The Dark Days Series | Book 2 | Sanctuary

by Cole, Christopher

  There were several dead zombies with their heads smashed in or cracked open all over the main road that cuts through McCloud and outside it leading to Greenwood. There were tire tracks on the road leading to Greenwood, looks like our guys were followed. These bandits are relentless!

  We drove to Greenwood, and thankfully, the roads were mostly clear with only debris from trees and few wrecked or abandoned vehicles. There was nothing but a tunnel of trees on both sides of the road as far as the eye could see. It didn’t take long for us to get to the small town of Greenwood. There was black smoke rising from the town. We drove close enough to see what was happening through the binoculars. Bandits fighting our soldiers and Black Shadows. The fighting was a mixture of gunfire and hand to hand combat.

  “We got to get in there!” Danny said.

  “Whoa, whoa, hold it. Look before you leap. We need to get to a good advantage point. There! Those buildings there. Get to the third floor and lay down some suppressing fire. We’ll draw their attention with the big guns and clear out some of the zombies,” Captain Noir ordered.

  “You got it, sir,” I said.

  My friends and I followed Danny and Helga through the woods and brushed against the building Captain Noir pointed to. Captain Noir got on the back of one of the trucks to man the M240 Bravo machine gun while the other soldiers manned the gun on the other truck. They drove in loudly, shooting at the bandits that were using abandoned vehicles and small shops as cover. We made our way to the back of the building. Before we entered through the back door, two bandits tried to make a run for it and Helga gunned them down before they saw us. We entered the building and climbed the stairs. There were two different sets of stairs and one only led us to the second floor, so we had to take the other set to get to the third floor. When we got to the third floor, we took positions at different windows. We marked our targets before taking our shots and when we did, we dropped over twenty bandits in no time – each of us taking out multiple targets. More bandits were showing up along with zombies. The shootout lasted several minutes before they figured out our location and started shooting at us.

  “We have to reposition, before they flank us and get us boxed in!” Patch warned.

  “Get to the stairs!” Shaun called.

  “Go! Go!” Scarlet yelled.

  We ran for the stairs, but by the time we got to the second floor and ran half-way to the other set of stairs, we were getting shot at by bandits inside the building. Our group ended by a split in a four-way pass in the halls. Ashley, Sarah, Jess, Warren, Shaun, Ellen, and Danny were on one side, and Carrie, Molly, Patch, Jess, Scarlet, Helga, and I were on the other side. The bandits had us heavily suppressed shooting the edges of the walls – the bullets were going through making us get further away from the corners. Helga and Warren tried taking quick moments to shoot from around the corner, but we were pinned.

  I yelled, “Go! Get to cover!”

  “We’ll find you! Go!” Patch added.

  We ran in separate directions down the halls to split up. The bandits were on us. Helga and Patch were running and trying to shoot back at the bandits chasing us. I lead us to a door at the end of the hall.

  “There! Get to that room!” I shouted.

  “Hurry!” Helga screamed, as she unloaded her rifle at the bandits chasing us.

  Carrie shot at the knob of the door then bashed through with her shoulder. We all rushed into the room and Helga kicked the door closed. We all laid flat on the floor as the bandits fired through the door – the door was getting several bullet holes, as well as the walls and everything on the desk and file cabinets, were getting shot up. I switched my rifle to full auto as did the others, and we waited until the shooting stopped. When it stopped, we got up and fired everything we had through the door at the bandits. We swerved circles around to get our line of fire to leave as little cover for the bastards as much as possible. When we emptied our magazines, we reloaded before opening the door to see all the bandit's dead. They were all lying on the floor in pools of blood covered with bullet wounds over their bodies and their faces.

  “Oh lord,” Jess uttered.

  “Dios mío [My God]” Scarlet said, in Spanish.

  “That’s blood, that is a lot of blood,” Molly said.

  Then we heard gunfire down the hall.

  “The others! Let’s go!” Patch said.

  We sprinted down the hallway, but a teen bandit was swinging his hatchet at me. I dodged three of his swings and then as he swung at me, I grabbed his hatchet arm and pulled hard backwards throwing him off balance and slamming him against the wall. I pulled out my KA-BAR knife, and stabbed him in the back. He screamed in pain leaning his head back. I pulled my knife out of his back, pulled his hatchet arm behind his back and then I slit his throat – blood sprayed on the wall as he fell dead. My friends looked surprised. As my friends ran down the hall past me, Carrie put two bullets in the guy’s skull – I was starting to taste the iron in the air from the blood.

  By the time we got there our friends were finishing up on the bandits – I saw Ashley and Sarah put a bullet in two bandits as they were crawling away bleeding.

  Ashley looked up and asked, “You guys okay?”

  “Yeah, we’re good. You?” Carrie asked.

  “Yep, these guys really didn’t look before they leaped. Walked right into our line of fire,” Sarah answered.

  “We had to shoot ours through a door,” Jess said.

  “Wait, where’s Shaun? Where’s my brother?!” Scarlet asked.

  We heard noise down a different hallway and some yelling. When we went to see, we saw Shaun with his axe out, and a bandit was swinging a metal baseball bat at him. The bandit swung it several times, smashing the walls and furniture. Then, he swung his bat and Shaun ducked while spinning around and swung his axe into the bandit’s rib cage – the axe blade cut deep, breaking ribs and cutting organs. The bandit fell when Shaun pulled it out and then swung it directly into the bandit’s face – some of his blood got on Shaun’s face and neck. Warren was fighting two teen bandits; one had a machete and the other had some sort of spear. Warren kicked the machete bandit, then as the spear bandit charged at him, he grabbed him and slammed his head against a door. Then Warren pulled a knife out of the bandit’s belt and stabbed him in the throat. The other bandit picked up the spear and the machete and swung several times before Warren spun around and kicked the bandit in the face. When he stumbled backwards, Warren charged and stabbed the bandit in the gut. As he slumped down, he tried to reach for his machete. Warren pulled out his sword while keeping the spear in place with his other hand, and sliced the bandit’s throat. The bandit’s eyes were still open as blood was pouring out of the opening. Scarlet then shot him in the head.

  “Are you okay?” Scarlet asked.

  “Fine,” Warren said.

  “We’re okay,” Shaun said.

  “Let’s go! Time’s not on our side,” Ellen said.

  We ran for the stairs, but were vigilant as hell scanning each room and our surroundings. We got to the streets and were shooting zombies. Captain Noir and the soldiers were driving the bandits to the other side of town. Ellen took this chance to head over for the other Black Shadows across the street. Many of them were getting patched up for bullet wounds or deeply grazed cuts – lots of bloody bandages.

  “Patterson!” Ellen called.

  A Black Shadow boy looked up at Ellen. It looked like he was shot in the shoulder and in the shin.

  “Way . . . Jesus, you’re okay,” Patterson spoke, out of breath.

  “Fuck, they got you bad, man,” Ellen said, kneeling next to him.

  “Yeah, I got them bad, too. I killed four of them assholes after they shot me!”

  “Right on, man. Gave those assholes Hell and fucked them up. Is Campbell here? Is she still alive?”

  “Campbell? Yeah, she’s alive . . . we got separated as we came into town. Bandits and zombies were fucking everywhere. Campbell went south with McKenzie, Mike, Pet
er, and the other guys.”

  Ellen looked back at me with a smile and I smiled back.

  “So, she’s alive and they went south?” Ellen asked.

  “Yeah, I think there’s a high school and an old concert place that way. They must be heading for it, but they had zombies chasing after them. They need help. Go, help them or they’re not gonna make it!” Patterson said.

  “What about you?”

  Patterson gave Ellen a look.

  “Ellen . . . please. I told you before.” Patterson grabbed his FN SCAR 16 CQC. “I was born lucky. They can’t kill me!”

  Ellen and Patterson laughed.

  “But Kate doesn’t have my luck, so she needs your help. Go!” Patterson said.

  I got on the radio and said, “Captain Noir, this is Private Way. There are Black Shadows being chased by bandits and zombies to the south towards a high school. We’re going to lend support. Over!”

  “Get to them before the storm hits! Over,” Captain Noir replied.

  “Okay. Stay alive and don’t fuck up!” Ellen said, before running.

  As we ran after her Patterson yelled, “Send those SOBs to Hell!”

  ****

  We just ran and ran and ran. Running through the forest, past roads, through the brush-- not wasting a moment. The storm was almost on us. The sun was gone, covered with dark clouds and the wind was howling, rustling the trees – soon it would be hard to be outside. The dark grey clouds gave an ominous haunting look to everything. We could still see in the day, but the light was dim and the shadows were very dark. There were zombies wandering around, and as soon as they spotted us, they came at us. We didn’t have time to deal with them, so we only killed those that were in front of us. We didn’t dare waste a bullet, we only used our swords, knives, or hatchets. We sliced the heads or the necks. We all had some adrenaline giving us extra speed and stamina. We knew we were headed in the right direction, there were gunshots and they were getting louder – they weren’t as rapid as the firepower from the previous gunfight.

  “Come on! We have to hurry! Move! Move!” Ellen said, running in front of us.

  “Move your asses! Come on!” Jess said.

  The zombies kept coming at us and slowing us down, we kept cutting them down and I lost count of how many zombies I decapitated or split open – the others tried mimicking my swing, spinning around to build momentum on the swing of the sword.

  As we got closer to the gunshots, we came across a horrific sight in a clearing in the woods. There were posts everywhere with zombies chained to the posts. They were snapping and trying to claw at us like guard dogs. Past the posts on the trees were dead people hanging from the tree branches from hanging nooses around their necks, lifeless and rotting. Most of them were half skeleton and half-rotted flesh. Some of the zombies were tied around the trees with their guts hanging out, as if tied there for the zombies to feed on them alive. There were decapitated heads on pikes at chest level high and more heads around tree trunks everywhere – some of the heads were zombie heads as they’re mouths slowly moved. The chained-up zombie posts were almost lined up as if a borderline. The smell was beyond revolting. Some of my friends gagged while trying not to vomit. I felt nauseous just looking at it. I couldn’t find the words. I was speechless and my legs felt weak.

  “What the fuck?” Carrie said, shocked.

  “Holy Christ,” Ellen uttered.

  “Oh shit. Oh my God,” Molly said, wide-eyed.

  “Oh dulce Jesús María y José [Oh sweet Jesus Mary and Joseph]” Shaun said, in Spanish.

  “I’m gonna be sick,” Danny said, looking away.

  Scarlet puked along with Helga.

  “What is this? What the hell?” Patch asked.

  “Scarecrows. They want people to stay out,” Warren said.

  “You mean . . . they hang people out here and use their corpses to scare people away?! What kind of sick freaks do that?!” Sarah asked.

  “I don’t know . . . messed up people,” Ashley answered.

  “Kate . . . what the fuck are you doing going in there?” Ellen asked, gazing at the hanging dead.

  I looked over and saw the paved road.

  “She and the others probably took that paved road over there and missed this or they were running for their lives to stop and see this,” I suggested.

  “Come on, we gotta hurry,” Carrie said.

  “Wait, we’re going in there? Are you nuts?” Helga asked, wiping the puke from her mouth.

  “We’ve come too far to turn back,” Patch said.

  “She didn’t mean that. Shouldn’t we get back up?” Danny suggested.

  Ellen turned to him, “You see those clouds? You hear those gunshots? Those are our guys fighting those crazy fuckers down there! They don’t have time! We need to help them now!”

  “But—”

  “No buts! Now come on!”

  We headed for the paved road, but Molly was still standing there, frozen. Her hands were trembling and her face looked pale.

  “Molly!” I called.

  She didn’t respond.

  I walked in front of her and shook her. “Molly!” I called

  Molly got startled and looked at me.

  “We’ll get through this, but we need you to stay with us. Stay with me,” I stated, very clearly.

  Molly took several deep breaths and nodded.

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Yeah?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Let’s go.”

  We took the paved road and there was a chain-link fence gate with barbed wire, but was knocked down and wide open with zombies wandering through. Looks like the zombies charged the gate and knocked it down. Finally, after running and killing zombies we got to the edge of the woods, revealing the high school and outdoor concert stage.

  Finally, after running and killing we got to the edge of the woods, revealing the high school and outdoor concert stage.

  “Fucking Hell . . . about goddamn time. Now where the fuck are our lost Shadows?” Carrie asked leaning against a tree catching her breath.

  “Yeah Ellen, where’s your girl?” Molly asked, panting.

  “Umm . . . hang on. Let me see,” Ellen said, looking through binoculars.

  “Whatever sickos that live here, they must be new,” Sarah said.

  “How do you know?” Ashley asked.

  Sarah pointed to the side of the school and said, “They tried building some barricades around the school with the cars and what they could use, but the barricade is incomplete. See the zombies just walking in?”

  “Oh, you’re right, but they had time to make those . . . ‘scarecrows’ back there.”

  “Guys, we can’t stay here,” Warren alerted, as zombies were coming our way.

  “Where do we go?!” Sarah asked.

  “Uh, I don’t know! I see fighting both at the concert and at the school!” Ellen said.

  “Nate! What’s the plan?!” Ashley asked.

  “Let’s split up. Half go to the concert and the other half, the high school!” I said.

  “You sure that’s a good idea?” Carrie asked.

  “I’m all ears if you got any better ideas.”

  “Wait hang on,” Carrie thought for a moment and said, “Nope, I got nothing. Let’s go with your plan.”

  Ellen went for the school with Ashley, Sarah, Shaun, Scarlet, and Warren while Carrie, Molly, Patch, Jess, Danny, and Helga went with me to the concert – into the chaos we went with the storm swirling down on us. Both the concert and the school were crawling with zombies and visibility was getting worse. We couldn’t see where the gunfire was coming from, but we heard it loud and clear. Let’s just hope it’s our guys and not more fucking bandits.

  Chapter 18

  Nathan/Sonny

  The school had a FEMA shelter built there with many trailers, military trucks, Humvees, and tents, but it looked looted and pillaged. We ran down hill toward the concert that was next to the school’s football field stadium and running track. Th
e noise kept most of the zombies distracted, but many of them were just wandering. We looked over and saw there was shooting coming from the concert stage just behind the broadcast booth of the football field.

  “There’s bandits shooting at zombies and our guys at the stage,” Danny said.

  “That broadcast booth has the best high ground. If we can get to the roof, we’ll be able to pick them off with our rifles,” I said.

  “All that noise will get us boxed in. We won’t be able to get out when the zombies crowd us in,” Helga said.

  I looked around and I saw a utility pole next to a semi-truck trailer. I looked back at the broadcast booth, and saw that it was wide with big floodlights on both ends of the booth. There was a supply shed nearby with some paracord ropes. Like Grim said: “Stay one step ahead and always have an exit plan.”

  “You see that utility pole there? We’ll tie some ropes around that pole and around that flood light at the top of the broadcast booth. That way we can zipline our way out,” I stated.

  “I like that,” Carrie said.

  “Where are we gonna get rope?” Molly asked.

  “Over there, that supply shed. It better have some snap hooks,” Patch said, going after it.

  “We’re gonna need a shit load if we want to zipline to that pole,” Jess said, following Patch.

  “Not to the pole, the trailer. We want to land on the trailer, that way we won’t fall on zombies,” I said.

  “How far is that? Eighty yards? A hundred?” Molly asked.

  “At least it’s gonna be a long ride,” Carrie said.

  Patch and Jess came back with the rope. Thankfully, there was a lot of it.

  “Good news, we got rope and we got snap hooks. It’ll make it easier to hold around both poles. Now, who wants to climb the pole there?” Patch asked.

  There was a long pause.

  “Shit, I’ll do it,” Molly volunteered.

  “Are you sure?” Carrie asked.

  “Yeah, I’m good at climbing and I don’t get vertigo. It’s probably easier if you tie your end and then shoot an arrow at that trailer, then I can tie my end.”