The Fall of Society

by Thonas Rand

  Everyone was settling in for the night, Joe and his family had already gone to their room. Doctor Ceraulo and Donnie were gone. Tom and Anthony were still around as they finished cleaning up the cooking supplies from dinner. Alan was just sitting at his table looking at Ardent and his crew. They were cleaning their weapons after the day’s battle. They cleaned their guns religiously because they were the tools that kept them alive. There were only two working emergency lights in the cafeteria, so it wasn’t very well lit in there, they also had some candles to assist their vision.

  Lauren sat at the end of the next table, away from the others; she was in the middle of cleaning her AK-47; it was broken-down into several pieces that she had laid out in a methodical order. Using a cleaning rod for the inside of the barrel, she brushed it hard several times, removed the rod and inspected the inside of the barrel, didn’t like what she saw, so she reinserted the rod and continued to brush.

  Alan watched her compulsively clean her weapon and wondered about her; he wanted to know what had happened that made her so hard. He walked over to Ardent and Bear, who were also in the middle of cleaning their guns, which they were doing in a more relaxed manner.

  “What’s up, Alan, you need more shotgun shells?” Ardent asked.

  Tom heard. “Please, don’t give him anymore,” he said with a grin.

  Alan ignored Tom. “No, I, uh, wanted to tell you that…” he hesitated uncomfortably. “…I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry…sorry for pointing a gun at you. There, I said it.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate that, and I understand why you did it.”

  “You do?”

  “Of course I do,” Ardent said. “You were upset, scared, you didn’t know who we were and you reacted out of self-preservation.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “But now that you know we’re here to help,” Ardent said, “we all need to stick together, because it’s the only way that we’re gonna get out of here alive.”

  “I understand,” Alan said and then lowered his voice. “Hey, what’s Lauren’s deal, why is she so hard?”

  “Well…” Bear said, “don’t fuck with her, and if she likes you—you’ll know. If she doesn’t like you—you’ll definitely know.”

  “She definitely doesn’t like me,” Alan said as he glanced at her.

  Lauren was still brushing the inside of her barrel. She stopped, looked at the inside, didn’t like it, kept on brushing.

  Stopped brushing.

  Looked.

  Kept brushing and at the same time—

  Brushed against the memory in her mind—

  Her hands were on a steering wheel…

  She stopped brushing.

  The dull sun cut through her truck windshield…

  She kept brushing…

  Harder.

  She brushed harder…

  DAY 150:

  LAUREN and ADAM

  A couple months ago in San Diego, parts of town were still smoldering in the morning sun, but for the most part, the city belonged to the dead—shrouded in silence and ash—nothing moved, except for one vehicle as it crept through the side streets and alleyways, trying to avoid detection as it moved at a slow pace.

  It was Lauren’s truck, and she was behind the wheel. Even though the world had ended, she looked happy, because she wasn’t alone. Seated next to her, was her fiancé, Adam, in his twenties, soft-spoken kind of guy, but he would do anything to protect Lauren. They only had one weapon and that was an AK-47 with a collapsible stock; it was Adam’s gun. The truck cab was a mess; they had their supplies of food and water stacked in the back seat, along with some boxes of 7.62 ammunition, but not many. There were food wrappers all over the floor. This was their home, their only place of refuge.

  Lauren stopped the truck at the end of an alley; they had three directions before them.

  “Which way now, Adam?”

  He looked at a map. “Uh, straight, into the next alley.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, I am.”

  “Okay.”

  She slowly proceeded forward to cross the street and continue in the alley. They looked around as they crossed, there weren’t any faster movers around, only a few slow movers a couple blocks down the street, but they didn’t notice Lauren’s truck because it was hardly moving, a snail moved faster, which is how they remained unnoticed. They made it across and were out of sight in the alley.

  The water in the marina was calm and covered in a viscous layer of dust and ash, this place harbored boats of pleasure, but those times were gone. All that remained were just a few defeated vessels, a burned out fishing boat, a couple capsized sailboats, and a few others, but they didn’t look functional. There were dingy boats that had no motors or oars. This place was a watery graveyard.

  Lauren’s truck pulled up.

  “Goddamnit,” Adam muttered under his breath when he saw the marina.

  “We’re not gonna find a boat here, are we?”

  “I’m gonna go have a look, stay in the truck.”

  “Okay,” she said and turned off the truck’s engine.

  Adam checked the machine gun—it was loaded—he looked around and the coast was clear, so he quietly opened the truck door and closed it even quieter upon exiting. He mouthed to her, “Lock the doors.”

  Lauren did, and he proceeded down the pier. The first one he looked at was the fishing boat; the fire had stripped the boat of what it once was, and nothing on it would work. He moved down the pier to the next boat and the next. He crossed over to the next pier to search those boats, as he did, he passed several sea lion carcasses that were killed by the undead. It wasn’t looking good on that side of the marina, either.

  Lauren watched him check the boats out, he moved farther and farther away, and she didn’t like it. She disliked like it even more when she lost sight of him as he walked behind a row of ghost ships. Against her better judgment, she unlocked her door and stepped out. She cautiously walked to the pier landing and looked to acquire Adam, but she couldn’t see him.

  She kept looking for him…

  A dead walker appeared from around a corner behind the truck…

  Lauren didn’t hear it…

  The dead thing stumbled along messily on two broken ankles that crunched with every step; it wanted to get to the truck because it saw the open driver’s door.

  It didn’t see Lauren, yet…

  The bottom half of this corpse was naked and all that it had on was a wife beater shirt that was brown from dirt and old blood. It got to the truck and looked in, but no one was inside.

  Then it saw her…

  Lauren still looked for Adam; the worry in her eyes was increasing because she hadn’t spotted him yet and then was relieved when she saw him moving on to inspect the next boat. She waved to get his attention and he saw her.

  He waved back and then his stance suddenly became rigid as he looked at her, Adam waved both his arms at her in a panic, and she didn’t understand why. Then she became frightened when he raised the machine gun and aimed it in her direction, but he didn’t fire, he wasn’t sure of his shot at that distance.

  Crunch…

  Crackle…

  Lauren was confused by what she heard behind her and turned—

  She was almost face-to-rotting-face with the dead walker.

  It clawed at her, she instinctively lunged back, and it missed her face, but it grabbed some of her hair.

  She cried out in pain as she tried to get away, but the creature was pulling her in, and then her hair ripped out of her scalp as she fell back. She stared at the thing that had a fistful of her hair and then she saw the others—there were three more slow movers that were coming for her—reaching the truck wasn’t possible, she only had one way to go. Once on her feet, she ran down the pier to get to Adam. He was running back and they crashed into each other halfway.

  “Are you okay, did it touch you?” he asked her in between heavy breaths.

  Her heart was racin
g. “I’m fine…it didn’t touch me.”

  They couldn’t get back to the truck, more of them had appeared, about fifteen now, and they all crowded the pier to get them.

  “Shit!” Adam cursed. “Come on, this way!”

  He took her hand and led her down the pier, they crossed over to the other pier with the intention of getting to the other exit, but when they got to the pier junction—

  More of the dead were coming from there, too, including a few fast movers.

  “Oh God!” Adam gasped.

  “What’re we gonna do?” Lauren asked nervously.

  Adam looked for a way out and he saw the shore that was across the marina, it was about a quarter of a mile swim, but they had no other choice.

  He pointed. “There, we gotta swim for it!”

  She didn’t like that idea. “Is that the only way?”

  “Yes! There’s no other way out and those dead things can’t swim, let’s go!”

  With the rifle’s sling, Adam strapped the weapon over his back, and then he took off his shoes and jeans.

  The dead were more than halfway to them…

  The fast movers were screeching madly…

  Lauren saw them and hesitated out of fear, but she snapped out of it.

  “Hurry!” Adam said to her. “I’m not jumping in until you do!”

  She took off her boots and jeans. “I love you!”

  The dead were steps away…

  “I love you, too, now jump!”

  She dived in and Adam followed.

  White water splashed and they were gone.

  The dead got there, and some of them jumped in after them, but they sank.

  Adam and Lauren broke the surface and looked back; about thirty of them were raging at the pier.

  They had escaped.

  Suddenly, a few feet from them, the water burst into white splash as two of the dead that jumped in, tried to stay afloat and reach them, but the only swimming skills they had were the violent thrashing of their arms, so a moment later they sank to the bottom.

  Adam and Lauren swam for the other side and luckily for them the undead on the pier had no concept that they could cut them off if they doubled back; they stood there growling like a pack of wolves.

  Halfway across, Adam and Lauren’s arm and leg muscles burned; their energy was sapped out of them quickly.

  Exhausted, Lauren said. “My legs are seizing up.”

  “Mine, too, but we have to keep going! We’re almost there!”

  They pressed on, and by the time they got to the breakwater rocks on the other side, they were barely able to dogpaddle. Adam pulled himself out and then helped her. They sat there for a few minutes to catch their breaths and they kept an eye for any undead on the walkway that was a few feet above them, but it was clear. Sitting there in her underwear, Lauren shivered uncontrollably, and so did he.

  Adam could see their truck on the other side of the marina—it wasn’t alone, but surrounded by a dozen or so of the dead, lingering from the human scent in the truck.

  “We can’t get back to the truck right now; there’s too many of them,” Adam said.

  “We need to find somewhere to hide,” she said.

  “Yeah.”

  Adam cautiously climbed up the rocks to the walkway and peered over the edge—he saw some destroyed stores, a burned out dive shop, and some small buildings down the way, about three blocks from their current position. There were no undead that he could see. He climbed back down to Lauren. “I didn’t see any of those things,” he told her.

  “What about a place to hide?”

  “There’s nothing close by, but I saw some buildings that looked good.”

  “How far?”

  “Maybe three or four blocks.”

  She was very apprehensive. “Do you think we can make it?”

  “We have no other choice, Lauren.”

  “Okay.”

  “Come on.”

  Adam crawled back up, and Lauren followed. Once at the top, he looked the area over until he was satisfied that no walkers were around. He climbed onto the walkway and then helped her up. After which, he got the rifle from his back and made sure it was loaded. He proceeded carefully across the street with Lauren in tow, and they took cover in a store doorway as Adam looked ahead. There was no movement on the street or sidewalk ahead of them, so Adam moved to the next storefront and a moment later, Lauren followed. When she got to him, she touched his shoulder and with that, he moved on to the next doorway and the next.

  Adam got to another doorway and stopped to look ahead, Lauren was still at the previous one, and neither one of them saw the dead walker come out of the store that Adam was standing in. The old dead thing slowly reached for Adam and touched his back—he thought it was Lauren behind him so he moved on to the next door—Lauren was looking behind her when she turned and moved to the next doorway and almost walked right into the corpse, she quickly staggered back as it came for her.

  “Adam!” she cried out.

  He turned back and saw the walker after Lauren; he moved to the street so she wasn’t in his background and brought the machine gun up to kill it. He pulled the trigger and the weapon made a low POP sound, but no muzzle flash exploded from the barrel’s tip. Unbeknownst to Adam, water had gotten into some of the machine gun’s bullets and rendered the gunpowder useless, but the primer in the cartridge chambered still went off, but didn’t ignite the wet powder.

  “Shit!” Adam sputtered.

  He cycled the weapon to load another round, but it jammed. Adam didn’t know that the primer that discharged had enough power to push the projectile out of the shell casing and into the beginning of the barrel, thus blocking the next round from loading.

  The walker was almost on top of Lauren; there was no time, so Adam turned the weapon around like a baseball bat and charged the dead thing. He bashed it in the back of the skull, and it dropped to the ground. Adam raised the weapon’s butt stock and brought it down on the walker’s head; jelly-like matter splattered all over, and Adam did it two more time before he was satisfied that it was dead. He was breathing hard from exertion, and then he looked behind Lauren—“Jesus!”

  Lauren turned and saw six walkers coming for them a couple doors down—she turned back to Adam and wanted to scream, but covered her mouth and pointed behind him. He turned and saw two more ahead of them.

  “Run!” he shouted.

  They ran down the street as fast as they could and the dead were coming after them, but they were mainly slow movers that could barely keep up, but then more appeared—

  Faster ones…

  The dead were coming out of every door that they ran by, and there were a couple dozen of them now; more were coming because of all the commotion. Adam and Lauren kept running down the street—they actually had no idea where they were going—and then they had to change direction when twenty walkers and runners appeared down the block ahead of them.

  “This way!” Adam yelled.

  Lauren followed him down the only option they had left.

  An alley…

  Their bare feet slapped against the dirty pavement as they ran for their lives down the alley and they were both exhausted, but they had to keep going. The alleyway ahead turned and before she took the corner—Lauren looked back and saw at least a hundred corpses coming after them. They got around the corner and saw that the alley ENDED a hundred feet ahead. Three buildings boxed them in, making this alley a death trap.

  “Oh my God!” Lauren cried out.

  Adam panicked. “Check the doors!”

  They tried all the doors and every one of them were locked tight. The screeches of the dead were getting louder from around the way and then the first one came around the corner and charged straight for them. Adam used the machine gun and bashed the fast mover’s face in—gelatin globs of blood peppered him.

  The rest would be there in seconds…

  Adam looked for any method of escape and saw a trash bin against the bac
k wall of a one-story building; the roof was only about ten feet past the top of the trash bin.

  “There! The trash bin!” he shouted.

  They ran to it, and a very decayed corpse that was inside it stood and reached for Lauren. She screamed, and Adam slammed the lid on its head. It dropped down, and he quickly closed the other lid.

  “Climb on it!” he shouted.

  They both climbed on top of the trash bin and Adam threw the machine gun on top of the building’s roof, and then he dropped on his knees.

  “We have to get on that roof, stand on my shoulders! Quick!” he said.

  She placed her feet on his shoulders and Adam stood up, lifting her toward the roof.

  Lauren tried to grab the roof’s edge but it was a couple feet beyond her reach.

  The dead came around the corner…

  Two hundred of them…

  “Pull yourself up, Lauren!” Adam shouted.

  “I can’t reach it!”

  Adam strained his neck to look up, and he saw that she wasn’t that far from reaching it.

  The stenches surrounded the trash bin and stretched their arms to claw at Adam’s bare legs. The first one scratched his calf, and drew blood. Adam held his cry of pain. “Stand on my hands, Lauren!”

  She began to cry as she carefully placed her feet in the palms of his hands and Adam used all his remaining strength to extend his arms up and get Lauren to the roof’s edge. She was able to reach it, got a grip, and pulled herself up on the roof. Another undead corpse grabbed Adam’s other leg and tore into it; he couldn’t hold his pain and cried out in agony. Lauren fell on her face on the roof, but she quickly got up and hung half her body over the edge to reach for Adam. “Grab my hand!” Lauren shouted.

  He was seven feet down and they couldn’t reach one another.

  It was too late for him.

  The dead were crazed for blood and flesh as they ripped his calves apart.

  “Nooo!” she screamed.

  Lauren grabbed the machine gun, aimed down at the dead and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. She dropped it and kept trying to save him.

  “Addaam!”

  He reached up for her and dragged his breaking nails into the wall.