33 AD

by David McAfee

  “I told you to wait,” Mia said, a touch of anger in her voice.

  Liz shrugged. “I thought it was safe to come out with them.” She thumbed over her shoulder as Mark arrived, carrying a novel. Paul and Chang followed him, also carrying novels.

  “There a book club I don’t know about?” Austin asked.

  “Only form of entertainment that’s not going to get us killed,” Mark said.

  “Running for your life isn’t entertaining enough?” Mia asked.

  “Food’s here,” Collins announced as he entered carrying two brown bags full of non-perishable food.

  White and Vanderwarf followed, hands empty. Garbarino was last. He closed and locked the door at the bottom of the stairs then joined them at the top. He looked honestly pleased to see Austin. “You made it.”

  Austin stopped the rolling pool ball. “One almost got me. Snuck up behind me while I was distracted.”

  “Were they armed?” Garbarino asked.

  Austin shook his head. “They were...insane. No weapons. Came at me with hands and teeth. Like animals. A few of them weren’t any trouble. But if I wasn’t armed...or if the rest of them showed up.” He shook his head again, this time looking at the floor. “Wouldn’t have turned out the same.”

  After a moment of silence, he moved to the end of the pool table and reached under it. He motioned to Garbarino. “Help me on this end. Vanderwarf. White. Get the other side.”

  Together, the four of them moved the heavy table in front of the fire escape door on the side of the house. With the downstairs sealed, the second floor door locked and the pool table blocking the only other exit, they were sealed in tight.

  As night settled, the group ate boxes of Hostess comfort food, spoke little, and one by one dropped off to sleep. Vanderwarf and White lay down behind the bar. No one could see them, everyone knew the two were dealing with the destruction of the world in their own, primal way.

  “Going to have to start repopulating the planet sooner or later,” Paul had whispered to Mark, but the priest wasn’t laughing. Despite his normally humorous personality, he had fallen more serious as the sun descended and the sunset turned blood red. But if darkness filled his thoughts, he kept it to himself and eventually nodded off. Paul slept on one of the couches, snoring lightly. Chang had found a bean bag chair and fell asleep halfway on, lying on her back with her head cocked back and her mouth wide open. Collins fell asleep as he often did in the Oval Office, head down on the table. He’d started playing solitaire, but wasn’t having any luck.

  Liz fell asleep on Mia’s lap while she sat in a comfortable chair to the side of the front window. Had it not been pitch black outside, it would have offered her a view of half the neighborhood for nearly a mile. Austin sat on a stool across from her, arms folded across his chest keeping watch in the other direction.

  “Strange, isn’t it?” he said quietly.

  “What is?” she replied.

  “That sound.”

  She listened, but could only hear the breathing of several sleeping people and Paul’s snoring. “I can’t hear anything.”

  Austin picked up a pillow from the arm of the couch and tossed it at Paul. The man snorted, rolled over and fell quiet. “Outside,” Austin said.

  She reached forward slowly and opened the small window. She held her breath and listened. At first she heard nothing. But after a few moments she heard...something. High pitched. Reverberating. Very distant. “What is it?” she asked.

  “Screaming,” he said.

  Goose bumps sprung up on her arms. He was right. Once he identified the sound, she could hear it for what it was—screaming, from hundreds, if not thousands of people. “What’s going on out there?” she asked.

  As though in reply, a light outside clicked on.

  Austin sprang up.

  Mia gasped.

  “Motion sensitive light in the driveway,” he said. “Must have a battery backup.”

  She heard nothing but “motion sensitive.” Someone lurked outside. She shifted for a view of the driveway and saw a man. He moved quickly, but not in a single direction. Like a squirrel in the road, unsure of which way to run from an approaching car, he leaped one way and then the other. She could hear his panicked breathing, squeaking with fear.

  “Should we help him?” she asked.

  Austin shook his head, no. Instead, he whispered, “Close your window.”

  She did so, quickly and quietly, careful not to jostle Liz and wake her up.

  “I don’t think he could have heard us.”

  “It’s not him I’m worried about.” He motioned to the others. “It’s them. I don’t want them to wake up. I don’t want them to see.”

  “See what?”

  “You didn’t hear the voices?”

  She shook her head, wondering if her hearing sucked or if Austin just had really good ears.

  “The people who attacked me. Who attacked Reggie. They all shouted warnings first. Apologies. Like they didn’t want to be doing what they were about to do. Like it horrified them. I could hear them coming.” He motioned out the window. “And so can he.”

  The man was still running in circles. Then, through the closed windows, Mia did hear another voice. A woman’s. Then a man’s. She couldn’t make out the words, but she could see them. Running shadows. Three of them.

  The panicked man finally saw them coming. Or maybe heard them. And turned to run in the opposite direction. But he was so out of his head with fright that he turned and sprinted into a tree. The three descended on top of him before he could stand. The woman went for his neck with her teeth, cutting off his scream. The two men tore at his stomach. Blood pooled around him as they slaughtered the man.

  From beginning to end, the attack lasted only fifteen seconds. The two men and the woman stood above the body, wailing. Crying like children. They disappeared into the night again, leaving the dead man behind, his entrails looping over the driveway, his blood glowing bright red under the halogen glow of the motion sensitive light.

  Mia and Austin stared down at the body in silence.

  When the light blinked out again, Austin whispered, “We’ll go out the back in the morning. Get some sleep.”

  She thought sleep would be impossible, but she sat back, closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, the view of stars outside had been replaced by blue sky. For a moment, lost in the comfortable place between sleep and reality, she forgot everything that had happened.

  That’s when Liz started screaming.

  21

  Mia launched from her chair, wrapped her hand around Liz’s open mouth and turned her away from the large window. She thought the girl had seen the mauled body in the driveway. Why didn’t we cover the window last night?

  As Liz filled her lungs to scream again, Austin knelt in front of her, ready to talk her down from her panic. But he quickly realized what was happening. “She’s still asleep.”

  “Someone shut her up!” Garbarino hissed. He jumped to his feet, holding his weapon. The screaming got his hackles up.

  Mia shook her arm. “Elizabeth! Wake up! Liz!”

  The girl screamed again.

  “They’re going to hear her!” Garbarino said.

  Mia knew he was right. Her high pitched squeal could probably be heard for blocks, even with the windows shut. And who’s to say the killers she and Austin saw the night before weren’t waiting outside already?

  White and Vanderwarf emerged from behind the bar, weapons at the ready. “What’s happening?” Vanderwarf asked.

  “Kid’s having a nightmare,” Collins answered as he stood up and approached Mia. He knelt down in front of Liz, next to Austin and before anyone grasped his intentions, he reached out and slapped the girl across the face.

  “Hey!” Austin shouted, shoving his former boss away. Collins fell back, unhurt.

  The scream didn’t come again. A gentle crying took its place. “My face hurts,” Liz said.

  Mia glared at Collins for a mo
ment before picking up her niece.

  He held his hands up. “It worked, didn’t it? And it sure as hell beats him—” He motioned to Garbarino, “—putting a bullet in her.”

  Austin saw Garbarino’s weapon lower. Had he been bringing it up to fire? There was no way to be sure, so he let it go. He didn’t chastise Collins any further, either. The slap wasn’t hard enough to break the girl’s jaw and she did stop screaming. But was it too late already?

  Austin moved to the window and looked out over the neighborhood. The houses, all various shades of beige, glowed yellow in the morning sun. When his gaze turned to the driveway, his heart hammered in his chest.

  Mia rubbed Liz’s cheek. “You’re okay, baby. You’re okay.”

  “I had a bad dream.”

  “I know.”

  “You were dead,” Liz said before looking at the others. “They were all dead. And I was alone.”

  “You’re not alone,” Mia said, wrapping the girl in her arms. A gentle touch on her shoulder took her attention away from Liz. It was Austin. He motioned toward the window with his eyes. There was something outside he wanted her to see. His silence meant he didn’t want the others to know.

  She looked around the room. With Liz quiet, they all went about their morning rituals. Collins mixed instant coffee into a mug of cold water. Paul was in the bathroom. Mark sat on one of the couches, reading from his small Bible. Vanderwarf, White and Garbarino sat around the card table, opening a fresh box of Hostess cakes. Chang was just waking now. From the tired look in her eyes, she’d slept through the morning theatrics.

  Mia stood slowly, holding Liz in her arms, and turned to the window. She kept Liz looking in the opposite direction as she looked, first at the empty neighborhood, and then down to the driveway. She gasped at what she saw.

  A dried bloodstain covered a large swath of pavement, but the body, and every scrap of eviscerated organ was missing.

  “He’s gone... scavengers?” she asked, quietly.

  “I don’t think so,” Austin said. “There’d be something left behind. Bones.”

  “Maybe they moved it?”

  He shook his head. “We haven’t seen a living animal or insect since we landed.”

  “Maybe they came back for him?” Mia asked.

  “Came back for who?” It was Chang. She’d snuck up behind them while they looked out the window. She followed their eyes toward the driveway. “Oh my God. Is that blood?”

  Mia put Liz down and gave her a little shove toward Mark. “Go talk to Uncle Mark.”

  Liz obeyed, sitting down next to Mark. He saw what was going on and put his arm around the girl. He opened the Bible and said, “Let me tell you a story.”

  With Liz preoccupied, Mia turned to Chang. “Stay quiet.”

  Chang looked back into the room. The others were getting on with their morning, some were even smiling. She nodded. “Whose blood is that?”

  “A man was killed there last night,” Austin said, his voice devoid of emotion.

  “Last night? You saw it?”

  Austin looked Chang in the eyes. “Not a word.” He waited for her to nod again, then turned to the others. “We’re heading out in thirty minutes. Eat, drink, pack what you can carry.”

  “What’s the plan?” White asked.

  “We don’t even know where we are,” Vanderwarf added.

  “We’re in Rhode Island,” Austin said, holding up a map he’d found while searching the end tables on either side of the couch. “We’ll head north, through Massachusetts and New Hampshire.”

  “Won’t it be colder up there?” Paul asked as he exited the bathroom.

  “It should be colder here,” Austin said. “It should be freezing. But it’s not. I think it’s safe to assume the weather patterns and seasons have changed.”

  “Then why head north?” Paul asked.

  “Fewer targets,” Collins said and then turned to Austin. “Northern New England—Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine—don’t have a lot in the way of strategic targets. It’s mostly trees and very few people. With each nuke costing a good chunk of change to maintain and launch, it’s less likely the Russians directly targeted that area of the country.”

  “You think there might be survivors?” Garbarino asked, sounding hopeful.

  “I’m hoping so.”

  “The kind that doesn’t want to kill us?” Chang added as she headed for the bathroom.

  “Yeah,” Austin said. “That kind.”

  Mia glanced out the window and saw movement. She held her breath as she leaned over for a better look. She did an admirable job of hiding the quick intake of air, but Austin noticed. He glanced back at her, despite all eyes being on him. Her eyes were wide with urgency. He took a step back and followed her gaze.

  He had a harder time hiding his surprise, “Fuck.”

  But no one seemed to notice, as Chang distracted them by saying, “Dude, haven’t you heard, if it’s yellow, let it mellow—”

  Austin’s mind raced. Was he seeing things? He didn’t think so. Then how was this possible? The man standing beneath the window, only five feet from the front porch, was the same man they’d seen slaughtered the night before. He was still fidgeting. Still panicking. And the wild eyed man seemed perfectly healthy despite being nearly naked and covered in caked-on blood.

  And if he’s here, the killers that tracked him down might not be far behind.

  Chang’s voice cut through his thoughts. “If it’s brown, flush it down.”

  Austin snapped around, and hissed an angry, “No!”

  But his voice was lost among the chuckles of the others.

  “Chang!” He said, louder. “Stop!”

  She turned to him. “What?” But his warning came too slow. She’d already flushed the toilet. Despite there being no running water, the toilet tank still held enough for one flush. The third floor toilet roared as water shot into the toilet bowl and flowed through the plumbing toward the basement.

  Chang understood her mistake as soon as she saw his eyes. She cringed. “Sorry.”

  “Tom,” Mia said, her voice a barely controlled whisper.

  He moved back to the window and looked down. The panicked man had stopped in his tracks and was looking up at them. He met Austin’s eyes. The man’s stare rooted Austin in place and filled him with some kind of primal fear. But the stranger seemed just as afraid.

  The fear-filled stare-down was broken when the man whipped his head to the left. He looked up again and mouthed a single word. “Run.” Then, he ran.

  Tom turned to the others. “Pack up. We’re leaving now.”

  Garbarino stood. “Why? What’s—”

  The sound of breaking glass silenced him.

  “That was downstairs,” Paul said.

  Austin threw on his backpack and drew his weapon. “They’re coming through the windows.”

  “Fuck,” Vanderwarf said. She stood, backpack on and weapon at the ready a moment later. The rest of the group quickly followed.

  Garbarino, Austin, Mia and White ran for the pool table blocking the fire exit door. They had it moved out of the way in seconds. Garbarino reached for the deadbolt. Just as he was turning it, Austin’s hand slapped over his, stopping him.

  “Wait,” Austin urged.

  Garbarino’s eyes were wide. “Fuck that!” He tried turning the lock again, but Austin held it tight.

  “Wait,” Austin repeated.

  Garbarino glared at him for a moment. “For what?”

  “If there’s more than one, we want to give them all time to get inside, so we can get out. And as soon as we open that door, the ten of us need to run down two flights of stairs. They won’t have to go as far. The only chance we have at a head start is if they’re—”

  The door at the bottom of the third floor staircase shook as several fists pounded against it. Austin removed his hand from Garbarino’s. “Go!”

  The locks flew open and Garbarino launched himself out onto the small landing. The morning sun wa
rmed him, and he saw no danger. He took the stairs two at a time, leading the line of survivors down the side of the house. Dead grass crunched beneath his feet when he reached the bottom and knelt in a firing stance. He checked both directions. “All clear,” he whispered as the others joined him.

  Austin was the last one down. When he reached the bottom, he noticed the banging inside the house had stopped.

  The killers were coming.

  Austin waved them toward the backyard where a line of trees marked the beginning of a large patch of wilderness. “Into the woods!”

  The backyard was a wide open patch of dead grass. Other than a swing set and a candy cane-shaped septic system vent, there was nothing to hide behind. They were totally exposed. But there was no choice. They had to run.

  The group moved as one, like flocking birds, crouch-running across the grass. But a child’s toy tripped Vanderwarf and sent her to the ground only five feet from the back of the house. White turned around and stopped. He reached down to pick her up. With his head down, he heard the dull thuds of someone running inside the house. Thinking he had at least ten seconds before the person reached the barricaded back door and perhaps another minute after that, he didn’t bother raising his weapon.

  When the window exploded from the inside out, he was totally unprepared for it. A woman flew through the air, shards of glass covering her face, arms and naked upper torso. White and the woman hit the ground a second later and before anyone, including White, who had the wind knocked out of him, could respond, the woman shouted, “I’m sorry! I don’t want to—” She drove her rigid fingers into his throat with unnatural strength. Her fingers disappeared into his neck up to the third knuckle.

  White twitched beneath her.

  Vanderwarf screamed and kicked away from the woman and her now dead lover.

  The woman wailed, as though wounded.

  A single gunshot silenced her.

  Austin.

  The bullet struck the woman’s forehead and sent her flailing backwards.

  “Vanderwarf!” Austin shouted. “Move!”