Downfall

by Michael S. Gardner

  “You guys aren’t getting all close or anything, right?”

  Angela picked up the radio, laughing. “And what if we were?”

  “I’d say watch out. Matt’s only bound to disappoint you.” There was the sound of laughter, both from the radio and from Angela.

  “I can see why you two are friends.” Angela winked and keyed the radio. “I don’t know, Cole. Your friend here’s kinda cute.”

  Matt flipped Cole the bird and watched as his friend slowed and got behind him again. He couldn’t quite tell if Angela had been joking. Part of him—hell, most of him—wished she hadn’t been kidding. He could use the temporary relief; the apocalypse was much, much too stressful to handle sober and sexless.

  Angela rolled down the window and tossed the finished joint, which bounced several times before being crushed by a creeper too slow to even have seen the caravan as it passed.

  “So…” Angela let the word hang.

  It was said in a way that brought a light, warm feeling to Matt’s stomach, running up his spine. He turned to her. “So…?”

  Her eyes were now fixed on him. “If all goes well at Lowe’s, I was thinking that maybe we could… take a break… just you and me. Maybe give you a proper thanking for everything and take a little of the edge off.”

  Matt was at a loss for words. Never in his life had a female thrown herself at him so blatantly.

  “You look like you could use something to distract you. I know I could.” Angela smiled playfully.

  He did, and there was no sense denying it. “I’ll make sure to send Cole looking for something, so long as we don’t die before we get there.”

  “Boy, you sure know how to paint a pretty picture.”

  “It’s as pretty as the world will let it be now.” He thought of Shelley and realized just how much he’d been dwelling on her death, avoiding the fact that he’d never really see her alive again. Strangely enough, these thoughts brought out memories of Kristin. She’d seemed attracted, at least a little, to him. They never really had a chance to be alone for anything to happen. Maybe it was the world, fate, or what have you, telling Matt that it was his time to move on, even if it meant fucking someone he’d just met. He had to start somewhere, and just the thought of this felt like a burdening weight had been lifted off his back.

  “You should take your eyes off me and put them on the road in front, handsome.”

  Matt hadn’t realized until now, but he’d been staring at Angela. She was smiling and nodding poignantly to the road.

  “Shit!” He pressed on the brakes and grabbed and keyed the radio. “We got a problem, Cole.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Pull up beside us.” Matt tossed the radio onto the dash and punched the steering wheel. “God dammit!”

  Cole slowly crept up beside them. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  A roadblock choked the street a few hundred yards ahead.

  “Can you believe this shit?” said Matt, not really anticipating a response.

  “I can,” Angela answered with a sigh.

  From the edge of the woods on either side of the road armored SWAT cars, police cruisers, and K-9 units formed the beginning of a snowy vehicular blockade. Behind them, Matt could see rows upon rows of cars and vans. Every door was shut, and the closer they drew the more it became clear that this scene was missing—

  “You see any zombies?” Angela asked. Her eyes were glued to her window, and Matt noticed she was breathing heavily. “I think we should stop,” she said, turning to him. “Now.”

  Depressing the brake pedal, Matt signaled for Cole to hold up.

  “Something bugging you?”

  Angela knitted her brows. “Somethin’ ain’t right about his, Matt.”

  “I know.”

  “What’s wrong?” Cole asked.

  Matt picked up the radio and swung his head to Angela. “What am I telling him again?”

  She cocked an eye and leaned forward.

  Matt watched her study the road in front of them, like she was waiting something to pop up and—

  “Snipers,” he muttered, feeling suddenly in the nude.

  “Why the hell else would this be here?”

  “Uh…” Matt stammered.

  The slam of a door brought his attention to Cole’s van.

  “What the hell are you doing,” Matt said as he rolled down his window.

  Cole ran up and skidded to his door. “You guys get bit by the paranoia bug or what?”

  Matt nodded to Angela. “We think this might be a trap.”

  “A trap?” Cole looked back and chewed it over. “Don’t you think if it was a trap we would be dead by now?”

  Matt felt Angela shift in her seat. He heard the racking of a slide before her door opened and slammed shut. She smiled as she crossed the windshield, tucking a pistol at the small of her back.

  Hopping out, Matt slid open the side door and snatched the rifle. He wrapped the sling around his forearm and brought the scope to his eye. Cole and Angela stepped aside. The second N from NNPD on one of the cruisers was in focus, and a slight shift downward revealed a streak of blood running from the door to the wheel well. The cruiser to the right had a busted windshield and the one on the left leaned back a bit due to a flat tire. Countless snow-covered roofs led to an intersection where, eventually, the vehicles tapered off.

  “See anything?” Cole asked.

  Matt lowered the rifle and shook his head. “Not even a corpse.”

  “Well that’s not so bad, now is it?” Cole said.

  Angela walked to the van.

  “Where are you goin’?” Matt asked.

  “Back to the van.”

  Matt glanced to Cole, who shrugged.

  “If we’re gonna continue on,” Angela said, shutting the side door of their van, “I’m taking this.”

  “An AK,” Cole winked, “is always a good companion these days.”

  “Well,” Angela said, chambering a round as she swept the perimeter with her eyes, “I want to be ready for a fight if it’s a fight we’re about to face.”

  Cole spun around and surveyed the area.

  “Maybe they want to keep everyone out,” Matt offered.

  “Here, give me that.” Cole motioned for the rifle.

  Angela bumped into Matt and winked as she stood beside him.

  “Matt,” Cole said. “We’ll check out those SWAT vans and cruisers and then get the hell out of here.” He glanced to Angela and looked to his rifle. “You any good with one of these?”

  She shrugged. “Never used one up until a couple of weeks ago.”

  “Well, familiarize yourself with it quickly and get up on the roof of one of the vans. We need you to cover our asses.”

  Angela looked around and scowled. “And who the hell’s gonna watch my ass?”

  “We won’t be long,” Matt said. “Promise.”

  ***

  “We won’t be long,” Angela muttered as she cleaned the snow from the roof of the van. Setting both rifles on the hood, she clambered up.

  A glance back revealed the two friends sharing a conversation. Matt looked back and offered a smile. Angela forced one in return and stalked up the windshield and onto the roof.

  The scope enhanced her vision, aiding her in the acquisition of a target. Only there were no targets to be seen. Nothing but snow, steel, and dried blood. And a fine ass… She giggled, refocusing the rifle on the white terrain surrounding Matt and Cole.

  “Where are you?” she said, thinking of the absent creepers—and their remains. By looks of things, there had been some sort of battle here. Yet there were no bodies. Not even lurking beneath or inside the vehicles.

  She sighed. “You better make this quick, Matt. We got a date in a little bit.” The thought brought a smile to her face.

  ***

  Matt stood at the back door of the last SWAT armored car and counted from one to three with his fingers. On three he yanked the door open and step
ped back.

  “Nothing,” Cole said, lowering his pistol.

  “Where the hell is everything?”

  “Man,” Cole rubbed his forehead then took off his hat, “this just keeps getting weirder and weirder.” He put on the hat, adjusted it, and looked to Matt. “This place is starting to give me the creeps.”

  “No shit,” Matt replied. “That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you.”

  Cole looked around. “Yeah, well now I believe you.”

  “So what are we gonna do?”

  Hooking a thumb over his shoulder, Cole said, “We’ll go back to that store we passed a few minutes ago and see if we can’t find a path through the woods that’ll lead us through the neighborhood.”

  The cigarette outlet, Matt thought. Guess Angela had me a bit preoccupied back there. His lips split into a grin.

  “What’s up?”

  He shook his head. “What makes you think there’s a path back that way?”

  Cole shrugged. “Hope.”

  “Hope?”

  He nodded and said, “We’ve come too far to get stuck.”

  Matt agreed.

  ***

  “Where did you see them?” asked Alex as he loaded a magazine for the .22 at the kitchen table.

  “They were a few streets up,” Mary said.

  “There weren’t that many of them, though, right?” Tim walked in from the living room, and as usual he fed his addiction with not one pill, but two.

  “You know, Dr. Grant,” Mary said, “I think you should take it easy on those pills, whatever the hell they are.”

  “The day I’ll take medical advice from you is the day you’ll take combat advice from me, my dear.” He walked over to the coffeepot and poured himself a full, steaming cup, mumbling to himself.

  It took everything Mary had to keep from standing up and knocking the shit out of the crazy old kook. If she were a lesser woman, he’d already be on the ground begging for mercy.

  Jeff was sitting on the porch cleaning his Beretta; an AR-15 was loaded and ready at his side. It had been a tossup between him and Mary for the first watch after they’d returned with the SUV, an Escalade. Mary won. He didn’t much mind; it gave him more time to think, something he felt he needed to do after seeing the amount of rotters who were no doubt on their way here.

  As he was reassembling the pistol, Mary came outside.

  “Not your turn yet.”

  “I know.” She crossed her arms. “I’m just getting real tired of that bastard.”

  “I take it you’re not talking about Alex, huh?” Jeff said.

  “I don’t know how you managed not to shoot him out there. It would have been almost too easy, the way I see it.”

  Jeff shrugged. “Things were different out there, Mary.” He set the slide on the frame and racked it back. “I didn’t know when I was going to die, just that I was. And in times like that, you find that you hold on to whatever you can, even if it’s some loon like Dr. Grant.”

  Mary sat down next to him and scanned the perimeter of the front yard. “We’ve all managed to find ourselves in the middle of a giant shit storm, huh?”

  “I try not to think of it like that, honestly. I mean,” he slapped a fresh mag in, “we’re alive, and in times like these what else could we ask for?”

  Mary sighed. “I guess that’s one way to look at it.”

  Jeff chambered a round and flipped on the safety. He looked up to her. “Well, how do you see it?”

  Mary shrugged and hesitated. “I guess I don’t know. I’m just tired of this.” She motioned to the entire world. “I want things to be the way they were once upon a time, you know? Everything was going great. I got promoted to store manager, and Cole and I were getting serious.” She laughed a little, to ease the pain, she supposed. “I even think he was going to pop the Big Question.”

  “Just ‘cause this happened doesn’t mean that your world has to fall apart too. I mean, look at Matt. He lost his girlfriend—not to mention his family—and from how it sounds he really loved her. Even killed a man over it.”

  Mary recalled the events of that terrible day and sighed.

  “But you,” Jeff said, “you still have Cole. And from the looks of it, you two are doing just fine. You should be thankful for what you do have.” He looked up to the gray sky and sighed. “I don’t even know what happened to any of my family.”

  Mary rubbed his shoulder gently. “Sorry to hear that.”

  Jeff shook the thought away and set the pistol down. He reached for the can of soda he’d set by one of the pillars. “People like Dr. Grant in there don’t do so well when everything’s taken from them. Hence the pills he takes. Since I’ve been here, I don’t think I’ve had one conversation with the man while he was sober. He’s dying inside, and the only hope he has is in Mount Airy. I believe that’s why he acts the way he does.”

  Mary considered it. “I guess I never thought of it like that.”

  The soda opened with a quick hiss and pop. “There was no reason for you to. Out there, man,” he pointed to the driveway, “so many people died. Some of them Dr. Grant sent to die, whether he knew it or not, and it was all to get to his facility.” Jeff took a sip.

  Mary hitched a brow. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that if you’re really tired of living day by day, then maybe you should put more thought into going to Mount Airy. After yesterday, I am.” He studied the pit. “I just don’t think now would be the best time. Maybe after the first major snow, when it gets so cold out there that those things freeze.”

  “Maybe you’re on to something there, soldier.” Mary lit up a joint. “Care to take a few drags?”

  Jeff chewed it over a moment before reaching for it. He took a hit that practically blew his lungs out and went into such a severe coughing fit that he nearly puked.

  Mary laughed. “Been a while, eh?”

  “Too long,” Jeff gasped and sputtered. “Too long.”

  ***

  “What the heck is that?”

  Matt walked up behind Angela. She held her hands above her eyes and was peering into the cigarette store called “RIPS.” He remembered coming here often before quitting the Habit after his grandfather died from the big L.C. Couldn’t find smokes cheaper anywhere else in the city. The place had been a dump before the End. Now, though, the reek of the dead was so foul Matt had to shield his nose with his shirt, which didn’t help at all. He came up beside her, looked inside, and immediately backed away He drew his pistol and looked to the sides of the store.

  “What the hell you gonna do with that, Matt?” Angela said playfully. “Ain’t none of them movin’.”

  “That’s what worries me,” he replied, gingerly holstering his firearm. He took another look inside and shook his head. Unbelievable.

  A nightmare of corpses lay motionless in rows stacked tall enough to reach the ceiling. An image came to mind, one that had stuck with him since high school. Concentration camps…

  Were these the missing bodies from the blockade? He spied a few uniformed, bloody patches of clothing near the front counter inside. If so, someone had to have done this.

  But why? Matt thought.

  “You guys need to come and see this shit.”

  “You find a way through the woods?” Angela asked Cole.

  “That and then some, but you won’t believe me until you see it.”

  “Oh,” Matt said, “I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” He pointed out the piles of organized corpses, but Cole didn’t seem too surprised. “Something you’re not telling us?”

  “Just take a look at the side of the building, Matt. I think we just entered the Twilight Zone.”

  “I thought we were already there, Cole,” Angela said.

  “Me too.”

  I AM THE KEEPER OF THE DEAD was written in smeared blood from one side of the building to the other.

  “What do you suppose that means, huh?” Matt asked no one in particular. “Who the fuck w
rites something like that?” He stared, blinking and dumbfounded.

  “A person did this—all of this—that’s all I’m sure of,” Cole answered.

  “But why?” Angela looked around. “Makes no damn sense.”

  “Maybe to keep the undead from… Ah, hell, I don’t fucking know.” Matt shook his head and stared off into the woods.

  “I’m sure we’ll find out,” said Cole.

  “You two still sure you wanna go that way instead of home?” Angela asked.

  “Unless you got a better idea,” Matt said.

  Angela shook her head, shrugged, and sighed. “We’re gonna die out here,” she muttered.

  Matt placed an arm around her and gave her a reassuring smile. “You’ll be fine.”

  “You going to protect me, slim?”

  “We both will.” He nodded to Cole, who was giving him a shit-eating grin.

  Behind the store, Cole led them to a small clearing that divided the woods. “This path will take us right to Colony Pines, I’m betting.” He looked back. “But it’ll more than likely cause us to lose one of our vehicles. We’re bound to hit a few small trees here and there.”

  “Not to mention someone’s yard we’ll have to destroy,” Matt added. “And with our luck, which is probably running out by now, we’ll have to make it through a privacy fence or two.”

  “Why the hell is there a path here anyway?” Angela said.

  “Service road,” Cole answered, looking back to the vans. “Probably used when the neighborhood was still under construction a few years back. Before Colony Pines, all this used to be woods, except for the store.”

  “Isn’t there a dump or something else back there too?” Matt asked.

  “Maybe,” Cole said. “I’ll take the lead seeing as all our stuff’s in the other van.”

  “We’re gonna need to be on top of things out there,” Matt said. “You never know what’s waiting for us.” He looked back at the writing on the wall.

  “Okay,” Angela said with a flare of attitude, “you two keep talking like that, and I’m gonna walk home.”

  “It’s all right.” Cole chuckled. “Matt’s here to protect you.”