A Broken World (Book 3): Fractured Memories

by Lauck, Andrew

  “That’s all of them. We need to get in there and find Murray.” I stood, my knee killing me, and headed downstairs, coming onto the street with my hands up. The soldiers immediately aimed toward the movement, but I called out quickly to let them know I was human. “Don’t shoot! We’re here to help!” They lowered their weapons, though not entirely and not without suspicion. For all they knew, I was a raider taking advantage of the situation.

  “How can we trust you?” one of the men asked, a sergeant based on his patch.

  “My name is Eric and this is Lieutenant Jessica Mills. We’re looking for Murray, a former police captain that was running this outpost. Besides, from the looks of things,” I nodded toward the spread of bodies between us, “you need all the help you can get.”

  The sergeant paused, unclipping a radio from his belt and talking into it. His eyes flicked up to lock on us, squinting as whoever was on the other end of the radio gave him our credentials. He gestured for his men to lower their weapons and waved us inside.

  “Sorry about that, sir. We had to take precautions.” He opened the door for Jessica, waiting for us to pass through before adding, “Murray is on the second floor, at the circulation desk.” He closed the door behind us and went back to his post. Through the glass, I could see each of the soldiers checking their magazines and reloading for the next round that was undoubtedly coming.

  A barricade of desks, couches, and anything else heavy had been thrown together in the hall, a pair of soldiers with light machine guns sitting behind it. If anything got through the line of soldiers outside, they would meet 5.56 x 45 mm of hot lead from the barrel of an M249. Not a place you wanted to be. Past them, I could see medical personnel frantically trying to keep up with the injured, some of whom they knew were already dead with the infection invading their bodies.

  Mills and I took the stairs to our right, moving quickly to the second floor where we came out to more chaos, smears of blood on the walls originating from a room down the hall.

  “What the hell happened here?” I muttered under my breath. A squad of men in riot gear pushed past us and my eyes came to rest on Murray, who was focused on a map laid out before him.

  As we walked up to the desk, he finally looked up to acknowledge our presence, his face having aged a decade since I had seen him months ago. Relief briefly washed over his features before his eyes grew grave again.

  “Eric, it’s great to see you, but you’ve come at a really bad time.”

  “Here I just thought we didn’t get an invitation to one hell of a party.” I tried to joke, but his lips were drawn into a thin line. Jessica’s palm smacked her forehead as she shook her head.

  Another soldier came to the desk, blood covering the front his Kevlar vest.

  “Sir, the east side of the outpost is a disaster. The gate didn’t hold them and we’re fighting a losing battle over there. Can we spare any reinforcements?” Murray’s tired eyes drifted to mine and I nodded, knowing that was probably the side we had passed in the SUV, the one swarming with undead.

  “Looks like your invite just got misplaced,” he said, knowing what he was asking. I turned to Jessica, who looked ready as always.

  “Better late than never.”

  Chapter 12

  On our way down to the street, Jessica and I stopped to resupply from the small pile of equipment behind the desk on the first floor. She made sure to grab a handful of grenades, just for crowd control purposes. We both knew the limited effectiveness of fragmentation grenades against the undead.

  There was a stack of assault rifles against the wall, no doubt from fallen soldiers, so I slid three magazines into my pack and planned to avenge them with bullets. I almost left, but as I turned I spotted something that demanded use and would definitely come in handy. Jessica must have noticed the look on my face as I tried to keep from drooling.

  “Are you even any good with that thing, or do you just want to play with it?”

  “They’re not toys, Jessica,” I replied sarcastically, which earned one of her looks that made my insides shrink. “Maybe a little bit of both.” I reached down and hefted the M249 in my arms, the weight of the light machine gun significantly heavier than my weapons.

  Luckily, I had a temporary purpose that involved the weapon, because I don’t know if I could carry it for more than a few hours. Even luckier, though, was that, upon closer examination, the S.A.W. was semi-automatic, meaning it was either the civilian model or someone knew that stray bullets didn’t kill zombies.

  “Feel better now?” I smiled at her and she shook her head. “You’re worse than a kid on Christmas, Eric, you know that?”

  “Maybe that’s because my Christmas just came early this year.” She laughed and walked to the door.

  “Let’s go killer.” She led the way into the hallway and out to the street. As I passed the line of soldiers outside, they eyed the machine gun and nodded in appreciation.

  “Hope he knows how to use that,” one of them joked. I stopped and glanced over my shoulder, not pausing with a retort.

  “I’m used to using heavy weapons, private.” With that I turned to find Jessica looking back, a brief smile flashing over her lips, before we headed toward the eastern side of the outpost together.

  While we had spent the past few weeks eradicating nests of infected, it was a strange feeling to be on the offensive here. Maybe it was the setting, since, between Chicago, Austin, and wherever the hell we had just been, I had to maintain stealth in every city I had been to before. Either way, the outpost needed clearing and the east gate wasn’t going to contain itself, so I stowed my feelings and kept pace with Jessica.

  We still used our strategy of moving between buildings, mostly out of habit, and she picked off the stragglers we encountered along the way, the suppressor keeping us hidden until we found the main group. It was obvious we were nearing our objective when their numbers increased, going from one or two to small groups of five. I knew once I pulled my trigger all sense of stealth was lost, so I waited, biding my time until we were, to quote my drill instructor, “in the shit.”

  After Mills picked off the three zombies ahead of us, we turned the corner and stepped to the edge of an intersection, knowing we had to be close by the sound ahead. Amidst the gunfire, screams, and explosions throughout the outpost, one sound haunted my dreams for the past year, a sound I could make out above anything. Looking around the corner, I found the source of the moans.

  I can’t remember his name, but a man was once asked the difference between art and porn, to which he responded he didn’t know, but he would know it when he saw it. I don’t know if there’s a specific definition of “the shit,” but I knew I was looking at it.

  Murray’s people had been building a wall around the outpost the last time we were here, a barricade to keep out unwanted guests. With three main roads leading into town, though, he had constructed three gates as entrances. Guard towers were obviously built, too, to watch for incoming attacks.

  The only positive news for the three snipers currently surrounded in the eastern guard tower was that it was off the ground, roughly two stories tall to allow them to see over the ten-foot wall. Murray must have posted three up there for rotating watches, but they were vastly outnumbered by the dozens of moaning undead below.

  “What are we up against?” Mills asked behind me. I looked her in the eyes and shook my head.

  “It’s not good, but it’s not the worst odds we’ve ever had.”

  “That’s not exactly reassuring, Eric.” I smirked and shrugged.

  “We’ve got this, Jessica!” I said as enthusiastically as I could muster, which earned “the look.”

  “Thanks, jackass,” she muttered, pushing past me to look for herself. Seeing the waves before us, she took a deep breath and nodded. “At least it’s not Austin.”

  “We chuck a few grenades, then go on three. I’ll try to take the center mass if you can cover the sides.” I didn’t phrase it as a question, because there
wasn’t one in my mind. We either succeeded, or shit would hit the fan quick.

  “Sounds good.” She unclipped four grenades and split them between us. Nodding, we pulled the pins, counted in our heads, and stepped out from cover enough to hurl the frags into the main group of undead. As soon as we exposed our position, the moans increased and their faces turned as one, a disturbing, swiveling portrait of mangled flesh and contorted expressions.

  Moving back behind the building, the moans were almost loud enough to drown out the sound of the fragmentation grenades going off, sending shrapnel flying through the horde. Rounding the corner prepared for a battle, Mills and I both paused as we saw the destruction before us.

  In the beginning of the outbreak, frags were obsolete, their small blast radius and shrapnel useless against zombies who felt no pain and could only be killed with violence to the skull. Sure, a lucky piece of metal might find its way into their brains, but it was too random and rare to be trustworthy. This far into the apocalypse, though, with the decomposition taking its toll, the shrapnel was devastating.

  It seemed like one piece of shrapnel in a straight line didn’t stop at the first, or even second, zombie, slicing its way through tender flesh and brittle bone with ease. Some zombies, probably ones closest to the grenades, had been ripped apart completely, arms and flaps of skin hanging on by a thread. Once again, I found myself consoling my stomach as I choked back nausea.

  With the grenades having done their job, whittling our opposition down to more manageable odds, I brought the stock of the machine gun to the meat of my shoulder and pulled back the slide, racking in a round. Squeezing the trigger, a 5.56mm bullet embedded itself in the brain of the nearest zombie, the force throwing its body back like a ragdoll.

  “Holy shit!” I had fired the weapon before, but seeing its powerful effect on undead was an experience that almost brought tears to my eyes. As I continued to pour fire on the main group of zombies funneling in through the gate, their constant stream of numbers barely changing, Jessica methodically worked her way from right to left, stepping behind me to line up her shots. Had it been anyone else behind me with a rifle, I would have been uneasy, but I had developed a trust in Jessica like no other.

  The frags had decreased the numbers from maybe two hundred to half that, with some being reduced to crawling. After a minute of relentless fire, that group was drastically shrinking. Seeing the two of us unleash an onslaught, the snipers in the tower regrouped and assisted, picking off ones behind us that were drawn to the sound. Jessica was right about the benefits of backup.

  I missed a few shots, whether from the initial recoil or another zombie stepping into my shot, but as a force we made relatively quick work of the threat. Smoke filtered out from the barrel of my depleted M249 and Jessica was slapping a fresh magazine into her M16 when the last body dropped, a cheer coming from above.

  “Damn,” one of the men whistled, “am I glad to be wrong. I saw just the two of you come around that corner and thought we were screwed.”

  I laughed, knowing the feeling. Glancing to my left, though, there was never any doubt. Jessica was scanning the area, the carnage behind her amplifying the badass image. Gabriel had been right in Texas, because she was one hell of a woman.

  Chapter 13

  After getting the gate closed again, I left it up to Murray to reinforce it later. We made our way back to the hospital, a pretty uneventful trip compared to our arrival. There were a few short skirmishes along the way that we helped put down, but it was surprisingly relaxing, which I still don’t know if I should be concerned about or not.

  The squad of soldiers was still out front, welcoming us back with grins and pats on the back as we passed them. I held out the M249, handing it off to a muscular corporal. He ejected the drum, looked it over, and smiled.

  “With just the two of you, how many were there?” the sergeant from earlier asked, clearly cocky in his phrasing.

  “About two hundred,” I replied with a straight face, my eyes unwavering. He jerked his head back in disbelief and looked over at Jessica, who was walking into the building.

  “Is he serious or full of shit?” Jessica smiled over her shoulder.

  “Oh, he never jokes about size.” With that, she opened the door and walked into the hospital. With the sergeant looking back at me, I winked and followed my partner inside, ignoring the dumbfounded look on his face. Of course, I would have shared his expression if I wasn’t making a point.

  Catching up to Mills, I stopped her on the stairwell.

  “What was that about back there?” I had a stupid grin on my face, and she laughed.

  “That guy was a cocky asshole, so I taught him a lesson.”

  “Is that all?” She put a finger on my lips, shushing me.

  “Relax, Eric, I was messing with him, though I do hope you wouldn’t joke about that.” She glanced down and I looked confused, which made her laugh. “Man, you’re too easy.” She released my lips and went up the stairs, calling out behind her, “You coming?”

  Unsure of what to make of that conversation, I decided to turn my focus back to the outpost as I hustled after Jessica and we entered the second floor. There was less activity than when we arrived the first time, but there were still a lot of injured to tend to. Pained cries echoed through the halls, but there were limited medical personnel and they were practically running from room to room. In the midst of all of that, Murray was still at his desk, the wrinkles on his face somehow deeper in just a few hours.

  He glanced up as we approached, only long enough to acknowledge us before returning his gaze to the papers spread out before him.

  “Maybe you should take a break, Murray,” I offered. “You look exhausted.”

  “I’m not the only one,” He responded, nodding his head toward one of the many nurses with bags under her eyes. Setting down the paper in his hand, he finally looked up. “What’s the status of the east gate?” All business these days, but I guess he had to be.

  “We took care of the infected, but you’ll have to patch up the wood. Looks like they broke the crossbeams.” I waited for him to say something, but his eyes were on a woman being wheeled into the ward. Her arm was bandaged, but the amount of blood on the gurney wasn’t promising.

  “She’s a civilian, Eric. The numbers have been going up lately, so I issued an order to start training all civilians over eighteen.”

  “Number of casualties?” Jessica asked, watching the woman pass. An expression of agony was frozen on her face, along with streaks of tears.

  “Those, too, but I meant the infected. We’ve been hit before by a roaming horde or a group of raiders, but it’s been different recently. In the last three weeks, we’ve been attacked five times, by groups ranging from twenty to somewhere in the low hundreds. Needless to say, our defensive capabilities these days are limited.”

  “No shit,” I muttered. “What’s going on, Murray?” He sighed and shook his head.

  “Honestly, we don’t know. I’ve been in contact with San Antonio and a few other outposts and they’ve been getting hit just as hard. I’ve seen this before, men throwing themselves at the enemy out of desperation, but these things aren’t human.”

  “They used to be,” Jessica said quietly, deep in thought. “Maybe they retained pieces of their former selves somehow, which is how they feel hunger.” She cocked her head to the side. “Or maybe they are getting desperate…”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Think about it. The infection spread fast, too fast, and their only source of food, as far as we know, is human. Animals, too, but their main food source is us. Since our numbers are low, since their food source is running out, and assuming they do feel hunger, they must be starving.” She turned to Murray. “Maybe they are attacking out of desperation.” Murray let out a low whistle.

  “I’ll be damned.” He paused for a while, mulling that over. “If that’s true, the outposts we’ve set up, or hope to set up, will need all the help they can g
et.” I nodded, knowing where this was going. “Eric, Jessica, I know how much you’ve done and I know I can’t ask for more, but I’m asking.”

  Part II

  Chapter 14

  “Do you want to stop off in Texas?” Jessica asked from the passenger seat, looking up from the map spread out on her lap. “It really wouldn’t be too far out of our way.”

  “The plan is to hit this town in Arizona and report back to Murray whether or not it’s suitable for an outpost. There’s no reason to deviate from the plan.” Jessica rolled her eyes and shook her head, prompting me to add, “Kat was doing better when we left. Going there now would only remind her that the nightmares were real. I want to give Kat a real chance at a normal life again, and that means staying away for a while.”

  “Uh huh,” Jessica said in that judgmental, “you’re full of shit,” tone. “I think you’re scared that you wouldn’t be able to leave again.”

  “Jessica, we’re doing good work. Besides,” my voice lowered, “you know why we’re out here. I can make jokes and fake smiles, but I haven’t forgotten what I did in that arena, or Austin. I became something I’m not proud of, so I just need some time to find that part of me that I lost, you know?”

  “I know, Eric, believe me.” She set her hand on my arm and rubbed my shoulder. “I just thought it would do you some good to see her.” I nodded.

  “We’ll stop by the next time we’re close, I promise.”

  “Deal.” She smirked and it was my turn to roll my eyes.

  “You can be really annoying, you know that?”

  “Oh, honey, you have no idea.” She laughed and I smiled, a real one for a change.

  “Maybe I will someday,” I replied, no smugness in my tone. If I hadn’t before, I had real feelings for Jessica, which scared the hell out of me. I remember when I had met Katherine, feeling like another lifetime ago, and considered the implications of caring in this world. Especially given my track record, I tended to lose people, but she hadn’t been just anyone. Letting my eyes leave the road, I looked at Jessica, contently looking over the map.