by Josh Vasquez
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Jeremy listened as Chris read, but found it hard to focus on what the man was saying. He also felt slightly guilty for his earlier rant against God. He was just frustrated.
“See that you do not refuse him who is speaking?” Is that your way of talking to me God? Okay, I’m listening.
There was silence as Chris nodded to Josh. He stood up and grabbed his guitar. He strummed through a couple of measures before he began singing. Jeremy was surprised by what came out. Despite being somewhat goofy, Josh had a decent voice. Jeremy didn’t recognize the song, but it sounded like everything was on key. The others sang along; the song must have been familiar to them all. When it was over, Josh smiled and sat his guitar down.
“I think that’s enough for today. Let’s eat some lunch.”
Everyone stood and slowly wandered off. They all seemed to be off in their own worlds. It had been an emotional service for the family. Jeremy was fixing to turn and leave when he felt a hand touch his shoulder.
It was Laura.
“Was it as bad as you thought it was gonna be?” She asked.
“Haha, no, no it wasn’t,” he answered.
“Good. I hope we didn’t scare you off with all the crying. We’re an emotional family.”
“It’s fine. I understand completely. Not sure if Josh told you, but I lost my mother the day things started. I tried to save her and lost her in the process.”
“I’m sorry to hear that Jeremy.”
Jeremy appreciated the sincerity in her voice.
“How are you doing with that?” She followed up.
She was the first one to ask him that.
How am I doing with it? He thought.
“Well,” he started. “I really haven’t had much time to think about it. I don’t know. Not much I can do about it, y’know?”
She smiled.
“No, there’s not.”
Josh made his way over.
“Hey, what’d you think?”
“It was cool man. Didn’t know you could sing like that?” Jeremy said.
“Yeah, me neither. I just opened my mouth and that came out!”
Jeremy chuckled.
So goofy.
“Hey c’mon, let’s go grab some food. I have a Sunday-afternoon nap waiting on me!” Josh said, beginning to walk towards the house.
He placed his hand on the small of Laura’s back and pulled her in close to him.
Jeremy followed them up the back stairs into the house. But when he got to the door, he paused and looked back towards the wood line. He scanned back and forth for a moment. He couldn’t place his finger on it, but he felt like they were being watched.
Chapter Twelve
CJ woke up early the next morning. The sun was just beginning to peek over the trees. After staring at the ceiling for several minutes, he decided to get up. He passed through the living room quietly. Jeremy was still asleep on the couch; his mouth was hanging open. CJ tried to muffle his chuckling as he got dressed.
Once in the kitchen, CJ grabbed a few granola bars and stuffed them into the pockets of the fleece pullover he was wearing. He wasn’t hungry now, but he might be later and he didn’t want to have to make his way down from the roof just for a snack. He grabbed his rifle from the gun rack near the door, made sure it was loaded, and slung it over his shoulder.
From there he made his way upstairs and cracked the door to his parent’s bedroom. They were both still asleep. Just as stealthily as he moved downstairs, he crossed their room to the window. He went to open the window and as he did, it let out a noisy creak. Wincing, he looked over to his parents.
Still asleep.
I’ll need to find some WD-40 to take care of that later, he thought.
He opened the window the rest of the way and climbed out onto the roof, sliding the window back down behind him.
It was much colder today than it was the day before.
Is it December yet?
He couldn’t remember. He knew what day it was, but the calendar date was something he had not kept up with.
He climbed the slope of the roof up to the “his” spot, his rifle bouncing against his back. Once there, he sat the rifle down next to him and sat cross-legged.
The orange and red of the sunrise was beautiful against the still, cloudless blue sky. It made him think of the time he and his Aunt Laura went to the beach on Tybee Island to watch the sun come up.
But the vibrant light show did not distract him from why he came up here.
His eyes scanned the property and the tree line.
No threats.
No zombies.
He felt himself relax.
Did he expect there to be anything out there? A part of him told himself not to worry, not to be afraid.
I am not afraid, he reassured himself. Just cautious.
It was not fear that drove him to the rooftop every day.
It was necessity.
The adults tried to make it look like they had it together, and since his uncle arrived it had gotten better, but CJ knew it was all a show. For his sake maybe? Or for their own? Either way, he knew they meant well. But it left a huge hole in their defense. Yeah, once the fence was up, it might be better, but until then, someone had to keep watch. If there were zombies on the property when they got here, who knows if some are still lurking around? CJ would not let another one of those things sneak up on him.
He swore it to himself.
The wind kicked up and up on the roof, it was downright chilly. He rubbed the sleeves of his pullover.
Once the sun gets up some more, it’ll warm up some.
In the still quiet of the early morning, he heard twigs snap behind him.
He spun around, grabbing the rifle in the process. With the gun pointed towards the backyard, he looked for the source of the noise. In the shifting morning light, he could see movement by the trees. He looked down the scope to where the shadows moved.
It was a deer.
Again, he felt his body relax. He let out a sigh of relief.
It took everything in him not to shoot the good-sized buck. He counted ten points on its rack. It grazed near the edge of the woods, unaware that a rifle was sighted on its heart.
Better not shoot unless it’s an emergency. Don’t want to give everyone a heart attack shooting this close to the house.
He set the rifle down.
You lucked out this time deer. Don’t let me find you out in the woods.
The deer jerked its head towards the woods. Its ears stood straight up. It heard something.
It bolted as zombies began to shamble out of the trees.
The hairs on the back of CJ’s neck stood straight up. He counted seven. He only had five shots.
Crap, crap, crap…
The zombies were too preoccupied with the fleeing deer that they did not notice the boy up on the roof. They slowly made their way in the direction of the deer, who was putting good distance between itself and the dead. Out of the seven, the one bringing up the rear seemed to lose
interest in chasing its prey. It stopped and stood there, as the others continued to fumble on. CJ watched as it swayed there, seemingly contemplating whether to pursue or not. It lifted its head, the remnants of a nose in the air. It smelled something. His heart sunk as the zombie set its black eyes directly on him.
It moaned.
Frozen in horror, CJ watched as the others stopped in their pursuit of the buck and set there dead eyes on him. Like a flock of birds, buzzards, they quickly changed their direction and began making their way towards him. All seven of the undead were headed towards the house.
CJ snapped out of his fear and dropped to the flat part of the roof he stood on. In a prone position, he trained the rifle on the closest zombie’s head.
Time to wake up people.
He squeezed off the first round. The leader of the pack’s head erupted in a splash of grey brain matter and rust colored blood chunks. Showered in gore, the others didn’t stop coming. They moved as fast as their rotten legs would carry them, not worried about the possibility of their craniums meeting a similar fate.
“CJ!” His dad yelled from bedroom window. “What are you doing-”
CJ fired the gun again, the recoil leaving a stinging sensation in his right shoulder. The .30-06 was on the edge of what most people would find comfortable of firing, but CJ had always been big for his age, and the extra recoil didn’t bother him too much. It was nothing compared to some of the hits he took on the line in football.
A second zombie’s brain met the same explosive end as the first, the others still only concerned with tasting warm flesh.
Chris, on hearing the second gunshot, saw why his son had ignored him. He flung open the window and scurried out onto the roof.
“You ok?” he asked his son, who only acknowledged him with a nod.
Chris stared in amazement at his son.
Where did this man come from? He thought.
“Dad, I only have three more shots,” CJ said, calmly, but with a hint of concern.
CJ fired his third shot as punctuation to his statement. His aim was off on this one, and only clipped the shoulder of a woman zombie. The shoulder ripped into pieces, the arm left dangling an upsetting angle.
“I’ll get my gun,” Chris said, climbing back into the window.
“STOP SHOOTING!”
Josh, Lexx, and Jeremy ran out into the front yard. Josh held up his machete.
“No more noise!” He yelled.
CJ held the gun away from himself and nodded.
The three on the ground ran out to meet the remaining undead. It was over in a couple of minutes. Heads lay removed from their torsos or split in ways that the brain could no longer relay physical actions to the body.
***
Once everyone cleaned up, the group as a whole met in the living room. Not much had been said since his uncle, Jeremy, and Lexx came back inside. His mother had pulled him back inside from the window and hugged him tightly, the longest hug they’ve shared since they left home. She softly cried as she held him and he let her hug him as long as she needed.
But now in the living room, she seemed back to her distant self. She sat in the back of the room, at one on the chairs around the dining table, unfocused on the meeting in front of her.
“So, what do we do now?”
His grandmother’s voice broke the silence.
“Today was a close one and we only have CJ to thank for his quick actions this morning,” Josh said, looking directly at CJ. “Thank you CJ.”
Everyone else, minus his mother, shared their thanks. It felt strange for his family to be thanking him like that. CJ’s face flushed red with embarrassment.
“That being said, we cannot, and should not, rely on CJ to guard us every day.”
Strangely enough, as much as he liked watching over his family, CJ felt himself relax at his uncle’s words. He was prepared to do what was necessary in order to fight for his family, he had already proved that, but he just was not ready for it. He was not ready to be the sole protector of them. The little boy inside of him screamed that he wasn’t ready to be a grown up yet. But somewhere else, somewhere deeper, he knew that he didn’t have the option to be a kid anymore. The days of football and video games were behind him.
“We have to finish the fence,” Josh continued. “If we can get the fence up, we won’t have to worry about them getting in while we’re sleeping. These things are attracted to sight, noise and smell. There’s not much we can do about smell, but we can bring the other two to a minimum. With the fence and plywood up around our outer perimeter, they won’t be able to see inside and will be less likely to try and get in. As far as noise goes, we only need to fire our weapons when absolutely necessary. Don’t worry CJ, this morning was necessary.”
CJ nodded.
“He shouldn’t have been up there,” Anne said.
CJ looked at his grandmother, who seemed to avoid his gaze. She had her eyes set on Chris.
“Maybe, Mom, but he was up there and it could have been a lot worse if he hadn’t been,” Josh said, ignoring her tone.
She seemed dissatisfied with his answer, but kept quiet.
“Regardless, we need to get a move on working on the fence. I’ve already talked with Jeremy and we’re going to make a run out to a nearby hardware store. They had lumber there, so we’ll try our luck with the plywood. Everyone else should focus on getting the outside fence up to par and ready for the plywood additions-”
“Oh!”
Everyone looked at Laura as her hand shot to her belly.
“I felt the baby kick!” She said, her smile as wide as her eyes.
Everyone in the family rushed to her side, as Josh knelt down next to his wife and placed his hands on her stomach. His eyes watered as he felt movement from his unborn child stirring.
CJ smiled with the rest of his family, but his eyes wandered over to Tori, who watched with a look of concern on her face. She noticed him looking at her. She did her best to force a smile, but it quickly faded away.
Chapter Thirteen
Jeremy and Josh pulled up in front of the hardware store. It looked abandoned. The windows were dark and no movement could be seen from inside. As he stepped out of the truck, his memory flashed back to Savannah and to the hardware store there. He and Ben were able to find tools to use as weapons there after an unsuccessful trip to Wal-Mart. They also found the owners of the store slumped over in the back room, with bullet holes in their foreheads and guns still gripped in their dead fingers. He worried that he might see something familiar in this store.
“You think it’ll be empty?” He asked.
“We’ll see,” Josh answered.
The two men entered the store, a bell ringing as they did. They both winced at the sound alerting their presence. After a few tense seconds of silence, Josh shrugged and motioned that they move into the store. Like their trip before, they brought the one gun and their respective bladed weapons. This time instead of looking for something to defend himself with, Jeremy was looking for something to build defenses. The tools gathered the other day were mostly damaged from the rain, so they would need to find what they could to replace them. A good working saw was on the top of the list.
They split up to cover more ground. Most of the shelves were barren, already looted by others.
Wish I had a buggy, Jeremy thought to himself.
He grabbed what he could in his arms: a power saw, a few boxes of nails, and a hammer. He went back towards the front of the store and placed his finds down on the counter.
Do you guys take credit cards?
He grinned at his own joke.
Josh returned with a large air tank on wheels.
“What are we gonna use that thing for?” Jeremy asked.
“I saw an air nail-gun back there. It’ll be quicker than that hammer and nails you got there,” he said, motioning to Jeremy’s loot.
“Hey now, don’t be hatin’ on my hammer and nails.”
“I’m not,” Josh s
aid. “It’ll just be quicker.”
Josh did not try to hide the urgency in his voice.
“You okay?” Jeremy asked.
Josh stopped and looked out the window.
“Yeah, I guess. I just… Feeling the baby move made things so much real.”
He turned back to look at Jeremy, a smile beginning to form on his face.
“I’m gonna be a daddy soon.”
Jeremy nodded and gave Josh a slap on the back.
“Yeah you are!”
“Thanks.”
“For what?” Jeremy said.
“I don’t know, being cool about the baby I guess. I’ve seen the way Tori looks at me every time it gets brought up. She doesn’t seem too thrilled about the idea of their being a newborn around.”
“Hey,” Jeremy started. “You didn’t plan on having a baby during the zombie apocalypse did you?”
Josh shook his head.
“No, no I didn’t.”
“Okay then, don’t worry about it! Not much you can do about it now. And don’t worry about Tori, she can just be that way sometimes. Most likely she’s just worried like you are, she just has a funny way of showing it. You gotta admit, a baby in this world is gonna be hard.”
“Yeah, I know it is; that’s what got me so worried. I’ve known guys who went crazy with the weight of being a father before the dead started walking around. Now, on top of taking care of my wife and child, I have to fight off the dead from devouring them? To be honest, I haven’t really been terrified until now. I’ve been scared, don’t get me wrong, but right now I am absolutely afraid of what comes next.”
