by Maxey, Phil
As Joel listened to the young girl talking, he couldn’t help but remember her expression when Donnie wanted to stay behind. But part of what she was saying he agreed with. Despite the killing he had done, he doubted he would still be alive now if it wasn’t for his abilities. In this new world, humans were just another item on the menu.
But the killing…
“Do you want to become a murderer?” said Joel.
“Humans murder just as much as your kind!” she retorted.
“That is very true. But it’s not a normal state of being for humans. For us, for any kind of the infected, it’s natural for us to take a life. There’s no right or wrong in our world, just the hunger.”
Shannon returned to looking at the scene out of her window, which had returned to one of green fields and forest. “You make it sound like you’re all a bunch of junkies.”
“Pffff… I’ve known junkies my whole life. I ain’t no junkie!” said Geri.
“In some ways, that’s exactly what we are, Shannon,” said Anna, now doing her own scenery gazing.
Silence returned to the pickup.
In the motorhome, Bill looked at Evan who was now not talking to him. At the diner, he and Max told his grandson their plan to leave with the other scientists. And to take the tablet with them. Bill had hoped his grandson would see the sense in it, but he misjudged how changed Evan was. The person sitting in front of him wasn’t just genetically different. No longer was he the basement-dwelling computer nerd, but a young man, with a young man’s ambitions… .and opinions. He made his objections very clear, saying that they only got as far as they had because of Joel and the others. Bill didn’t really have a good argument against that. Evan just couldn’t see any good of keeping the tablet from the hybrids and hiding it. ‘What if the corporation find it?’ he asked. All the points Evan made were sound, and the answers Bill and Max gave were faltering, but still, Bill’s instincts were it was the right thing to do. The tablet had to be hidden.
At least he managed to get Evan to agree to keep quiet, but he wasn’t sure how long that would last. If they were going to leave, they needed to do it soon.
Soon they were back on the highway, and moving at a good speed, only slowing to weave around the occasional abandoned truck.
Amos looked out at the faded green and brown trees and the others that were losing their leaves. He had always wanted to see the southeast of the country. A road trip though, after the world had ended, with vampires and werewolves wasn’t how he thought it would happen. His thoughts turned to his parents, and he wondered if they were having to deal with their own monsters in the far east?
Nah, they’re dead or preying on the living.
Any pain associated with those kinds of thoughts had long since quietened. Now he had them out of morbid curiosity.
He did another mind sweep. He had done them a number of times since they left the prison. He would start with the person furthest from him, plucking their thoughts, dreams, and desires and then once he was finished being entertained by them, move onto the next closest and so on. Sometimes he would try to guess who the person was and if he knew them or not. With some people, it was obvious who they were, for they were seeing themselves in some form of convoluted fantasy. With others it was harder, their minds lost in a sea of regret of what they had lost. Those minds he didn’t stay with for too long.
It was a strange form of car game he thought, but it passed the time.
He sat up with a jolt. Images of blood and suffering had surged into his mind.
Dalton briefly looked in his direction. “What’s with you?”
Amos blinked. “Umm…” The person's mind who he was just exploring, along with the gore started to fade from his own, like a dream after waking. “I’m fine.”
Dalton frowned, looking back to the road.
Amos tried to hold some of the images in his mind, like a ping on a radar scope. He turned and looked over his shoulder at the vehicles behind, jumping from mind to mind looking for a trace of what he had just seen, and then when not finding any swinging back to the front to dive into the other brains, but it was no good, the pictures from the seriously messed up mind were gone, and only the same confused patterns of thought were being seen.
He sat back again in his seat, realizing he was sweating.
In the SWAT vehicle at the front of the column of vehicles, Bishop looked at the fold-out map. “We’re coming up to Nashville. What do you want to do? I can plot a route around the city if you want,” she said to Carla who was driving.
So far they had managed to avoid any encounters with large groups of vamps, but they needed to get to the next camp ASAP. Risks had to be taken.
“Just plot me the quickest path south.”
“That’s the one we’re on…”
“Good.” Carla clicked on her radio and informed everyone else that they might run into vamps and not to stop unless they had to.
The highway they were on widened to five channels and, in the distance, a city loomed in the haze.
Semis that were jackknifed across the road and a multitude of other smaller vehicles peppered the lanes.
Carla swore as she clipped a blue sedan. As she moved free of it, she clicked on her radio again. “Joel, you sensing vamps ahead of us? We’re going to be moving through the heart of the city once we’re over this bridge coming up. Over.”
There was a silence, followed by his voice. “The city’s full of them. But they’re sleeping. Over.”
“Everyone be alert. Over,” she replied.
As the convoy drove deeper into the city the highway became bordered by high walls, making whoever was awake unsettled, and they often had to slow to move around the forgotten vehicles scattered across the concrete. Luckily, there were so many lanes they never needed to come to a complete halt.
When they were into the suburbs and the highway rose into the air allowing a freer view of the city, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Joel looked at the time on his radio which he had plugged into the dashboard, charging.
‘4:12 p.m.’
“No way we’re making it to the camp before it gets dark,” he said to whoever was listening. Which he then realized was hardly anyone. Anna was asleep to his right.
“That’s fine by me. I see fine at night. Actually, I think I see better than your kind,” said Geri. Joel didn’t respond. “So what’s your story? You’re police, right?”
Joel was momentarily surprised. “What makes you say that?” he said to the mirror which was showing Geri looking at him.
She smiled. “I knew it! You got that way about you.”
“And what ‘way’ would that be?”
“Like everyone should just shut the fuck up.”
This time Joel smiled. “And what about you? I’m guessing you were in a motorcycle gang?”
She smiled, more to herself than him. “Nah. I was a bus driver. Well, last few years anyway. Before that, I traveled with some bands. Some of them even had a few shots at the big time, but, umm… anyway, the world ended, and some weird looking dog thing bit me.”
“And now you’re a werewolf.” As smoke wafted past his face, he realized she had lit up a cigarette. He wound down the window.
Geri continued puffing. Evidently, the brief conversation was over.
As the sun headed towards the horizon, town after town became brief memories of gas stations, motels, and parking lots which boxlike superstores hid behind.
“Last big town coming up,” said Carla. “Then another hour and we’ll be there. Over.”
Joel looked at the rear lights of the motorhome in front of him and fought the fatigue that was a lead weight on his eyelids. He just needed to make it to sundown then maybe he could go another night without sleep.
He sheepishly looked to his left, towards the east and the coming darkness. In the distance, the sky lit up in a brief flash.
Lightning.
He returned to the business of driving, but f
or some reason looked back. More flashes and no streaks. This light was coming from the ground.
Battle?
He went to click on his radio when Carla’s voice came from it. “Joel, look to your left. There’s something going on a few miles east of us. Over.”
“I see it. That looks like small arms fire maybe, explosions. Over.”
“And that means humans… Maybe the corporation is here? Over.”
Joel paused, he was having trouble forming a coherent thought. “Maybe, but maybe not. Over.”
“We should check it out. We’ll take the next exit. Over.”
“Okay. Over.”
As the convoy moved over a bridge, the flashes were more prominent and dark plumes of smoke stood out in silhouette against the darkened sky.
“That’s some battle,” said Anna.
Soon they were heading west, passing seven-story hotels and office buildings. Joel could feel the vamps waking up in both.
Leaving the more built-up part of the city behind, they moved between single-story suburban homes bound by trees, their brown leaves covering the sidewalks and road.
“I think we need to take the next right,” said Bishop, trying to make sense of her map which had no mention of the smaller roads they were now speeding along.
Carla swung the tank-like vehicle right, onto a smaller road, cutting the corner and driving through the grass that once belonged to a manicured lawn.
She picked up her radio once again. “We got no idea what we’re heading into. Could be corporation or someone else, either way, be ready to defend yourself. Over.”
Taking a sharp left, the convoy piled out onto a wider road. The explosions and gunfire could now be seen as well as heard. The vehicle's wheels started bumping over bodies, although Carla instinctively swerved when she saw them.
“Some of the dead have army uniforms!” shouted Bishop.
“Vamps…” said Carla, spotting a wall of creatures all running away from the convoy, towards a point a mile ahead. She started driving into them, their heads turning at the last moment before they were slammed into.
In the gloom, neon streaks cut through rows of the clawed creatures that were all converging on a single location.
Carla had to slow to a stop as there were too many of the blood lusting things on the road in front. She heard gunfire from the vehicles behind. “The vamps wouldn’t be attacking the corporation's people, they have to be regular humans that are up ahead! Over.”
Bishop focused her flashlight on a sign at the side of the road. “There’s an air force base up there!”
Carla nodded, then clicked on her radio again. “We make a stand here, kill as many as you can! Over.”
Over the growls and shrieks, she could hear car and truck doors opening and a surge of hybrids rushed past her, ripping through vamps which were now beginning to turn towards the convoy.
Five vehicles back, Joel was pulling M4s from the back of the pickup and handing them out to Anna, Geri, and anyone else who needed one.
Geri sprang forward, running with the hybrids, her form growing, muscles bulging with coarse hair until she roared and leaped forward, clearing twenty feet in a bound and landing amongst a group of vamps whose surprise only lasted mere seconds until they were cut down.
Kizzy, Dalton, and Amos ran forward, joining the fight. The big guy grew even bigger, until he was his fearsome canine self, sweeping through the vamps that squealed. Some tried to fight back, while others ran, both types quickly dying.
Kizzy was now taller, bulkier, her build one of a bodybuilder, except she now had two extra arms. Her clawed hands slashed across vamps, while Amos projected feelings of contentment, paralyzing them in glee while she knocked them to the ground.
Joel ran to the lead vehicle while Anna ran to the trucks and motorhomes checking the humans were accounted for.
“Do we know who they are? Up there?” said Joel to Carla who was standing on her door seal firing at any vamps that approached.
“I tried—” She fired off a short burst of three bullets which slid through the heads of two vamps. “—reaching them, they haven’t responded yet!”
Three vamps leaped forward towards the SWAT vehicle. Without needing to fire Joel stepped forward and used his weapon as a club, smashing both creatures lifeless.
He and Carla both heard the static then a voice come from her radio at the same time.
“This is Captain Pachmayer, of the United States Marines. Unidentified group approaching from the south, please identify yourselves! Over.”
Amongst the chaos of noise and fury, Joel and Carla looked at each other and smiled.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Captain Anton Pachmayer, a two-tour veteran even before the Scourge swept across the country, sat to the right of Carla as the convoy surged along the night roads south to the camp.
They were now joined by three Humvees, an armored personnel carrier, and two trucks, both full of items the platoon of marines had come to the base to retrieve. By the time Carla, Joel, and the others had arrived they had lost six soldiers from a complement of thirty-five.
“So you traveled all the way south from the Canadian border?” said the captain.
“Sure did.”
He unstrapped his helmet, holding it in his hand. “The general’s going to want a long heart-to-heart with you and your people… about how you did that and… your people…”
Carla glanced across at the forty-something man, his face covered in flakes of blood. “You want to know how we got a shit load of hybrids fighting with us?”
“Well, that kinda shit is above my pay grade, but… yeah.”
She proceeded to fill the Captain in with most, but not all of the details from when she arrived at the Westland’s camp.
“So… you were like a head honcho for this Copeland?”
“For a while, after Colvin died.”
“Right…”
“I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, can I be trusted.”
“That will be for the general to decide ma’am… but—” He looked over at her. “Whatever your involvement with the corporation up until that point, you seem to have chosen the right side now.”
She looked at him once again. “I saw you placing some bodies in the back of the trucks. I’m sorry about your loss, Captain.”
He nodded to himself, swallowing hard. “Thanks.”
There was a moment of silence before she started talking again. “How did you know about the corporation? And how did you all end up in southern Alabama?”
“The general led a battalion of eight hundred souls from Fort Benning, southwest, fighting vamps all the way until we decided to make a stand in a small town—”
“Jankle?”
“Yup. We defended that place night and day for months, until the flow of vamps started to slow, and then stopped about a month back. We had already established a base there, so decided to dig in and turn it into a camp. Since then, we’ve been trying to find any other survivors, and bringing back what civilian and military assets we can to the camp… regarding the corporation… we started hearing about them on the shortwave some months back…” He noticed a tear running down Carla’s face. “Are you okay, ma’am? I can drive if you want?”
She smudged the droplet across her cheek. “I’m okay… it’s just I thought the US military was down and out. That they were dead and the corporation had fooled the rest.”
“I won’t deny there weren’t plenty of low points, but no, ma’am, we’re still fighting… and from what you told me about who you got in this convoy, maybe we got a chance to turn this thing around.”
The captain's radio burst into life and he informed those on the other end of the current situation.
It wasn’t long before they were moving towards sparkles of light in the distance. Silver spires and cylindrical tubes were visible through trees to their left.
“That’s a former chemical plant and one of our fallback positions. It save
d our ass when we first got here. A whole lot of chokepoints.”
Carla continued following the Humvees in front of them, past abandoned shacks lost amongst a sea of trees. “There’s no wall around your camp?”
“Further in there is, but we also have some outposts beyond the walls. If everything goes to shit, we got other places to try and survive from.”
“Smart.”
“It’s the general's idea. She’s a smart lady.”
After a few minutes of driving, the wall the captain talked about appeared in the distance where the road met a junction. He talked into his radio again, and the two doors constructed from various sheets of metal opened.
Carla noticed train tracks which also moved through the gap.
“One of the general’s plans is to get the small station up and running, but for that, we need an actual locomotive.”
As the convoy moved through, she also noticed the road spreading east and west.
“This road covers three sides of the town. It made a natural barrier for us to construct the wall. The other two sides we just improvised, but it’s been hard going stopping all the vamps from getting in along some stretches of it.”
The military vehicles in front of Carla peeled off, moving both left and right. She went to follow.
“No, just go straight ahead. The general wants to see all of you for herself.”
Carla nodded and drove forward. Inside her stomach, anxiety was building with excitement. She wouldn’t let the others know she was exhausted, but the first thing she wanted to do once she was settled was find a deep bed and get lost in it. Any debriefing would have to wait till morning. Hopefully, the general would understand.
They moved past lawns and picturesque homes until more modern brick built stores and businesses appeared in the headlights. Other military vehicles were packed in rows and columns in parking lots.
They then emerged into a large town square bordered on most sides by impressive turn of the century buildings, including a Greek-revival courthouse. A series of flaming torches burned where the electric counterparts used to be. They only allowed a vague view of the area, and shadows lurked where they could.
