Crawlerz | Book 4 | From The Ashes

by Merritt, R. S.

  Yue wondered why Jeff had to leave and why he hadn’t brought her with him. She’d pictured them getting their own private room somewhere in the school. A private area where they could play the apocalyptic version of house. Instead he’d ditched her up here to go take care of god knew what. She was a little pissed that they’d traipsed across multiple states to try and save Jeff only to be brushed off when they finally found him. Hopefully he had a really good reason to leave them here. Still wondering what that reason might be she nodded off.

  Yue woke up to the sound of gunfire. The room was much darker than when she’d drifted off. The only illumination coming from the dim light given off by the string of small LED bulbs running down the side of the room. There were sporadic flashes of light coming in through the windows. Everyone else was already sitting up and strapping on their gear. Even Drew was awake which meant it must be serious. Either that or Lisa had poked and prodded him until he had no choice but to get up. That was the much more likely answer.

  There was a quick knock on the door and then it swung open. Jeff appeared flanked by a fully armed Marine in the black Kevlar suit that was all the rage among military types. Jeff was wearing his normal assortment of random weaponry and body armor. All the way down to the weightlifting gloves he liked to wear. He wore those so that if he punched a crawler in the mouth the tough leather would keep him from cutting open his skin on its teeth. Breaking your skin on their teeth would have the same result as getting bit. The saliva would flow into your bloodstream. At that point you had about three minutes to tell your loved ones goodbye before you started trying to eat them.

  A reserved Yue sat on her cot waiting to hear what Jeff had to say. He headed directly over to where she was sitting and immediately apologized for not spending more time with her. He sat there saying he was sorry until Drew started making whipping noises behind his back to shut him up. Yue gave him a kiss in the way of temporary forgiveness. He turned around to face the room with a grin on his face. He took the time to flip off Drew before telling them why he was there.

  “I tried to give you guys a good overview of what we’re doing here earlier today. What I want to do now is take you all up to the roof. I don’t expect any of you to do anything heroic. I just want your feedback and ideas. Kind of a fresh perspective sort of thing.” Jeff said looking around to see if anyone had any questions. Other than logistical stuff like where they could grab extra bullets none of them had any questions.

  Jeff took them up the final flight of stairs onto the roof. The access door was locked. An armed guard was standing by who was responsible for opening and closing the door. There was more chain link fencing with more secured gates in the stairwell. If the crawlerz did manage to break in somewhere they wouldn’t be traipsing through the high school anywhere near as quickly as they normally would. Jeff had told them that during the days the men just kept bolting more crap to the school in an attempt to make themselves safer.

  “Ok. Once we go out on the roof, I want you to stick together. You’ll follow me and Lance Corporal Merle here as we do a perimeter inspection. The fireworks should be going off fairly soon. Once they do it’ll get even more intense out there. I know you guys have been through a lot but honestly, it’s a horror show out there. Like something out of a movie. You ready?” Jeff concluded his pep talk and made ready to lead them out onto the roof.

  “If this whole strategy commander force thing doesn’t work out you should consider a career in motivational speaking.” Drew said sarcastically. He hadn’t been nervous about going on the roof until Jeff had launched into his spiel. Now he found himself looking at the access door like it was the gates of hell.

  The guard opened up the access door and they followed Jeff out into the little slice of rooftop hell he was so intent on showing off. The roof was covered with cables, generators, solar cells, crates of ammunition and explosives, different kinds of lights and a guy launching fireworks. The man had three tubes setup which he was feeding with mortars. The ones like you could buy at the state line depending on which state you were leaving. You’d have a hard time convincing the local police that the ones this guy was shooting off were just for scaring birds away from your crops.

  The mortars soared in an arc high into the sky before blossoming into multicolored fire flowers. They were the type that exploded multiple times in the air which lent them a fairly professional looking display. The fireworks were easily as good as the ones you might see any decent sized city in the USA put in the air for the fourth of July. The end of the world show Jeff was sponsoring only lasted for a few rounds though. The fireworks were a little more difficult to come by than the crates of ammunition they’d procured from Fort Bragg. Before their eyes had even recovered from the bright fireworks lighting up the night sky an overwhelming feeling of despair hit them.

  Drew had thought Jeff was exaggerating the impact of the crawlerz on the mental state of the high school defenders. If anything he’d downplayed it. The terror hit with a palpable force. It was like getting kicked in the balls and submerged in ice water all at the same time. Submerged and not being able to find your way out. The sudden focus of thousands of crawlerz on the building they were standing on was almost too much to bear. Lisa went to her hands and knees to spew her dinner all over the rooftop. Drew was too weak to do much more than dispassionately watch her puke. He idly wondered if it made her feel any better. If so, he’d shove his finger down his own throat in a heartbeat.

  Then it was bearable again. LeBron and Drew helped Lisa to her feet. They got themselves situated then followed Jeff over to the edge to look down at the ground below. The earlier comparison to a massive mosh pit from hell was a pretty solid description of the insanity they were witnessing. Crawlerz were moving at a breakneck pace around the school. Their grimy nude bodies illuminated by the spotlights setup by the men guarding the base. The crack of the defenders rifles firing easily audible over the eerie silence in which the crawlers circled the high school.

  LeBron stopped beside the waist high concrete barrier around the top of the roof to look down at the unnaturally fast infected streaming past their position. One of the crawlerz leaped high and LeBron felt its eyes staring into his. His knees went watery as fear suddenly enveloped him. After that initial shock of feeling the mass psychic energy coming off the mob below the strength of it all had ebbed somewhat. It all came back in a rush as that one crawler locked in on him. LeBron saw himself jumping off the side of the roof to join with the infected below.

  “Grab LeBron!” Yue screamed seeing her younger brother scrambling to leap over the low barrier. Drew’s head snapped around and he hit LeBron with a flying tackle that would’ve landed him a full ride scholarship to a decent school if any scouts had been around.

  “You crazy! What the hell!” Drew yelled into LeBron’s face. LeBron was shaking his head in confusion. He’d been looking off the roof then Drew had slammed him into the ground so hard he was seeing spots dancing in the air in front of him. He couldn’t remember what’d happened in between looking down and Drew smashing into him. Looking up at Yue’s face and hearing Drew yelling at him he wondered if he even wanted to know.

  “We should send him inside.” Yue said to Jeff. Jeff was staring down at LeBron with understanding in his eyes. He’d seen the same thing happen to plenty of men and women on the roof. Especially when they came up for the first time. He’d fallen over backwards and cracked his head on the side of a generator the first time he’d ventured out the door after the fireworks went off.

  Harley knelt down beside LeBron and rummaged around in his pockets. Giving Yue a look he pulled out a pill bottle that he’d somehow kept hidden from her. He tapped out a pill into his palm then quickly made the pill bottle disappear again. He examined it for a second before handing it to LeBron. LeBron glanced at Yue for approval before dry swallowing the tiny tablet.

  “You want to stay up here or go back down?” Yue asked LeBron. She’d walked over to squat down beside him so she c
ould make sure he was ok. LeBron lay there quietly. He was terrified of the idea of looking back over the edge of the roof again. He wanted to crawl on his belly to the door and slither down the stairs with his eyes closed until he could find a small space to hide in.

  “Yo man. Give that pill about fifteen minutes to kick in and you’ll feel a lot better. You can chill right there while you wait if you want.” Harley said standing up and leaning against a stack of crates.

  “Valium?” Jeff asked looking at Harley inquisitively. Harley nodded.

  “How about we all go back over by the door while we wait for LeBron’s medicine to kick in.” Lisa said. Her voice was sounding pretty shaky. Without even having to be prodded Harley shook out another pill and handed it to her. She smiled at him and took it quickly. Her hand shaking so hard she almost dropped the pill trying to get it in her moth.

  “This isn’t sustainable.” Yue said once they were all back over by the access door. That psychic crush was still beating on all of them. It was a hundred times harder than normal. You got used to it after that initial rush, but it still wasn’t comfortable. Kind of like diving into a pool full of ice cold water. You kind of get used to it after that initial shock. As long as you’re actively moving around you may even forget that you’re cold. As soon as you stop though you’ll realize that noise you’ve been hearing is your own teeth chattering.

  “We haven’t even tried to shoot any of them yet.” Drew said.

  “Like fish in a barrel.” Harley said calmly. Considering everything going on he was bizarrely calm. At least until you remembered he was probably on like five different drugs. Only two or three of which he could even identify.

  “Yeah, if those fish are swimming at like a hundred miles an hour and can hypnotize you from a hundred yards away.” Yue chipped in. She was happier now that LeBron seemed like he was recovering. There was still an overwhelming amount of forced depression and primal fear weighing on them, but it was at a manageable level back by the door. Yue had no idea how those snipers out in the towers were staying sane.

  “Does it get any better?” Lisa asked Jeff.

  “You get used to it when you’re exposed to it constantly. The ones who can’t take it just refuse to come out here on the roof. No shame in it. They just get jobs in the building instead. We’ve had some suicides. A few have jumped like LeBron tried to do.” Jeff said. His eyes going far away as he relived some recent trauma.

  “I tried to do what?” LeBron asked sitting straight up.

  “Don’t worry about it. I think you should stay here while we try and walk the perimeter again though. Lisa can you watch him and make sure he’s ok?” Yue asked. Lisa was all too eager to stay behind to watch LeBron. The alternative was walking around the roof again. Walking the perimeter was like walking along the edge of a cliff that had a sheer drop straight into the fires of hell. She’d much rather sit there with a stoned LeBron. Poor kid couldn’t handle demonic possession or Valium.

  Jeff once again set off towards the edge of the large roof with the group minus LeBron and Lisa. Nervous sweat trickled down Yue’s back as they went to look over the edge again. She purposefully avoided looking at the swirling mass of inhumanity below them. She had no desire to lock eyes with a psychotic psychic. Her desire to avoid looking was tossed away when Jeff asked them if they wanted to try shooting some to see the difficulties there. Drew immediately snapped his rifle to his shoulder and started sending rounds down range.

  Jeff asked Harley to watch Drew and he stepped over to keep an eye on Yue. The battle buddy was a very real thing when the enemy wielded the ability to shoot back with suicidal impulses. Not to be outdone by Drew Yue put her rifle to her shoulder and began lining up shots. She immediately saw what Jeff was trying to show them. Just trying to pick out a target was almost impossible. It was just a sea of shadows that she was too scared to really let herself focus in on. An almost impossible shot during normal times. The current environment made it freakishly difficult.

  Beside her Drew took his own approach to the problem. She smiled when she heard him go fully automatic. If aiming is too hard then sling a ton of bullets in the general direction of what you wanted dead. It was a very valid approach as far as she was concerned. She flicked her rifle over to the same mode and let out a few controlled bursts at the places where she saw the crawlerz had bunched up. Unable to tell if she’d actually hit anything or not, she stepped back to watch the Marine standing about thirty feet away from them take his shots.

  The Marine was lying on a mattress with his rifle propped up on a tripod. The mattress was on some sort of scaffolding setup by the edge of the roof. He was staring at the ground through an expensive looking scope as he methodically lined up shots. In the few minutes she watched him he only pulled the trigger twice. She wondered if that was the norm or if the guy on the scaffolding was just ultra-methodical.

  “He has his ankles tied to that platform to stop himself from jumping.” Jeff whispered to Yue in a lull between rifles firing.

  Looking closely she saw the rope that Jeff was referring to. What kind of commitment must that take? He had literally tied himself to the scaffold to help ride out the rogue suicide waves when they broke over the top of the wall. With that big ass scope the Marine was making eye contact with the beasts below way too much for his own good. No one should spend that much time staring into those dark soulless depths. Yue was struck once again by how unsustainable this all was. She couldn’t believe Jeff and the others couldn’t see it. She really didn’t see how they were doing enough damage for it to even be accomplishing anything.

  “We checkin’ out the rest of the roof?” Harley asked. He’d walked over after running through two magazines himself. He’d left Drew standing over by the wall still taking shots. Yue nervously watched Drew standing alone firing round after round into that hellish crowd below. She wanted to yell at Harley for leaving him there like that like that, but she didn’t think it’d do any good. Harley was in the midst of some serious scientific research into the impacts of multiple drugs on curbing the crawlerz ability to mind screw you.

  They waited patiently for Drew to wrap up and slap in a fresh magazine. Once he signaled that he was ready Jeff took them on a tour of the rest of the roof. He warned them at the beginning of the tour that the rest of the roof looked pretty much the same as where they were starting at. His description proved to be very accurate.

  The roof of the high school was covered with generators, lights and cables. All of which was humming along to illuminate the invaders trying to scale the walls and kill them all. Armed men were setup in various poses around the roof. There were snipers around the edges lying on the same type of scaffolding Jeff had pointed out earlier. For the first time Yue noticed under each bit of scaffolding was a long metal box about the size of a person. She assumed that was where they kept their supplies. They were definitely running through a ton of ammunition. Every single one of them had secured themselves to the scaffolding in one way or the other. That suicide impulse must be pretty rampant.

  Chapter 4: Into the Breach Once More

  “Well that was fun!” LeBron shouted once they were in the stairwell. His overly loud voice echoing off the walls in the enclosed space. Hearing his own voice echoing back at him put him back into his uncontrollable laughing mode. He started giggling so badly that huge tears rolled out of his eyes. He couldn’t even stand up straight. A combination of relief at being off the roof and the Valium coursing through his blood.

  “I’ll have some of whatever he took.” The soldier guarding the door joked.

  “I catch you acting like that on duty and you won’t like the consequences.” A tall man in a black uniform said loudly. He’d just turned the corner on the stairs below. Everyone had been so busy watching LeBron losing his marbles that no one had noticed his sudden appearance. The guard on the door immediately snapped to attention and did his best not to make eye contact with anybody.

  “Good evening major. Anything exc
iting going on?” Jeff asked.

  “Not really. Just the fight to save humanity from extinction. We’ll keep working on that while you give your friends a tour of the base. Don’t forget to run them through the gift shop when you’re done.” The major said. The sarcasm dripping off the words was belied by the twinkle of humor in the salt and pepper haired fit looking officer.

  “Sorry Tom. I should’ve introduced you earlier.” Jeff said stepping around them all on the crowded stairs to shake hands with the base commander.

  “Major Tom?” Harley said open mouthed as he processed the man’s name and title. A big grin spread across his face.

  “I really need to get promoted.” Tom joked. He rattled the line off quickly. He’d probably said it a few million times since reaching the rank of major. Not that many people were able to call such exalted figures by their first name.

  “These are close friends of mine. I met these two on the Ford and the rest of them once we ended up on shore. They’ve all got serious skills. They’re looking to join up to help us get rid of the crawlerz. We’re lucky to have them.” Jeff said.

  “I’m a super close friend.” Yue said quietly. Realizing his error Jeff rushed to correct it.