Dead End Stories From the End of the World

by P. S. Power

  They wore police blues, but didn't call out for them to stop. No screaming about how they were the authorities or trying to claim the legal high ground. The reason was obvious there, they were the bad guys. More, everyone in Westwood knew it.

  You didn't stop for the police, you just shot at them instantly, because otherwise you'd be dead soon. Naturally. Vickie hit one of them, a high shoulder wound that wouldn't have even staggered a zombie for more than a moment, so Jake followed up with a head shot. It was just what you did in the field. You backed up your partners. The men fired from hidden positions, and that worked pretty well for them, since the blasts had kind of shaken up the good guys. Vickie ran and he followed behind her, picking off another one as they went, a pure luck shot of course. He wasn't that good. You didn't do accurate shooting while moving as a rule, much less running.

  Dave and Carl took advantage of the rush to do their own version of one, and go around the edge of the increasingly small group, taking the remaining four in a few moments while they were distracted. Vickie had a gunshot wound to her middle, but the red blotch didn't bleed much, it was near the center and she looked down at it and shrugged.

  “Flesh wound.” She said simply, not even bothering to bandage it. Or explain.

  “Heh. I... all right, we can chat about this later if you want. Or not. I don't really care if you want to keep secrets, just, you know, if you have super-powers... fucking use them will you? You and Tipper are sisters, right?” He said suddenly getting her to wheel around halfway and stare at him.

  “She told you? I guess I can see that... but we agreed to keep it quiet. It's not like you were even lovers, but... Yeah, I guess I won't hide it from you anymore then.” She shrugged, a small smile gracing her lips. It didn't touch her eyes at all though. “I'm still going to kick Tip's ass though. She's been totally fucking up lately. Mom would have her behind if she knew about the monumental fuck ups.”

  Jake shook his head and then sighed.

  “No. She didn't tell me. God Vickie... she didn't even tell me she liked men. You think she's going to causally mention combat related abilities like that? If I weren't just leaving anyway, no matter what happens, I'd suggest we get together with a few people at the house and have a chat. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but a few of the others aren't exactly regular either. You should all stop hiding, and work together.” He walked toward the downed bodies and recognized the oldest one as the local police chief, thats what the nameplate said at least. Why he still wore it now Jake didn't know, but there you had it.

  A lot of the cops still had. Like it made what they were doing somehow better or more moral. The shiny tag had scratches though, some new, some older. Jake shot each of the men in the head again to make sure they didn't get up, then took their weapons, ammo and... rocket launcher. A brand new, unused one.

  Upgrade!

  The idea made him smile. Life really was like a video game where you just found weapons lying around.

  The blonde gave him a solid half glare.

  “You just think you're leaving. You can't.” She chuckled and pointed at the weapon. “Just think of all the great toys you'd miss out on if you do.”

  Jake sighed and shook his head. “Just think of the mess my brains will make after another night of sleeping alone on the set of a bad porn movie.” He mimicked putting a gun to the side of his head and pulling the trigger.

  “Oh.” She said softly. “Crap. Yeah. Well, it will work out one way or the other. If not, well, it will. It has to, because I'm not dying anytime soon. It's not how we're wired. I really don't think you're wired that way either.” She gave him a grin.

  “Tip and I are Valkyries, what are you? I've wondered for a long time actually, some of the things you've pulled off...”

  Jake shrugged. “Rumor is I'm a very good man.” If two people making you the butt of a joke is a rumor. At least they'd been pleasant about it. His Mom had mentioned that too, now that he thought about it. And... Heather.

  Vickie stared at him and didn't move or blink for a long time. A very, very long time.

  “Oh.” She said, suddenly sounding sad, but there were no tears in her eyes. “God Jake, I'm... so... sorry.”

  Then she laughed. It was low and lasted for a while but when she sobered she caught her breath instantly, breathing into her stomach like she hadn't been shot there at all.

  “Who's the Bawdri? They're the best at finding that kind of thing out, I wouldn't have guessed in a thousand years. Nate... no he'd have to be ancient to look like he does... Wait, Sammi?”

  Jake shrugged.

  “I don't know, but she's on our side, so don't hurt her, or you know, super-soldier or not, we'll have an issue.”

  Instead of flashing into anger, the woman just grinned at him.

  “A Very Good Man. Damn... no wonder...”

  Then she shut up. Abruptly. Vickie gave him a near full minute of a look so strange Jake didn't have a name for it. It wasn't a happy thing either. Not anger at least, but she ended it by shaking her head.

  Shrugging he moved on to other things, leaving about a third of his attention on the woman beside him.

  The weapon was a lot lighter than he thought it would be from the look, and seemed to be made of fiberglass. That or some strange kind of plastic. There were printed instructions on the side which he read through carefully, pretending to do all of it and then sliding the device to his shoulder. As he did that a voice called out from beyond the large fenced area. With a start Jake realized it was the police compound. Crud.

  Kind of a big thing to miss really. He felt pretty stupid for a second.

  More, on the other side of the fence about twenty women stood, all different ages, all holding weapons of one kind or another. Awkwardly, for the most part. He went over the check list again, really doing it all this time, and got ready to fire, wondering what the device would do to an armed crowed. Especially one packed in that close together.

  Probably about what it would do to an unarmed one, he decided.

  “We surrender! God, we surrender, don't kill us, please, God!”

  Living inside a fence meant they didn't ever have to learn to control their voices apparently because they all started yelling it. If this had been four months prior a throng of zombies would have appeared to eat the people outside the line, making it a good plan actually, once he thought about it for a few seconds. Now there just weren't enough left, leaving the rocket launcher on his shoulder aimed, he approached the fence calmly. Vickie looking on as if wondering what he'd do to them. Really he didn't know himself. They called out about surrender but they all held shotguns and rifles.

  When he got to the fence, the women no more than ten feet away, inside the sturdy chain link, he pointed that out. Calmly. He didn't tell them to do anything, or even suggest it, but they all quickly set the weapons on the ground. A few less than gently, but nothing went off. Behind him the others had them covered, just in case anyone decided on an impromptu spot of Jake killing.

  No one did, which he took as a good sign.

  “Hi, I'm Jake.” He said, his voice nearly cheerful and not, he thought, creepy at all. “Um, you're with the police that keep attacking everyone? Anyone actually know why? We've all... kind of been wondering for a while now.”

  They stood dumbfounded at the casual question. That, or the rocket launcher pointed at their heads. Eventually one of the women in front spoke, clearly and a bit harshly. She had long brown hair and a hooked nose that reminded him a lot of Tammy, the woman that had tried to kill him. She sounded like her too. Way past what could be coincidental. Jake didn't mention it. They were likely related, the area just wasn't that big to start with.

  “That was the chief. He told us that we had a right, a responsibility, to survive no matter what it took, and planned to take what everyone else had in order to do it. It was all about control and continuity of government he said. That's why they did it, turning all those people into walking dead and sending them at t
he other groups. There are no police here now. They're all dead.”

  He tried to figure out the math on that and winced a little. He'd help to kill most of them, and had taken out nearly twenty himself. More than that maybe. Closer to thirty? Wow... he killed a lot of people. No wonder no one wanted to sleep with him.

  He decided to keep that part to himself for now, just in case any of these people actually liked the police at all. Relatives or something.

  “I see. Is it all right if we come in and talk? Peacefully I mean? We really aren't the bad guys, and you did kind of surrender... but I think we can just assume that's a truce for now, all right? We really don't need prisoners or anything. We were just on our way to Clyde to see if the gun-smith there had anything left and weren't trying to come here at all, just use the road.”

  Jake let them put that together. The encampment wasn't the target and if an attack hadn't come from that corner, they'd be nearly to their destination now. The woman in front wrinkled her face and shook her head, brown eyes hard still.

  “Don't bother, we have all that stuff. No one knew how to use it though, so it's just sitting, do you want to look at it?” She sounded a bit... odd. Scared, but something else too. Like she wanted to make a deal to sell him a car suddenly. A used one.

  “Sure, that sounds great. Are you the leader here?”

  “If there is one, I guess I am now. Becky Fines. Here because my boyfriend at the time happened to be a cop when all this happened. I was about to break up with him, too. He was a real piece of work. Most of the men were, especially after the announcement. Um, here, come in I guess. With that thing you could anyway.”

  Oh, the launcher, he locked the safeties back into place, both of them, and walked to the gate, about an eighth of a mile down. They just all followed along, leaving the weapons on the ground, some looked at him curiously and a few eyed the others. Aspecially Carl, who carried all that bulky muscle around still. Without a shirt he looked like a bodybuilder at their peak and as far as Jake knew he never so much as picked up a free weight in his life. Just genetically gifted that way. Calm and smooth, he rolled along, noticing the being noticed.

  Dave got a little attention too, but so did Vickie. Then, she had an obvious bullet wound to her stomach that had already dried, right in the center. Just a flesh wound after all. Who needs an intact spine, right? A lot of them looked at him too, probably because he was the one that had spoken first, so they assumed that meant in charge or something. He went with it, just because Carl might be shaken from the crash still, and he had been the front person so far. Vickie could take over if they responded better to a woman in charge. He didn't care. He just didn't want a huge fight to start. Just slaughtering all these women would suck, and he doubted that the ladies could win, even if they'd hidden weapons on themselves or had friends waiting to ambush them. They just didn't feel like fighters. Not even one of them.

  When they got in he stuck out his hand in his best imitation Nate fashion, and shook with Becky, then the other women if they wanted too. About six of them did, and he got a rolling list of names he'd never remember. Jake didn't even try. They chatted for a bit, with him starting, telling them a bit about the house. Nate, Lois and Burt, some of the projects they had, his forge and Justine's new windmill. It was obvious stuff that anyone going there would notice right off, nothing secret or that would leave them vulnerable to later attack. It let them feel more comfortable though, he thought, since they relaxed a good bit when he mentioned some women being in charge too. The chief had led with an iron hand it seemed and really didn't like women to get above themselves. That meant doing anything but cooking and keeping his men “happy”.

  Their set-up was good too, except that everything they had was running out, and they hadn't even tried putting in crops, not even a small garden for greens, though they had the space for it. The place only had stored food for about two more months they admitted pretty openly. They chattered, quickly, as if trying to buy their good will. One of the women, a dirty blonde with freckles, reminded him of Becks from high school, but in miniature. She couldn't have been four-ten at the outside. He didn't mention it, because after a second he recognized her. Colleen Becks, Rachel's younger sister. She was talking and listed things off, looking at him the whole time. So she got who he was too. Not a surprise really. He'd been around a lot, back in the day.

  The generator was still up but they only ran it for a few hours per day to save fuel, which wouldn't last long either.

  “That was why the chief wanted to attack everyone. We couldn't support anything here. They took a bunch of stuff early on, but we just sat and waited for the government to come fix it for a long time. They came, but... they didn't fix anything, they made it worse.” Becky Fines spoke harshly again, her fallback move it seemed.

  “The vaccine?” Dave asked lightly, still cradling his left arm. It was probably broken, but it didn't hang at a funny angle and didn't bleed, so they had time to work on it.

  All the women nodded. Most of them looking down, almost as if they felt guilty about it.

  “Yep. So, um, if you're not going to rape us or take us prisoner, what's the plan here?” Becky Fines grimaced a little, but didn't shift or cower as she spoke. Brave enough then.

  Jake looked around and counted, “Twenty-one of you? We might be able to host you at the house, we don't have a lot of room but we have food and heat for the winter and if we can get bullets we might even outlast the cannibals that are coming.”

  One of the ladies in the back shook her head, she was a little older and a bit heavyset, Back Before heavy. A few of them were still.

  “Yeah we heard about that on the radio. Air America had a piece on it, awful. Horrible really. Especially the ones that have lost it and are moving out of the cities. Some of them... They sound worse than the walking dead.” She had on a nice blouse that didn't really say “I'm here to fight you to my last breath”. White and a little frilly it seemed more like it said, “pamper me please”. She had slightly brown skin, Indian, as in from India, spoke with a slight British accent and looked about forty something, but it was hard to tell. Everyone looked a little older without make-up.

  Becky Fines sighed.

  “There aren't twenty-one of us, there's ninety-three. Here, wait...” She held her hands up and hollered through them to amplify the sound, Jake nearly shot her and everyone else with him winced. The police compound ladies didn't even seem to notice.

  It was going to be a problem, Jake knew, and wondered if he should explain first or just shoot the next one to do it as an example to the rest. It was a close decision, but explanation wouldn't hurt. They had a fence for now and that would help give them a little time to learn.

  “Everyone, come on out, it's OK, they're... friendly.”

  The hesitation was real, and Jake looked at her face, which was still in a frown, and young as she was, under thirty, had lines that showed it might be her regular expression. They were friendly, but they'd also killed the last of the adult men in the other group. Though not all the males. There were a lot of those, mainly under twelve or so by looks. And girls, though there were more teens in the mix there. Some didn't look too happy to see them, especially the more attractive girls. He had a feeling they weren't relatives of anyone here and had been grabbed for... amusement, at some point. It explained why the police had been taking women at least.

  Fuckers.

  It made Jake glad he'd already killed them.

  Vickie seemed to notice that too and stepped toward them. Weapons away for the moment, smiling warmly.

  “Well this is a surprise!” She said looking at the kids in front of her. They crowded around the core group of women. At the back there were a lot more women, more than the kids. Jake noticed that there weren't any young men.

  Kids under twelve, but no fifteen year old boys. Or twenty year olds. It didn't seem right. He didn't ask about it, but kind of wondered if some of them “slipped off” in the night, only to end up as zombies
coming for the house or someplace else? Not all of those had been male, but a lot were, definitely more than fifty percent, which is what the mix normally was over time. It evened out.

  God. That was fucked up. If it was the case at least.

  One of the kids, a little girl of about seven or so stared at him openly for a long time, barely blinking, hardly moving. Finally, after nearly two or three minutes of staring while other people talked she stepped forward. Her eyes didn't leave him as she did.

  “Did you kill my daddy?” She didn't sound upset or fearful, just like she wanted to know. Some of the women looked fearful and tried to shush her, but the girl didn't back down even under that pressure. So brave enough there too, it wasn't just Becky Fines. That would help. They'd need that to survive now.

  Jake looked at her for a second, then just answered honestly, “I don't know. I may have, I won't lie to you. I... Personally killed a lot of the former police that were here. So if you have to be angry at someone over that, it might as well be me. If people attack you now, you have to fight as best you can out there now. In here it seems like the rules have been easier than what everyone else has to live with, but if you're going to be going out part of the time you'll have to learn some new things. We'll help you pick it all up, if we can.”

  The girl looked at him and just kept looking, until a woman came and took her by the shoulder, leading her away, muttering to the girl about not staring at men. That actually got a lot of the other women and girls to look away too. It was kind of telling as to what had been going on, inside the closed community where men used to not being questioned Back Before had total power. Jake nearly shook his head, but Becky Fines looked at him funny first.

  “Why would we leave?” A simple question, but one that she should have figured out on her own.

  It was a real fight to not frown at her and shake his head. Instead he looked into her brown eyes and held up two fingers.