by Josh Vasquez
“You’re not a bitch. You were just trying to help. Thank you.”
He leaned in and placed a platonic kiss on her cheek. He smiled again.
“Let’s focus on finding out where we are.”
She nodded, but felt a conflict of emotions beginning to well up inside of her. Did she have feelings for Josh? How messed up was it that he just lost his family and here she was bothered by the fact he didn’t sleep with her?
And Lexx was still out there somewhere.
He’s probably going banana sandwich looking for me.
She felt guilty for toying with feelings for someone else besides Lexx. But what if she never found him again? What if something happened to the others while they were gone? What if their paths just never crossed again?
Oh girl, you are in trouble.
***
“This is a town?” Tori asked.
“It’s got a Wal-Mart,” Josh answered.
“Oh, well that makes it official then,” she said.
The booming metropolis of Swainsboro was thirty minutes west of Statesboro, fifteen from the cabin’s driveway. Josh had no idea how they ended up this far away, but Tori did go a little crazy on the four-wheeler.
They avoiding the few lingering zombies that wandered the small town’s streets. Most were in late stages of decay, meat falling off the bone, like a slab of ribs fresh from the smoker.
“They’re starving,” Josh said quietly as they ducked behind abandoned cars.
Tori never thought about the dead running out of food, but it made sense in more remote places and small towns like Swainsboro.
“Less people, less zombies, right?” She said.
He nodded and pointed up ahead.
The Wal-Mart sat in all its glory across the street. They would have to get across the mostly empty parking lot without being noticed. A handful of corpses roamed the lot, but for the looks of it, they did not look like much of a hassle.
Josh pulled the hatchet from his belt loop and put his finger up to his lips. Tori nodded and grabbed her machete.
They ran across the parking lot, Josh taking out the nearest zombie before it could moan and alert the others. He ran up and planted the hatchet’s blade in between the eyes of the grey-skinned automaton. Its black eyes bulged out, one popping out completely and left dangling like a tiny tetherball.
Tori wasted no time reaching the next zombie, cleanly removing the head before it uttered any sound. The machete slid easily through the rotten flesh, the only resistance from the brittle spine in the neck.
They leapfrogged their way to the store’s entrance, taking down the unsuspecting z’s outside.
Once inside the store, Josh looked around to see if any dead had wandered inside.
“Looks mostly clear. Want to split up?” He said.
Tori looked at him as if he was stupid.
“I was just kidding, relax,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender.
They made their way first to the food aisles, the stench of rotten fruit and meat soaking the air. Tori gagged and put her hand up to her mouth.
“I don’t think I want to eat anything in this place,” she said.
“We’ll just get some canned food and leave,” Josh answered as he pulled the neck of his t-shirt up over his nose.
Tori did the same.
When they collected several cans of tuna fish, beans, and corn, they left the horrible smells behind and headed towards the outdoor section. Josh suggested they find a small camping tent to take with them in case they were unable to find a place to sleep by nightfall.
There was one left.
It was technically a one-person pup tent, but they could squeeze in there together for a night. Tori looked forward to the close quarters.
If I could make a fool of myself in an entire room, I wonder what damage I can do in a 3x6 tent.
“Is there anything else you can think of?” Josh asked, interrupting the embarrassing premonitions in Tori’s head.
“Not really. The guns and ammo are all cleared out. Not like they would have ammo for this thing,” she said, motioning to the AK-47.
Josh chuckled.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. It is Wal-Mart after all.”
They made their way back to the front of the store, Tori making a quick stop to grab a box of tampons.
“It’s a good thing zombies aren’t like sharks and sense blood from miles away,” she said as she walked back up to Josh by the registers.
He quickly yanked her down to the ground and pushed her up against the conveyor belt’s base.
“What the hell?” She got out before he clamped a hand over her mouth.
What has gotten in to him?! She thought. Now he wants to get handsy? Helluva time for it! Wait-
Josh peeked over the edge of the cash register and ducked back down quickly.
Oh no, zombies, she thought. How many?
There must have been a lot if he pulled her down to hide like that. He looked at her and his eyes asked if she was going to keep quiet. She nodded and he removed his hand.
“How many?” She mouthed.
“Four,” he mouthed back.
Four? What the hell? That’s not much to be this worried about.
She sat up in order to peek over the counter.
Standing inside the store’s entrance were four people.
Four living people.
At first, Tori’s heart leapt, thinking it was their friends who found them, but very quickly, she realized these people were strangers.
Two men and two women stood there, all four of them armed with either a rifle or shotgun. The two women, one black, the other white, both looked tough. These just weren’t some girly girls out for a picnic.
Out of the two men, only one of them looked gruff. He was an Asian guy with a leather jacket on and a scar running down the side of his face. He held up the AR-styled rifle like someone with military experience.
The fourth guy did not look so menacing. He was a curly-headed blonde who wore a flak jacket with the word “Sheriff” across the front. His smile looked vaguely familiar.
“Alright,” the blonde said. “Let’s see what we can find. Keep your heads up.”
Upon hearing the man’s voice, Josh’s face dropped. He slowly stood up with his hands raised.
“What are you doing?” Tori asked, but it was too late.
Josh stood there, hands up, and just stared.
Tori looked over the counter and realized the blonde was telling his crew to lower their weapons. He tilted his head to the side and stared at Josh.
“Josh?” The blonde said.
“Avery?”
Chapter Thirty Five
Jeremy stared in shock as the helicopter flew past them.
“I can’t believe it,” White said. “I haven’t seen anything in the sky since the second day when we saw the medevac chopper go down.”
It’s not possible… Jeremy thought.
He continued to watch the lights of the helicopter vanish into the night.
“It’s not possible…” He said aloud this time.
White looked over at Jeremy and noticed that he was sweating.
“You alright man?” he asked, placing his hand on Jeremy shoulder.
“It just can’t be true,” he mumbled, his eyes still fixed on the sky.
“No, it is. You’re not seeing things. I saw the helicopter too,” White said.
Jeremy pulled away from White and took a step forward.
“I know that helicopter,” Jeremy said.
“What? What do you mean you know that helicopter?” White began asking, deeply confused on what Jeremy was getting at.
“That was,” he started, still struggling to believe it himself. “That was my father’s helicopter.”
***
“What do you mean you saw your father in a helicopter?” Black asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
Everyone minus Lexx was in the bunkroom. Jeremy and White rushed d
ownstairs to wake the others and share the news. CJ sat up on his cot, much more alert than Black.
“I mean my dad is alive and he’s out there, flying around in his damn helicopter!”
Jeremy could not believe the words coming out his own mouth, how could he expect others to believe them? He was sure, without any doubt, that it was his father. The yellow paint job, old school pin-up model on the side, there was no mistaking it for his father’s helicopter.
Had it been with him on the yacht when he left? Has he survived all this time?
A dark thought crossed his mind.
What if it wasn’t him? What if someone killed him and took the helicopter?
“Which way was he headed?” Black asked.
“Looked like the hospital,” White answered.
Black looked at his partner. He seemed unsure of Jeremy’s story, but the fact that his partner was backing the kid up, it made him seriously consider it.
“So, what are we going to do?”
The four of them all looked at each other.
***
They rushed to the armory and began to load out. White handed one of the rifles to CJ, who nodded and tried to hide his smile. He then in turn handed a shotgun to Jeremy before grabbing one of the M4’s for himself. Black also took one, slinging it over his shoulder.
“Okay, we check the hospital roof and if he’s not there, we leave. I don’t want to be out there too long at nighttime,” Black said, checking the action of his rifle.
Everyone agreed. Fighting zombies at night was on no one’s bucket list.
“What’s this?” CJ said, holding up a small sheet of paper. “It’s a note from Lexx!”
He handed the note to Jeremy who read it aloud.
“Dear Jeremy, Sorry man, but I have to do this. I gotta go find Tori. Tell the cops I borrowed a couple of the guns and possibly one of the squad cars. And maybe the Coke. I’ll come back when I find them. Lexx.”
He looked up from the page.
Typical Lexx, He thought.
“Are you kidding me?” Black said.
“No, that sounds like Lexx. Don’t worry. He’ll bring them back. C’mon, we’re wasting time,” Jeremy said.
***
Zombies crowded the hospital parking lot. It was as if something drew them to the building. They shambled and bumped into each other and the parked cars.
Jeremy drove the truck by slowly.
“Looks like we’re going to have to fight our way in,” he said to CJ, who sat beside him.
Black and White rode behind them in another police cruiser.
Jeremy got on the radio and relayed the good news to the officers.
“Yeah, that’s what we were just talking about,” White said over the radio. “You sure you want to do this tonight?”
Jeremy thought about it for a moment.
“He might be gone by tomorrow. I’m betting he landed on the roof and that’s what all these z’s are doing here. They followed him here.”
“Lucky us,” White said. “We’ll follow you. Over and out.”
Jeremy circled the truck back around and parked outside the parking lot. Zombies were already starting to take note of the new vehicles.
“You sure you want to come with us? You can take the truck back to the precinct,” Jeremy said, looking at CJ.
“And be by myself? No thank you. Besides, you know I’m a good shot. You need me.”
Jeremy could not help but smile at the teen boy.
He may be thirteen, but he might as well be my age.
“Okay, let’s go,” he said.
He opened the door and began to trot towards the building. His shotgun blasted the first zombie, the boom echoing through the silence of night. The zombies all began a chorus of moaning. He racked another round into the barrel and steadied his next shot.
Something grabbed his arm and he turned to fight it off, but the z’s head snapped back and its body fell to the ground. Jeremy looked back to CJ, who gave him a thumbs up and fired another shot.
Black and White’s automatic fire entered the fray, the “pop-pop-pop” of controlled three-round bursts providing a rhythm to their soundtrack of death.
When they reached the entrance, they looked back at the path they cleared. New undead were filling the void.
“Where are they all coming from?” Black shouted.
“C’mon, we got to get to the roof. Dad’s got to have heard the noise by now,” Jeremy yelled back.
They heard shrieks in the distance.
“Let’s go!” Jeremy yelled.
The four of them ran for the stairs, Black and White flipping on the lights attached to their weapons.
“Jeremy, tight quarters in the stairwell. You take point,” White said, holding the door open.
Jeremy nodded and entered the stairs. They climbed quickly.
When he came around the turn at the third floor, Jeremy came face to face with a hulking zombie. The thing must have been seven feet tall. It reminded him of the dead Lumberjack.
Jeremy jumped back and fired the shotgun at the thing’s face. Unlike the Lumberjack, who seemed indestructible, this monster died when shot in the face. Its face shot out through back of its head and splattered against the wall.
Jeremy felt his heart settle back down in his chest and began to run again. The others lagged behind him, but he kept on pressing up.
He reached the roof access door and burst through the door.
His father had the helicopter running and was preparing for takeoff. When he saw someone run through the stairwell’s door, he pulled a revolver from his leather jacket.
“Get back!” He shouted. “I have a gun!”
Jeremy lowered his shotgun and placed it on the ground.
“Dad!”
***
David Riggins stared at his son.
It’s not possible, he thought.
“Dad! It’s me!” Jeremy yelled.
“Jeremy? You-you’re alive!?”
David dropped his revolver to the ground and ran towards his son. Jeremy met his father halfway and the two embraced tightly. David began to cry.
“Oh my son! You’re alive! You’re alive!”
The others reached the top of the stairs and Black closed the door behind them.
“I hate to ruin the moment for you two, but we’ve got company in the stairwell!” He yelled, as he braced the door shut.
The cries of the runners ascending the stairs echoed behind the door.
“You got that thing ready to go?” White asked.
David looked at the helicopter and then back at the people with his son.
“It’ll only fit four people, anymore and we won’t get off the ground!”
“Dad! We have to get everyone in there!”
He looked at his son and shook his head.
“We won’t be able to get far enough off the roof. Even with four people, we’re pushing the weight limit,” David said.
There was a slam against the door, Black straining from the blow.
“Just go! All of you! I’ll hold the door!” He yelled, straining against the growing weight of the runner’s pushing.
“No! You can’t do this by yourself Will!” White shouted, starting to walk to help his partner.
“Dammit Michael! We don’t have time for this 80’s buddy cop movie bullshit! Get your ass in the fucking chopper! And if the internet ever comes back on, make sure you delete my browser history!”
Another slam against the door.
White cursed under his breath and ran to the helicopter. CJ and Jeremy helped White climb in. He looked over at Black who was still holding the door closed.
“Go! Get us out of here!” He yelled at David.
The helicopter lifted slowly off the roof and began to hover. David directed it over the edge of the roof and the helicopter continued to rise.
***
On the roof, Will Black looked up to see the chopper leaving. His face poured sweat and his muscles a
ched.
“Alright you sons of bitches, let’s do this.”
He jumped back from the door and scrambled backwards, swinging the M4 from around his shoulder.
The runners rushed through the open door and ran for Will. He opened fire and felt relief when he saw that they still died when shot in the head.
Jeremy had been right though. They were scary as hell looking.
Their bright, red blood poured from their orifices.
“Die muthafuckers, die!”
One leapt through the air, launching itself twenty feet towards Black. His eyes connected with the runner’s bloodshot ones and for a second he thought this was it.
But the runner’s head exploded in a shower of gore.
Multiple heads followed and the runners began to fall.
Black looked up behind him and saw the helicopter hovering above, White and CJ sniping the runners from the air.
“Yeah!” He yelled, picking up his gun and charging into the fray.
“Leeeeroy Jenkins!”
Epilogue
Lexx drove the stolen police car into the early morning fog that blanketed the Georgia countryside.
I will find them. I will find her.
On their way to Statesboro, Lexx had done his best to remember all the twists and turns that Jeremy made. He was confident he would find his way back. From there, however, he had no idea on where to look.
The radio cackled to life, static pouring from the speakers in the dashboard.
Lexx’s eyes dropped down to the receiver.
He did not see the black shape wander out into the road.
***
Tori watched as Josh and Avery stared at each other in disbelief. She recognized the boy now, but he seemed so much older than when she met him a month ago. Avery was no longer the goofy kid who helped them escape from the psycho hipsters in Savannah.
“What… What are you doing here?” Josh finally asked.
“Well, we’re on a scouting party. What are you doing here?” Avery asked back.
Both men were not sure how to react.
“We were separated from our group. You’re alive,” Josh answered.
