by Mark Tufo
"Well I guess she knows where we live. Had I known we were having company I might have cleaned up." It was said sarcastically and everyone was entirely too wrapped up in their own final thoughts to pay me much attention. The only noise besides me was Nicole's retching as she suffered through another bout of morning sickness. Weird, because it was six at night. I'm still so grateful to all who will listen that I pee standing up. "Travis, can you get me the 30 aught 6 please?" I asked never taking my eyes off the Terexes as they began their approach.
I heard him get up and then heard him pull the charging lever back to make sure it was loaded. Then he handed me the gun.
"Thanks, is the safety off?"
I heard the click. "Is now. Need a spotter?"
"Sure." I told him as I opened the window; frigid air blew in warming my frozen heart.
The trucks came in slowly, I would swear almost sauntering and swaggering in their victory. Unlucky zombies merged with the earth as the giant tires smashed them into various fat content ground meat. When the trucks were within two hundred yards I began to hunt for my prize. I placed the gun up on the windowsill and adjusted the scope to allow any and all ambient light into the aperture.
Travis had pulled out a pair of pocket binoculars and was scouring the cabs of the two trucks. "Got her!" He said triumphantly.
"Are you shitting me?"
"Far truck, she's sitting next to some ass…I mean guy that just broke the cardinal rule."
"Cardinal rule?" I asked aiming my rifle over.
"He just lit a cigarette."
"He's probably nervous sitting that close to the bitch…I mean lady."
"Where in relation to the steering wheel?" Which was the only thing I could see due to the illumination of the dashboard.
"About two or three feet over."
I took my eye up off the scope and looked at him.
"Okay closer to three feet." He said adjusting his guess.
I could faintly pick up the smoker as he inhaled. The cherry of the butt silhouetted him perfectly and if that was my target he was a dead man. The small amount of light did nothing however to reveal the rest of that giant cab. I had one shot. I waited patiently, wishing fervently that I had gone to sniper school when I had the opportunity. I had proved an accurate enough shot to be considered but all those hours of waiting without moving while you lined up your target was a concept I could not grasp as a hot-blooded youth.
"Please be a chain smoker." I repeated over and over as my personal mantra.
Travis and I were fixated on a spot in space roughly the size of a basketball. The room was quiet. No lights were on. Even Henry and Buddha's gas wars had subsided, that more than anything gave me hope.
True to his word, the Marlboro man lit up another cigarette, and the cruel ethereal face of Eliza lit up. The warm colors of the small fire did nothing to sway the evil that she exuded; her white skin shone brilliantly. Sweat poured down my face as I squeezed the trigger ever so gently so that when the gun did go off it was a surprise to me. The smoke and the recoil of the discharge knocked me off target and screened me from the knowledge if I had made an impact on my desired target.
Tommy screamed.
"Holy shit." Travis murmured still looking at the truck. I had turned to see what was wrong with Tommy. "Dad, I can't be completely sure but I think you got her."
My heart soared, only to come crashing down with his next words.
"But I don't think she's dead. She's so fast I think she pulled the smoking guy in front of her. I saw him take the impact but the bullet went through and I think got her. By then though she had pushed his body away and had moved." The Terex veered off at an alarming angle. Any chance of getting another shot off was impossible as I was now viewing the dump portion of the truck.
The air went out of the room. Whatever small hope we had harbored was now extinguished.
"Dammit. Tommy, you alright?" I asked him.
"She's really mad," was all he could manage to say.
"Isn't she always?" BT asked seriously.
"True." I said shrugging my shoulders. "How does one know if a rabid wolf is mad or not?"
"Mike, will you get serious!" Doc fairly shouted.
"I'm deadly serious Doc, it's just that my thoughts tend to trend to the juvenile; doesn't mean I don't care."
"Wonderful." he said sarcastically.
"Alright, whoever wants to get in on the shooting start getting your stuff ready." I told the room.
BT came over. "Plan yet?"
"Still blank slating buddy. But I figure we can still exact some measure of revenge."
"Do tell," he said as he started loading magazines.
"Well I figure that she really wants Tommy…alive." I clarified. "The rest of us are just the wrapping paper on the gift."
"Sounds grand." BT said never looking up from his task.
"You giving me shit?"
"Whaddaya you think, you basically just said she couldn't care less if the rest of us were alive or dead."
"Oh I think she'd prefer us dead."
"Perfect."
"Well, yes and no. I mean I have no desire to die tonight, but on the flip side Eliza won't do anything yet to endanger the kid."
"I get it." BT said now slamming rounds into his magazines. "She's going to let us have our last hurrah so that she can get the kid intact, so what's your thought?"
"I'm thinking we wait for the piece of shit traitors to come in closer. I'd almost feel like I was wasting rounds at this point if I shot zombies."
Travis was standing at the window and looking straight down. "Dad, the zombies are coming in the building."
"I thought you said she wanted us alive?" BT asked filling his spare magazines quicker.
"What am I, the vampire whisperer?" I said, mimicking his faster reloading speed.
Doc looked like he was ready to gather his family and bolt. "Bad thought pattern Doc." I told him without looking up.
"How can you know what I'm thinking? With these pendants we can stroll right out of here!" he shouted.
"That may be true, but she's forming ranks of humans past the perimeter of zombies. I don't think that pendant will work so well then." I replied.
Doc looked out the window to verify if what I was telling him was the truth. Why I'd lie was a mystery to me. Within moments zombies began shuffling outside of our doorway; each time they bumped up against it everyone in the room jolted. There was screaming from various parts of the building but none relatively close.
"She must be pulling on that leash pretty hard." I said to BT referring to the fact that the zombies weren't trying to get in, only keeping us contained.
"Yeah but for how long?" He asked as he eyed the door nervously.
The first Terex had pulled up to within a hundred yards, basically a chip shot for a former Marine with an expert class shooting badge. I peppered the shit out of that cab. Men started spilling out of the doors trying to get away from my hell fire. The ones I didn't shoot immediately upon their escape from the cab usually injured themselves as they fell a good thirty feet onto the frozen ground. Someone, however, had managed to survive in the death cage as the Terex started to back up in a hasty retreat.
Travis had started shooting at the ranks of soldiers as they began to form their encapsulating circle around our perimeter. Within moments BT had joined the turkey shoot along with Jesse and Blake. It was somewhat unfair because they weren't shooting back, Eliza must have expressly forbade it. I just saw it as my unfair advantage. They finally saw the wisdom of pulling back out of effective rifle range but the thousands of zombies still had us locked up tight.
"Any chance they'll give up?" BT asked, drawing away from the window.
Travis and Jesse were actively still seeking targets and occasionally taking a shot. I had also withdrawn from the shooting gallery to sit next to Tracy. Eliza wasn't known for her patience. Something was going to happen and I was pretty much assured it wasn't going to be beneficial to anyone
in this room. Tommy and Justin were pale as sheets and were actually together trying to prop themselves up against a common enemy.
After another fifteen minutes or so, Travis and Jesse pulled back when it became entirely to dark to see anything past 50 feet or so. I had dozed off, it might have been an hour or so later when the rumble of an approaching Terex informed me that Round 2 was about to begin. The Terex was close and I could tell from which direction it was coming but the 'new' darkness that had descended on the base was preventing me from seeing it. There was no ambient light coming from anyplace on the base. So when the Terex turned on all her headlights, running lights, flood lights and searchlights I was blinded. I was thankful I hadn't been looking through a night vision scope. The image would have burnt through the back of my head to be displayed on the blank wall behind me. It was long moments before I could see anything other than giant blobs of gray in my field of vision.
BT beat me to the punch, having shielded his vision from the light assault. "Talbot, you seeing this?"
"Not so much." I told him honestly. I was rapidly blinking my eyes in the hopes that I could push force the blinding blue spots away.
"They've got people and soldiers tied all over that truck."
"What? Like a shield?"
"That's exactly it." He said putting his rifle down.
The truck idled menacingly 50 or so yards away. I could shoot a beer out of someone's hand at this distance. I mean I wouldn't, that's a waste of a good beer, but I could. My field of vision was returning. I almost wished it hadn't. Men, women and children were strategically placed all over that truck. An errant shot would easily take out an innocent. Some of the unlucky individuals were tied at odd angles or even upside down, I knew this was intentional; it was to cause us as much angst and trepidation as possible. Some of those poor souls looked like they would welcome a bullet from us.
"Hi Mike!" A familiar voice shouted.
"Durgan." BT said flatly.
"Anyone see him?" I asked raising my rifle up looking for a target.
"You should put that gun down, Mike!" His voice boomed.
I hadn't even thought of it, of course, we were lit up like Christmas trees. "Everyone down!" I shouted pulling Travis down with me.
We could hear Durgan's laugh. "If I'd wanted you dead," he elaborated, "you would be dead. My master would like to have all of you come out."
Without poking my head up I shouted, "We're pretty tired right now. Any chance she could come back next week?"
"What is wrong with you Mike?" Tracy asked.
"Worth a shot." I said
Durgan wasn't expecting that, it took him a bit before he was able to recover.
"Fucking Talbot, that isn't a request, it's a demand. And to prove she's serious... Saunders!" Durgan said.
I had a feeling what 'Saunders' was doing long before I heard someone screaming for mercy.
"What is going on?" BT asked.
I looked down at the floor. "They're killing hostages."
"We gotta go man, we gotta go help them." BT said, shaking.
"BT, they're already dead." Not literally but that was just a matter of degrees in time.
"Then what? We stay here and listen to them slaughter those people?" BT asked.
"No, we're going out, I can't stand it anymore than you BT, I just wish that it hadn't come to this."
"You can't be serious?" Tracy asked, her voice full of concern.
"They'll kill us too." Doc said.
"Doc. stay here, they don't know you're even here, you have the pendants. When Eliza is done they'll move on in search of more fertile grounds to eat."
Doc was stuck in a quandary, the safety of his family versus solidarity.
"Doc", I said, scooting away from the window first and then standing up by him."Listen Doc, you've been a good friend and I've come to love you and your family. You have a real chance to get away from all this. I won't begrudge you that. She knows everyone else in this room and won't stop until she gets us." I didn't say it, how could I tell my family that we were dead men walking.
Doc hugged me. We all made our tearful goodbyes. It sucked being on our side for obvious reasons. Our goodbyes were of the permanent kind. "Doc, just stay low, do not poke your heads up at that window no matter what you hear. Understand?" I asked. He nodded, tears threatening. I was going to miss the Doc he was one of the good guys.
Justin awkwardly picked up his backpack, spilling the contents on the floor. I was going to tell him to leave it, he wasn't going to need it where we were going, but the finality of the thought was entirely too final. Instead I got on the ground with him and started putting the contents back in.
"Talbot, NOW!" Durgan shouted.
The shout had caught me off guard and I had nearly dropped what I had in my hands. Justin stood bolt upright and put the pack on. I didn't want to give Durgan any more reason to come crashing into this apartment. I placed what I had in my hands into the pockets of my jacket and started to head to the door.
"What about the zombies?" Tracy asked.
"Durgan, what about the zombies?" I shouted out through the window.
"Oh, they're harmless for now," he laughed. "Oh and one more thing Mike, no guns."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - JOURNAL ENTRY 17 -
Possibly the ugliest zombie I had seen since the start greeted me at the doorway. He was a little taller than me but didn't possess the healthy vigor that I did. Half of his forehead from the top of his scalp was exposed, and one cheek had been neatly removed. His top lip was gone along with a fair portion of his nose. Slimy gray cartilage had almost eroded away due to predators and the elements. His breath was going to make halitosis a term of the past. His clothes were in tatters, but I guess the thing that struck me the most for some strange reason was that 'Bob' (as I was going to come to call him) only had one shoe. Why this was the point I fixated on was beyond me. It just seemed to be the crux upon which this jacked-up world now spun. Rational thought was quickly taking a back seat. This wasn't a matter of just going to meet my fate. I was taking the whole family, even Henry, and that saddened me the most, for he didn't even know it. Maybe that was for the best.
Bob moved aside as did his brethren as we entered into the hallway. BT shut the door behind him. I hoped the Bakers would make it out, I really did, but my first concerns lay elsewhere as we descended the stairs. Zombies moved away from us like WE were the plague carriers as we entered into the courtyard. Men, of the living variety, began to fill in the vacated spots.
"You pieces of shit!" I yelled trying my best to shield my family from the predatory gazes of the vermin around me. At least a hundred rifles and pistols were pointed at us. I was maybe a bit flattered that they thought us that dangerous but to say 'overkill' would be an understatement. Henry summed everything up perfectly when he walked up into the open middle ground and took a world class shit. I hoped it was on purpose.
Durgan broke through the ranks with the widest shit-eating grin he could display. So intent was he on making a show to the assemblage he narrowly missed stepping in Henry's excrement. As it was I laughed when he stumbled to avoid it. The insanity within him flared as he turned on me.
"You did this!" he screamed.
'Yeah that's it,' I thought to myself. 'I dropped my trousers in front of God and everyone and took a steaming shit. You dumbass.' I wanted to say it out loud but I was afraid he would take it out on Henry so I kept quiet, letting him think it was mine.
He was huge as he purposefully strode over to me. In a previous life I would have paid big bucks to watch a cage match between BT and Durgan. When he sucker punched me in the stomach it wasn't by complete surprise, but there was no way I could have prepared for the devastating blow. I absorbed the impact and went instantly to my knees. I didn't think I would ever be able to catch a breath again as I rolled to my side. I heard a bunch of gun safeties clicking off in what I could only imagine was some of my family members making a move to come to my aid.
; "Who's the piece of shit now, Talbot!" He screamed into my face, spittle coating my pained grimace. I still don't know how getting slugged in the stomach made me the piece of shit, and I would have voiced the question if I could only suck enough sweet oxygen back into my system.
"YOU'RE the piece of shit Durgan," BT thundered. "Why don't you try that weak ass shit on me. I'll kick your spindly ass."
'Spindly?' Durgan was a lot of things. Spindly wasn't on that list. I hoped that one day I'd have the opportunity to ask BT about his word choice. I was finally able to take in my first quarter-breath of air since I had gone down, now it only hurt because I was still alive.
Durgan got back in my face. "I lost all respect for you Talbot when you started hanging around with that colored."
"Who, BT?" I croaked. "Is he really? I hadn't noticed."
I was rewarded with a boot to the solar plexus region, which was largely deflected by my arms. They were already wrapped around my tender belly. He was lining up for another go when Eliza's cold voice stopped him in mid kick.
"He is mine to do with as I please," she said savagely.
"Yes my mistress," Durgan said, bowing obsequiously as he stepped back.
"Pussy." I said it just loud enough for the two of us to hear. Devil be damned, I thought he was going to come back and finish what he'd started.
Eliza walked closer. From my vantage point I couldn't see much more than her black boots. "You should have left when I gave you the chance," she said, finally stepping into my line of sight. Her tone carried no good grace, no sadness, no yearning for a different outcome.
"What, and miss all this?" I said, still clutching my mid-section.
Striking cobra fast, she reached down and grabbed my face in her cold hand, lifting me off the earth and into the air as if I weighed no more than a cat. Her fingers dug into my cheeks. Tracy cried out behind me. Now I was afraid, afraid to a depth I hadn't even known existed up to this point in my life. Hope was extinguished, valor and courage were merely sounds made from the mouths of fools. Salvation was unobtainable. She was a chasm from which nothing escaped, a black hole unto herself. She dropped me to the ground. My unsteady legs gave way. I found myself on my knees to the enemy. I had sworn I'd eat a bullet before it got to this point. I had compromised my purpose, my beliefs and everyone dear to me would pay for it. Tommy's sobs were the only thing that could be heard in this circle of hell.
