns. No zombie freaks can get you there.”
The girl squirmed in a futile attempt to get away. “Why are you doing this?” she asked her captors. By the sound of exasperation in her voice, it wasn’t her first time with that query.
“You just don’t appreciate nothin’,” the man said. “You’re safer here than you are anywhere else. I’ve been prepping for this kind of shit to go down for years.” He dragged out the last word for emphasis. “Pretty soon, everyone will be dead because the virus wiped them clean out. When that happens, guess who will still be standing?”
“We will,” the other man replied.
“Darn tootin’,” the fat man said. “And you know what? We’ll be left to repopulate the planet once the shit hits the fan.”
Elaina crinkled her nose, disgusted by the man’s grand plan. While the population would certainly take a hit once it was all said and done, it was obvious that the girl had no intentions of repopulating with her captors.
“If that’s your plan,” the girl asked, “then why are we in a high school?”
The older man let out a chilling cackle. The younger man chimed in with a high-pitched giggle.
“I’m a gentleman,” he replied. “I figured it was best if you got to know the two of us before we got down to business.”
The girl shuddered violently. Elaina wanted to help her, but she didn’t know what to do. She needed to come up with a precise plan of action. Otherwise, she might also be kidnapped and taken to his bunker, wherever it was.
T
hen, Elaina saw the man jam his pudgy arm up the girl’s shirt. There was no plan anymore—just white-hot rage.
“Clint,” the man said, holding the girl down. “I think we’re fine over here. Give us some privacy, won’t you?”
The younger man nodded and walked toward the door. This was Elaina’s chance. She swiftly grabbed the fire extinguisher from the wall, raised it over her head, and—
“Let me go!” the girl screamed, drowning out the sound of the loud thud of the metal fire extinguisher hitting the side of the skinny man’s head. He toppled to the ground, and Elaina dragged him by his feet out of view from the library. The fat man would be too preoccupied to even consider or care that something had happened to his friend.
Clint, the younger man, lay flat on his back in the middle of the hall, a red welt forming on the side of his face. Elaina checked to make sure he was breathing and then left him when she was certain she hadn’t killed the guy.
Now there was only one more target to take out. This one appeared to be far more dangerous than the other, and Elaina hoped the girl could help her overtake him. She didn’t have time to think too much about it—the man was trying to unbutton the girl’s jeans.
Elaina sprinted into the library at full speed, running straight into the man, knocking him off-balance.
“What the hell?” he roared, swinging his arms at whomever he could reach. The girl, in shock from Elaina’s entrance, scrambled up to her feet and crossed her arms over her body, shivering.
“Help me take him down,” Elaina pleaded.
It was too late. The man pulled a handgun from his pocket, one of many in his doomsday cache. Without warning, he fired a shot straight into the air.
“Are you infected?” he screamed in Elaina’s face.
“No, I’m not infected,” she fired back.
“If that’s the case,” he asked suspiciously, “then why did you charge me? You only see that kind of rage in the infected.”
