Whatever It Takes

by Mike Staton

Karl nodded, and started up the street without a word. The others followed him and Percival brought up the rear. The town had an eerily quiet feel to it. The normally constant moans of the undead were dampened by the fog and lost to the darkness as the group moved along the streets.

  *

  As the sun rose it tinged the horizon with golden rays that illuminated the fog with an odd yellow hue. The group of silent survivors continued to walk until Percival called out.

  “Stop. We search this building and rest here,” Percival said.

  Roy Joy nodded slowly. “No windows on the ground floor. Good choice.”

  “We split into pairs. No one goes alone. Search by the book, one pair watches our front door.” Percival moved up to the front door. It was a solid wooden door with a single brass door knob. Through the night they’d walked from the business district of the town to the residential area. He pushed on the door while twisting the handle.

  He was slightly surprised when it opened without any resistance. Percival opened the door an inch and kicked the door wide open. He hefted the sledgehammer and walked indoor. Sarah followed him, shining a light around the interior of the initial room.

  The building was an apartment building with a large central staircase stretching upward and several doors lead out of the central room. The other survivors followed them into the room. Flashlight beams swept the room, revealing the area.

  Percival looked to Andrina and Evan. “I want you two to cover the door.”

  Evan nodded and Andrina simply turned to watch the growing light from the rising sun outside.

  Percival moved into the center of the stairwell and looked up. While it was difficult to tell, he thought the stairs stretched up to three floors. If it was it would match his assumptions for how tall the building seemed from the outside.

  He brought his flashlight down and swung it around to shine on Roy Joy and Karl. “I want you two to check the ground floor. Sarah and I’ll check the third floor. We’ll meet up on the second and check it together.”

  Roy Joy quirked an eyebrow up, and stared right at Percival’s flashlight. “That’s not standard protocol. We should stick together. What if Querrel wants to say ‘hello’ from the third floor?”

  “Come on, crazy,” Karl said, dropping a hand onto Roy Joy’s shoulder and tugging him away from the entrance to the building and toward the nearest apartment door.

  Percival was glad that Karl was helping to herd the insane man into doing what he’d told him to do. It was difficult to manage a group when someone didn’t want to follow orders. Not that Percival entirely disagreed with someone disobeying right about now given what had happened to Nadia.

  He shook the thought from his head and turned to go to the stairs. Sarah had already climbed nearly halfway up the first set. He cradled the sledgehammer and started up the stairs, taking them two at a time, as he heard Karl’s crowbar crack into the first door.

  Percival caught up to Sarah halfway through the second set of stairs. Together they climbed in silence to the second floor and walked around to the next flight of stairs. At the first step he glanced over at her. She looked stoic and determined. He frowned for a moment, glad that he still wore the motorcycle helmet and it hid his face. He flipped up the visor.

  “Thank you.”

  “What the fuck for?” Sarah asked without hesitation or missing a beat in their climb.

  “Helping me regain my senses.”

  “Don’t ever make me do that again. Ever.” Her voice held an undertone of fright that sent a shiver down Percival’s spine. “She didn’t deserve to die. Certainly not like that, but it won’t your fault either. Alright?”

  “Right.” Percival knew he didn’t convey truthfulness in the single word answer. He didn’t believe it himself. He had killed Nadia by having her walk last. It would have been different if he’d had his normal rear guard walk the plank last; or if he had chosen to go last. The result would have been different if he had simply chosen a better action.

  Sarah stopped and turned to face him three steps from the third floor. It was as though she could read his mind. “Stop it. A) What’s done is done. B) Whoever was last on that bridge was going to fall. You’re our leader and everyone dies sometime. Stop cheapening Nadia’s sacrifice by beating yourself up over it.”

  “But I—“ Percival started to say.

  Sarah pressed her hand to his helmet. “We’re not going to fault you for any decision that was sound. Trust me. Okay?”

  Percival nodded, wondering how she could be quite so strong.

  “Good. Now we’ve gotta job to do. If you really need to complain about it more, do it later. I’ll even let it cut into our private time, slightly.”

  Percival slid his visor back down. He didn’t feel a whole lot better, but then again, he was shouldering responsibility for everyone. Even the thought of sex with Sarah later didn’t really brighten his outlook.

  She turned away and climbed the last few stairs and walked to the first door.

  *

  Percival brought the sledgehammer around into the door just below the doorknob. He heard the frame splinter on the opposite side and the door popped open. He immediately ducked out of the way as Sarah swept her shotgun and flashlight around the room.

  Open curtains allowed sunlight to drift into the apartment and helped to illuminate it. Percival would have preferred to have a good old fashioned working light-switch, but such luxuries had faded with the rolling blackouts three weeks after the mass outbreak. If you didn’t have a generator after that, you didn’t have power.

  Sarah cleared the room a second time from the doorway before entering the living room of the apartment. Percival followed her.

  The room looked almost identical to the others they’d searched that morning. Directly across from them the door lead to the bathroom while its neighbor lead to the bedroom. The kitchen was separated from the rest of the room by a counter. The room itself was sparsely decorated with what looked like the same couch, television, and glass coffee table as the other five apartments they’d searched on the third floor.

  What was different was the smell. Percival’s helmet would keep all blood splatter from entering his eyes or mouth, but it did little for stopping various offending smells from entering. He’d been around the living dead long enough now that recognizing their smell was nearly second nature. Fortunately enough, their rotten smell hadn’t pervaded the entire complex.

  It didn’t surprise him in the slightest when a moan erupted from the bathroom door. Dead fists beat in rapid succession against the door as the zombie attempted to escape its makeshift prison and get to the meal just the other side of the door.

  Percival moved up to the door and Sarah leveled the shotgun at roughly head-height. The zombie’s frantic bashing of the door was beginning to take its toll with the wood beginning to creak and crack. Percival hefted his sledgehammer and smashed it into the door. It created a small hole. He swung the hammer again and knocked a solid slat of wood out of the door and sent the zombie stumbling backward.

  It didn’t take the undead woman long to scramble back up to the door and utter a vicious, guttural growl as she thrust her arm through the hole and swiped at Percival. He had time enough to notice a pair of slices nearly down her wrist from where the woman had committed suicide before the arm disintegrated into a cloud of gore that splattered his visor. Percival heard the ratcheting of the shotgun before he noticed the absence of the sounds of the zombie woman.

  “Thanks,” he muttered.

  “You look good in red.”

  He couldn’t see her mouth, but he was almost certain she was grinning behind the N95 respirator. He took out his flashlight and shined it through the hole created by his sledgehammer and Sarah’s shotgun blast.

  After he was sufficiently sure that no other zombies were in the room, he reached through and unlocked the door. He withdrew his arm and twisted the knob, shoving hard to move the corpse on the other side so he could enter. The corpse was
nude, the woman had likely died in the bath. Percival stopped himself from imagining her last few hours. It was easier to look at the corpses of the undead as corpses of zombies rather than corpses of people who were human before turning. Humanizing them would just make putting them down difficult.

  He swiped a towel from the rack on the wall and wiped it across the front of his helmet. It just smeared the red and made it harder to see. He let out a sigh and thrust the visor up and threw the towel down. He’d collect a second one to take with him outside to find a puddle later. He swept his flashlight’s beam around the bathroom and stepped back out.

  “Just the one,” he said.

  Sarah nodded and moved in front of the bedroom door. She leveled the shotgun at head-height again and waited for Percival. Percival pushed his visor down and reached over to the doorknob. He twisted it to no effect other than rattling the door in the frame. He let out a sigh and swiftly slammed his sledgehammer into the door, popping it open.

  Sarah let out a gasp. A wave of confusion swept into Percival. Sarah was among the strongest willed zombie fighters he knew, and she’d not gasp at just anything. He stepped back and hefted the hammer as he moved to see into the room.

  Sarah’s flashlight was fixed on a body suspended from a rope in the middle of the room. It didn’t twitch or struggle with the ferocity of the undead, meaning the man had hung himself and was clean and uninfected.

  Percival lowered his hammer and reached across and gently pressed Sarah’s shotgun, and light, down. While it was easy to forget a thrashing, hungry, angry, corpse was once a human, seeing the still visage of death was a different matter entirely. Percival was already making up the story of two lovers, one infected and one not, killing themselves because of the shit that was hitting the fan in the world.

  And if they’d just held out longer, maybe someone would have found them. Maybe someone would have come to help, to take the man away to safety where he’d continue to survive and maybe even move onto another lover.

  Sarah’s gaze hadn’t left the darkened room. Percival pressed his arm across Sarah’s front and turned her away from the room. He slid his visor back up.

  “We’re done here.” He pushed her toward the front door. “I’ll be out in a moment.”

  Sarah reluctantly walked to the front door. Her steps were slow and deadened. It reminded Percival of the lumbering step of a zombie that hadn’t yet detected prey. He frowned. Her sudden change in demeanor didn’t sit well with him. He wondered if he looked the same the moment Nadia fell. He watched her disappear through the door before turning back to the bedroom.

  Percival stared at the suspended corpse. He propped his sledgehammer by the door and crossed the room to the corpse. He picked up the toppled chair and climbed up on top. He drew his knife and sawed through the thin rope suspending the corpse. It fell to the floor with a thud. Percival spent a few minutes properly stretching the corpse out into a laying position. He tugged the blanket from the bed and draped it over the corpse before leaving the apartment.

  Sarah was sitting on the floor with her back to the wall and her facemask off.

  “Why?” She didn’t look up as she spoke.

  Percival moved around in front of her and crouched down. “I don’t know. Maybe she knew she was infected and they chose to go out together. Maybe it was too tough for him to go on without her. I didn’t know them and don’t know their reasons.”

  “It’s stupid.”

  “I’m willing to agree with that statement. Especially given the state of the world.” He stood up and offered her his hand. “The world certainly needs as many of us alive and healthy.”

  “Promise me something.” Sarah scooped up her discarded face gear and shotgun before accepting Percival’s hand.

  “What’s that?” He asked as he helped her to her feet.

  She handed him the shotgun and took her time properly securing her facemask and goggles once more. “If somethin’ happens to me, move on. Don’t do something stupid or heroic.”

  “Of course not.” Percival felt as though the words were a lie. He’d not commit suicide, certainly, but he couldn’t say that he wouldn’t do ‘something stupid’ and ‘heroic’ in her name.

  “You better not. They need you too much.” Sarah took the shotgun back from him. “What were you doing in there?”

  “I cut the guy down and put a blanket over him. A little more dignified than continuing to hang there.”

  Sarah nodded. “That’s a good thing you did.”

  Percival smiled and motioned for her to head to the stairs. There was one more floor to check before he could declare the building safe for occupation. Especially since he intended to let his group of survivors stay there for a full day before moving again. They all needed time to properly rest and grieve.

  The longer length of rest time would also give time to scour the near two dozen apartments for useful items.

  *

  “Can I talk with you?” Karl asked. “In private?”

  Percival nodded. Checking the second floor apartments had yielded no zombies and they were on their way back to the first floor to help Evan and Andrina secure the door. “Can it wait until after the barricade is up?”

  “They know what their doing and Roy Joy’ll be there to provide muscle. Hell, he’s carrying that door easy enough.”

  Percival let out a soft sigh and nodded. He stopped on the stairs and called down to the others. “Karl and I’ll be down in a moment. We’re going to check that last apartment again.”

  Sarah and Evan both looked up at him and nodded.

  Percival started back up the stairs with Karl. They went into the last apartment they’d searched. Karl closed the door behind them.

  “What precisely did you want to talk about?” Percival left the living room area and entered the kitchen and began sifting through drawers and cabinets there. He didn’t see any reason not to begin the search now.

  “Nadia’s death wasn’t your fault. I don’t want to breaking down out here.” Karl moved to the archway that separated the kitchen from the living room. He held his flashlight up so that it illuminated Percival’s work.

  “Yeah. I know that. It was the zombies’ fault,” Percival snapped at the older man. He’d had something along the same conversation with Sarah and didn’t feel like repeating it. He especially didn’t want to repeat it with a former teacher.

  “Don’t get short with me, boy.” Karl’s tone was stern. Most who said such words would sound angry. Karl had managed not to. “I did two tours. Did you know that? Commanded troops twice, before I went back as a journalist.”

  Percival was silent. He’d stopped his search, though he kept his back to the journalism teacher. He knew about the war stories Karl had covered, but not that he’d been a soldier before that. Percival had looked up things Karl had written, but not dug into deeper into his teacher’s past. If it wasn’t in the little bio most teachers included in their syllabi, most students didn’t care enough to look further.

  “I will take your silence as a ‘no.’” Karl’s voice remained stern. “There’s a reason I was put in charge of the guardians back at the college. Just as there’s a reason you were our defunct leader there and are the leader here.”

  Percival knew why he was a leader back on the campus. Both sides, the remaining students and faculty, listened to him and would do what he suggested. He was leader here on the expeditions to find more survivors, supplies, and possibly other communities because he was a symbol of hope to the Brown College community.

  “I know precisely what you’re going through right now. I’ve ordered people to their deaths. It’s never easy, but is a necessary evil.”

  Percival turned to face Karl. “She wasn’t a soldier. She was a volunteer. I didn’t put her at the end ‘cause I thought she’d be best there, I did it ‘cause I was angry with her.”

  “Everyone’s a soldier in this age. Just as every soldier was a volunteer of the past age. You’ve got to remain strong w
ith these orders and directions though. Do you understand?”

  Percival shook his head. “I don’t want this. Didn’t want it to begin with.”

  “Good leaders rarely do. It’s tough. I know, I’ve been there. I also know you’ll suck it up and move on. Take your time tonight to cry into Sarah’s shoulder. It’s part of her job. I’ll command watches tonight.” Karl’s flashlight swung away from Percival as he turned to leave. “I know you’ll pull through this and you’ll be a stronger man because of it.”

  “That all you’ve got to say?” Percival called after him.

  “No.” Karl paused at the door to the door. He didn’t turn back. “I’ll always have your back, Percival. Might get me killed one of these days, but I’ll keep supporting you. You’re the kind of individual the next generation needs, and I’ll back that any day.”

  Percival watched the man leave. He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about the whole talk he’d just received. He certainly felt awkward for snapping at him. He slammed his fist into the counter. The physical act of frustration helped to vent some of the emotional stress he was feeling.

  He hoped, at some level, that it never got easier to cause the deaths of people.

  Chapter 3

  Percival woke in darkness. It didn’t feel like the normal comforting darkness he was used to. He wondered for a moment, as anxiety grew in his chest, where he was. The bed was comfortable enough, but it just wasn’t quite right. He twisted and swung his arm wide. He felt only sheets. He had expected to feel the cold metal of his gun or crowbar. He thrashed and bolted up right, gasping and straining his eyes to see in the darkness.

  A soft moan came from his right.

  “Hey… It’s cold out there. If you want to get up, get up and give the blanket back. Otherwise, lay back down and snuggle up with me.” Sarah’s voice drifted sweetly through the darkness.

  It wasn’t the hungry moan of the undead. His heart slowly fell back to its normal pace. His breathing followed suit as he lay back down. He tugged the blanket back up to his shoulder and slid under the sheets right up next to Sarah. He slid his arms around her naked body and held her as memories of the past day came back.