by B. T. Wright
9
Jake left Jess to ensure she and Amy had a clear path upstairs. Another one of the infected was climbing through the window. Jake’s axe sliced through its neck, sending the head thumping against the hardwood floor. There were more lined up to come in behind the now headless woman, but her body was momentarily blocking them. Jake turned his phone back to the hallway in time to see Jess running up the stairs with Amy. They would be safe for now.
Crash!
They had left the kitchen just in time––a window had just caved in from that direction. Though every fiber of his being was telling Jake to run upstairs, right then he couldn’t leave Tyler and Tom by themselves in the basement. And if they were going to make it out of the house that night, he was going to need more weapons.
Jake didn’t wait to see what might greet him from the kitchen; instead, he made his way for the basement. He shut the door behind him and ran down the stairs. When he turned the corner, he was greeted by the ends of two shotguns.
“Shit, you scared us,” Tyler said. He and Tom lowered their weapons. “How’s it going up there?”
Jake moved past Tyler and picked up his go bag, then began filling it with boxes of nine-millimeter rounds, twelve-gauge shotgun shells, and all the .30 caliber rounds he could manage. After he stuffed it full, he put it on his back, attached his waistband holster for his Beretta, and threw his 300 AAC Blackout AR-15 build over his shoulder, ready for war. He’d never intended for his and his father’s collection of weapons to be used, but he couldn’t be happier now that he had decided to keep it when he joined the Army.
“You boys have everything you need?” Jake said.
“Only thing missing is night-vision goggles,” Tom laughed.
“Yeah, those didn’t make the collection.” Jake picked up the axe, slid it into the strap he had fitted to his go bag, and pulled his Beretta from the holster. He reached for the shelf beside him, picked up a silencer can, and fitted it to the end of his pistol. “But I do have one of these. They’re coming in through the kitchen and the living room. Let me do the shooting so we don’t draw any more attention than we already have. Only use your guns if you have to.”
Just as Tyler and Tom nodded, readying their shotguns, they heard footsteps above them. All three of them looked up in the direction of the kitchen first, then the living room directly above them. The sounds were coming from both sides of the house.
“Let’s go before it gets worse. We’ll hole up in the attic until we can figure a way out of here. I have to make a couple calls before something happens to the cell towers.”
Tyler’s mouth gaped. “You think it’s already that bad?”
“No idea. But if it’s spreading like this all over the world, things are going to stop working pretty damn quick.”
Tom nodded. “The power won’t last forever.”
“Which might be a good thing,” Jake said. He moved over to the foot of the stairs and flipped the switch off on the wall. “’Cause they seem to like the light.”
“We’re going up there with those things . . . in the dark?” Tyler said.
“Afraid so. Just stay between me and Tom. And try not to accidentally shoot me.”
Jake took the flashlight from the outside pocket of his go bag. Though the creatures were attracted to light, he had to be able to see what he was shooting at in order to safely make his way to the attic. There were more than one set of footsteps creaking the floors above them, but how many there were exactly was impossible to tell. He had to be ready for the worst. As he approached the closed door to the living room at the top of the basement stairs, he heard a thump. Something had banged into the door. It sounded like more infected had moved in. He paused for a moment to ready himself. He knew there would be no time for hesitation once he opened that door. How the hell he and Tyler had gone from watching a baseball game two hours ago to standing in his pitch-black basement with a total stranger, guns in hand, ready to push open a door into what seemed like some terribly cliché zombie movie scene just wasn’t computing. Even though he had seen the beginnings of this with his own two eyes with Emily back in Syria, neither of them had any idea it would grow into this. Whoever would have? This was madness. But it was also reality. And Jake knew that indulging the panic, relenting to the fear, and even what he was doing by dwelling on how they got here was a big mistake. They needed to do whatever it took to get to the attic unscathed. They could work on the next step after that.
One problem at a time was the only way they were going to make it.
Jake reached for the doorknob and gave it a turn. “Remember, don’t shoot unless you have to,” he whispered.
He didn’t wait for confirmation before brought his pistol to eye level and pushed open the door.
10
The first thing Jake noticed in his flashlight’s path when he pushed open the basement door was the back of someone’s head. It wasn’t anyone he recognized, so he squeezed the trigger and the body dropped in front of him. Though the round was silenced, it still made enough noise to get the attention of the four other infected in the room. They all turned toward him at the same time, and a cold chill ran all the way through Jake’s body. The first one on his left let out a hissing sound, and he swung the pistol toward her head and squeezed twice. Before her body hit the floor he’d swept the gun to the right and shot five more times. Three of the bullets found heads and he was able to move forward.
With his gun-hand resting on top of his left wrist, he held the flashlight parallel to the gun’s muzzle. He moved forward into the living room, the stairs just a few steps away on his right. He whipped the gun to his left and scanned the living room to make sure nothing would come up behind them. There were several infected trying to make their way through, but they had yet to make it inside. He turned to his right and surged forward, shooting twice at a man with black eyes that had made it to his end of the hallway from the kitchen.
It was then that the front door burst inward. Several of the infected must have been pressing against it, because they all poured in at once. Jake raised his gun to shoot, and Tyler and Tom followed suit. Their gunshot blasts filled the house, Jake’s ears instantly ringing. He squeezed the trigger several times, hoping to hit one or more of the half-dozen infected still moving through the door. He couldn’t tell if he’d been successful, or if it was the shotguns taking down the intruders. Either way, the sudden flood of infected from the front door drew all of their attention, leaving no one to watch what was coming from the kitchen.
“Ah shit! Get it off of me!”
Jake whipped his pistol to the left and his flashlight found a woman, her teeth sunk into the back of Tom’s right arm. Jake shot once, hitting her in the right shoulder, then his slide locked back––his magazine was empty.
“Tyler, watch the front door!”
Jake holstered his Beretta before he swung his AR-15 around from his back, and when Tom finally shook free from the woman and kicked her back against the wall, Jake shot until she fell limp to the ground, then fired several more times to take down the other three infected that had come around the corner from the kitchen.
This was an all-out war.
“Get to the attic! Now!”
Tyler didn’t hesitate and ran up the stairs at Jake’s instruction. Jake moved the gun back to the front door and shot several more times, until nothing was left standing.
“Go, Tom! Go!”
Tom took one last glance in the direction of the kitchen. For the moment the coast was clear. He ran past Jake, who backpedaled to the top of the stairs. The carnage of bodies on the floor below him was staggering. These were people. Maybe not when they had come through the windows and the doors of his house, but at one time they had been just like him. Living, breathing, human beings with lives, friends, and families. Jake’s brother Colt flashed in front of his eyes. He hoped his brother had heeded his warning and taken the proper precautions. He could only imagine the fear his nephews would feel if they saw one
or more of these things coming at them.
Jake looked to his right, watching Tyler and Tom disappear into the ceiling as two more infected rounded the hallway from the kitchen. They didn’t immediately run for the stairs, so Jake decided to save the ammo and made his way up the ladder into the attic. Jess was there to pull the ladder up into the ceiling and shut the attic door. She had lit a candle at the middle of the room, and the soft orange light shone over the five of them. The adrenaline was still coursing through Jake’s veins, and it took him a moment to calm his breathing.
“Get the first aid kit,” Jake said through still-labored breaths.
Jess looked at him, concerned. “Are you hurt?”
Jake nodded toward Tom, who had just removed his shirt. Blood dripped from his elbow and soaked through the shirt as he held it against the wound.
“It bit him. One of those things bit him!” Tyler called out as he moved away from Tom.
“It’s not that bad. I’ll be fine,” Tom said.
“It’s not the bite I’m worried about, man. It’s what happens to you in the next five minutes that I’m scared of.”
“Tyler,” Jake said. He knew what his friend was alluding to. “We don’t have any idea how this thing works. Just because he got bit doesn’t mean he’ll turn into one of them.”
Amy threw her arms around Jess. The thought of being trapped in the attic with one of those things clearly frightened her. Jess held her close and made an effort to comfort her.
“It’s okay, Amy, Jake is right. We don’t know that a bite means anything.”
Jess looked over at Jake. Her face said that she didn’t really believe her own words. She was scared too. Jake didn’t have any idea what a bite meant either. He had seen all the same movies everyone else had. And in almost every one of those movies, a bite meant you were going to turn. This wasn’t a movie, and he didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but it certainly was concerning. He stayed quiet for a moment.
Tyler didn’t.
“Hell with that, he can’t stay up here with us. He turns, we are all dead. Jake, we can’t risk it!”
Tom picked up his shotgun and pointed it at Tyler. “You can try to make me leave.”
Jake stepped forward. “Tom, put down the gun. Tyler, shut your mouth. Nobody is doing anything rash right now.” Jake turned his attention to Tom. “You feel fine don’t you?”
Tom had yet to lower the gun. “Just a little pain, nothing else. I told you I’m fine.”
Jake turned to Tyler. “See? He’s fine. Move over to the other side of the attic if it makes you feel better. But in the meantime, no one is going anywhere.”
“But what if—”
Jake held up his finger. “Ty, that’s enough.” Then to Tom, he said, “Put the gun down. Let Jess take a look at your arm.”
Tyler let out a breath and walked as far away from Tom as he could. Jess peeled herself from Amy to grab the first aid kit and have a look at Tom. Amy rushed over and wrapped her arms around Jake. He could feel her trembling. Jake looked down at Amy, then up at Jess. Jess had to once again coerce him to console Amy. He awkwardly rested his arm on her shoulder and gave her another pat on the back. His phone began to ring, saving him from having to come up with any consoling words that he felt would surely miss their mark.
Jake took the phone from his pocket. “It’s my brother. Let’s hope he has better news than we do.”
11
“Jacob, you got my message? What the hell is going on?”
Jake didn’t even get the chance to say hello before Colt started in. His tone held fear. It was the first time he’d ever heard that emotion from his brother. Even when Colt had broken the news that their parents had died he hadn’t sounded this shook up. Something terrible must have happened.
“Is everything okay? Anna and the boys? Are they all right?”
There was silence. All Jake could hear was the hum of a pickup truck in the background.
“Me and the boys, we . . . we just left the house.”
“And Anna?”
More silence. Jake took the phone away from his ear for a moment. He had only met Anna twice, but both times it had been immediately apparent she was Colt’s better half.
Jake tried to lead the conversation. “She was infected?”
“Yes.”
“Shit, Colt.”
“What are these things, Jacob?”
“I’m not sure. It’s spreading like a virus, but . . .”
Jake didn’t really know what his own “but” was leading to. He supposed it was the fact that it had all started with the military that had him confused. If this was just some sort of out-of-control virus, why had it started in such a controlled way? The military first? That couldn’t be a coincidence. But he still wasn’t sure what it meant.
“But what?” Colt prompted.
“It’s just strange, is all. How the whole thing started.”
“You know how it started?”
“Doesn’t matter. All I can tell you is I know a doctor who is in DC with the president right now. She said our entire military is gone. And not just ours, countries all around the world are reporting the same thing. That their armed forces were infected first.”
Colt took a minute before he responded.
Jess was doing her best to clean up Tom’s wound.
Colt said. “So, what? This is a terrorist attack? Bio-chemical warfare that turns people into . . . zombies? That doesn’t make any sense. What good would that do the terrorists if the entire world was infected?”
It was a good question. Colt was right, it wouldn’t do anyone any good. Terrorism is used to push an agenda to the masses. What good is an agenda if everyone is dead?
“You’re right, it doesn’t make sense. But maybe something went wrong. Maybe whoever did this didn’t mean for it to have the effect that it did. Or didn’t mean for it to spread this wide.”
“How widespread is it?”
“Wide as it goes. Right now I’m holed up in an attic, surrounded by the bastards. Where are you?”
“We just left the house. I might stop by the neighbors and make sure everyone is all right. After that . . . who knows.”
Jake didn’t know either. He supposed the plan was ultimately getting to Emily in Washington, then trying to figure out how the hell to survive this thing. That didn’t help him with what to tell his brother. From Lexington, Jake was only about an eight-hour drive to Washington. But Colt being in South Park, Colorado, meant he had a twenty-six-hour drive or so, and that was if he didn’t stop. There are quite a few major cities along the way too. They could all be absolutely overrun at this point which would make the trek even longer if he stayed to the back roads.
Jake heard a beep, and when he checked his phone’s screen, he saw that Emily was calling.
“Colt, my contact in DC is calling. I have to take it. We are going to do our best to get to DC and try to figure this thing out. I know it’s a long way for you, but I don’t know what else to tell you.”
“Listen, little brother. The power could go anytime, cell service too. I suggest you find an old CB radio somewhere. I’m sure that’s the way the government will have to contact everyone. Might be the only communication soon. We’ll do our best to get to DC, but that’s a lot of road. Not sure what we’ll run into.”
“Be careful, Colt.”
“You too, Jacob.”
Jake switched over to Emily’s call just before it stopped ringing. “Emily, you there?”
There was a helicopter in the background. Wind was swirling, making it hard to hear.
“Jake!” Emily had to shout over the noise. “Jake, I don’t have long. We are moving everyone, including the president, to the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. I’ll text you the address. Can you hear me!”
“I hear you.”
“What?”
“I hear you!”
Everyone in the attic jumped when Jake raised his voice
.
“Jake something’s not right!” Emily continued to shout over the helicopter’s rotors. “These . . . infected . . . they’re changing. Evolving. This is more than just a virus. I have to go now, but I will call you when we land in Virginia. You need to get to Cincinnati. There is a scientist there, he could be on to something. Says he intercepted a possible conversation or transmission. We are going to send a helicopter to pick him up, but it will be a few hours. You need to get to Cincinnati now so they can pick you up before they leave for Mount Weather too. I’ve got to go. Get to Cincinnati. I’ll text you the address of the scientist, but he’s at the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Research. Apparently the university is swamped with these things and he can’t get out. He’s holed up in the basement there. He wanted to elaborate, but I had to go. Jake get—”
The line went silent.
“Emily?”
He looked at his phone and saw the call had been dropped.
“Is your brother all right?” Jess said.
Jake shook his head. “His wife was infected.”
Jess finished dressing Tom’s wound and walked over to Jake. “I’m sorry. Are the boys okay?”
She kissed him on the cheek.
“As good as you can be when your mom is a zombie and the world is ending.”
Jake knew he shouldn’t have said it as soon as it came out of his mouth. Amy immediately began to cry. She’d lost both of her parents and was in a room full of strangers. It couldn’t get much worse than that.
Jess moved over and took Amy in her arms. “It’s okay, sweetheart. We’re going to take care of you. I promise.”
There was some noise below them now. The infected had made it upstairs.
“What did Emily say?” Tyler said.
“Something about this being more than a virus. Not sure what she found out, lost the call. Either way, we have to go. We have to—”
“Go?” Jess stood and turned to face Jake. “How the hell are we going to go anywhere? You hear those things below us. We’ll blow through all our ammo just getting downstairs.”
