by Morse, K. A.
“Shit, Harris, are you trying to kill me? I wonder since we never found out if you die from natural reasons if you were infected,” I say, repositioning myself on the bed to face him.
I rummage through all the goodies we got at the supercenter to find something sweet. My eyes finally lock on some Jolly Ranchers, they will be just the right amount of sweet to end the night. Harris is still going on about some shit, but I tune him out like normal as I grab the bag of candy. Harris is annoyed with me, I can tell because he’s talking louder.
“Carter, did you fucking tune me out again?” He looks pissed when I finally do look up at him.
“I was looking for something sweet to eat after my meal,” I try to play it off, but he knows when I’m bullshitting him.
“Well, dessert is right fucking here,” he says with his shit-eating grin.
“Okay, I'll take my chances with Metzger, bye, bitch,” I tell him as I go to get up.
“Ha-ha don’t fucking think so. I’ll kill that fucker if he ever lays a finger on you again.” Harris’s smile is gone now.
“Calm the shit down,” he should know I’m joking. “And you’ll have to get in fucking line. You know I won’t let myself be put in that position again.”
Sitting back down on the bed, a slight breeze comes into the room, and it feels wonderful. Now that the sun is finally setting, the air in the room is cooling some, but A/C would be fucking great. Even with deodorant on, reapplying it multiple times a day is a must, or I couldn’t stand to be around myself. Harris always forgets, so when mine goes on I remind Harris to reapply, too.
“Hey, asshole, time to apply another coat, unless you are going to hop in the shower.” I throw a fire Jolly Rancher at him. I hate those ones, so I can use them to make him dance.
Harris doesn’t move fast enough, and it smacks him right in the forehead. All I can do is laugh and he follows suit. Out of this chaos, it’s nice to feel normal, even if it’s just a moment.
“Well, I hope I don’t fucking kill myself going back into the bathroom as I still need a fucking shower. I’m going in,” he says, plugging his nose.
A choking sound comes out of the bathroom, making me chuckle at his demise. The shower turns on, and he starts singing. I remember that I had grabbed a brush while in the store. I brush my hair and put it in a quick bun high on my head, so I can sleep with my hair up. Also I can just get up and go in the morning. Once done, I repack my suitcase and backpack, so everything is easier to get to. I have a mental list of everything I have. Take the last of the ibuprofen and pray my side is better. Guns are cleaned as well as I can and reloaded for the day to come. Coming across my cell phone, I start to tear up at all the photos that are now lost thanks to the EMP. I can’t bring myself to toss it in the trash, so it goes back in my backpack. Once done, the bag is tossed on the floor, and I stretch out on the bed. For a hotel, these are some of the most comfy beds, I fall asleep quickly while Harris is still singing in the shower.
Chips & Dr. Pepper
Lacey Carter
Waking up to the sun beaming in on my face, I look over, and Harris is already chowing down on one of his bags of chips. Then he chugs on a hot Dr. Pepper. My side feels so much better this morning thankfully.
“Really?” I struggle to get out, my mouth is so dry that I can hardly swallow. Harris throws a Dr. Pepper at me. After sitting up and slowly opening the pop, I take a couple of swigs. “Do you ever drink anything but fucking Dr. Pepper? This crap sucks hot.” I make a face after I take another drink.
“Fuck no, there isn’t another drink. And that’s fucking blasphemy, Carter! I don’t want to hear that shit out of your mouth fucking again.” His grin is from ear-to-ear, but I know he’s not joking. Dr. Pepper is like life to him.
“So, do we have a plan today?” Like he doesn’t already know.
“Fuck, really? I’m locked and loaded and ready to go! All I need to do is get my socks and shoes on, and I’m ready,” I tell him as I stand up to stretch.
“Your hair is crazy. You going to fucking leave it like that?” Harris is laughing at me.
“Why do I care as long as it’s out of my way? I ain’t looking for a booty call. And if I was, I could just do you.” I wait to see his reaction, but he gives me nothing.
“You slut, I knew you wanted me,” comes out of his mouth. “But I’m not that kinda boy. You gotta work to get my junk in your trunk.”
“The fuck I do,” I argue, grabbing my gear. “Get your fat ass ready. We need to get moving. Hopefully, we can find a car and get some air conditioning.”
Harris is laughing at me, “You might want to put your shoes on before heading out.”
“Shut the fuck up and get ready, ass.” I’m frustrated that I forgot they weren’t on. I put my gear down to put my shoes on.
Once my shoes are on, I pick my backpack back up and grab my suitcase on wheels. My M9 is tucked securely in my shorts, the steel pressing against the small of my back. The last thing I need to be ready is my M4. As I pick it up the memories hit me like a brick. All the assholes in basic who thought I’d never amount to anything. Boy, did I fucking show them and then some. I outlasted everyone. One thing I can’t stand is for someone to say that I’m too weak, so I shouldn’t fucking try. I’ll do it five times better than them every fucking time.
“Carter, fucking earth to Carter,” Harris breaks me from my thoughts. “Let’s get this show on the road. Metzger and Carson are probably still asleep. Let’s go scare their asses.”
The look on Harris’s face is priceless, this motherfucker does love a good prank. Man, I fucking love this man. Nodding my head, I follow his lead. He looks both ways as he exits the room, I’m guessing to see if any infected have made their way toward us. He gives me the all clear sign before he moves out to the left. I follow closely behind him.
“Your ass better not have gas,” I mumble as we head to whatever room they are in.
Harris lets out a slight laugh as he heads down the hallway. These motherfucking dickheads had to pick a room that is in Egypt. Not fucking sure why they would, but fuck me, I’m ready to leave their asses here.
“Can’t we fucking leave these bitches here?” I whisper to Harris as he stops all of a sudden, and I run into his ass. “Give a bitch a heads-up, dickhead,” I hiss.
“Shut the fuck up, Carter. I hear something,” he spits back at me. My eyes widen at his words.
Listening, I don’t hear anything right off. Then I can hear Rockstar and Metzer’s voices coming from the room right next to us. “Is that what you fucking heard?” I’m pissed he told me to shut up for that.
“Fuck, no. I thought I heard something scraping on the wall. But it’s gone now.” He turns to the door with the voices, bangs on it, and yells, “This is the police open up!”
“Is that the best fucking line you could think of?” If only I could roll my eyes any harder at him.
“The door is locked, that was the first fucking thing that came to my mind,” as he finishes the door swings open to Rockstar in only his ripped black jeans.
Holy fuck, I’m having a heart attack again. All the tattoos that were peeking through his wet shirt are now visible. I’m trying not to stare, but I can’t tear my eyes away from his body. Wow, I’m one of those women now, only looking at him like a piece of meat.
“Are you fuckers ready to move out?” comes flying out of my mouth, I’m not sure how. At this point, all I can think of is running my hand across his well-chiseled abs. Ugh, I need to shake this feeling off. Fuck me.
“Yeah, let me just grab my bag,” Rockstar says as he turns and goes back into the room.
“And maybe a fucking shirt,” I mumble under my breath as we wait in the hallway.
“Ooo, someone getting a little excited at the shirtless tattooed man?” Harris pokes fun at me.
“I saw you looking, too, so don’t tell me you don’t have a man-crush on him.” I slap him on his ass, then turn back to the hallway as I hear the scraping s
ound now. “Harris, the sound is back. Well, I hear it now. There has to be an infected stuck in one of the rooms. I say we fucking leave it. No point in fucking risking getting bitten trying to see where the noise is coming from.”
“Agreed.” He’s nodding his head. “Guys, you need to get the fucking lead out; we are wasting daylight. Plus, we don’t know what is waiting for us outside. Or even downstairs right now.”
I think we have waited on their asses long enough and start to head towards the staircase. “I’m going to head down, Harris, I’m done waiting on these dumbasses.”
Harris yells something at them, and I can hear his footsteps behind me. A smile comes to me, knowing he’s always got my six. These camping lamps have come in so fucking handy, I'm so glad that I grabbed them.
“Harris, did you grab your light from the bathroom? I don’t want to be without them,” I question him as we pass by the room we were in.
“Fuck, no,” he says as he darts back into the room to grab it.
I continue to the stairs and start the descent. The light illuminates the stairwell, revealing that the bottom is full of the infected. Fuck, where did they all come from? My mind is racing on how to get the hell out of here and the safest way possible. We have plenty of ammo for now, but if this keeps happening, we won’t for fucking long.
“Fuck me sideways,” comes out of Harris’s mouth as he joins me and sees what’s in store for us.
“So, what do you think we should do?” I ask, nervously thinking of our options. “Not a hundred percent sure if we shoot them all, the noise might bring in more. You know like you see in the fucking movies . . .”
“The only way we’ll fucking know now is to start shooting,” he shrugs as he gets his gun ready to shoot.
“Hold the fuck up, let me move, so we can both get a better fucking shot, and you don’t kill my ears,” I say as I position myself down the stairwell for a better shot. Metzger and Rockstar finally appear at the entrance of the stairwell mouthing ‘what the fuck?’
“Hold on to your panties, ladies. It’s about to get loud up in this bitch.” I give a wink to them as I start to fire. Harris does, too, the infected start going down. Bullets and blood flying everywhere, bodies slowly falling to the ground. As the last one goes down, we both lower our guns.
“How the fuck did you not run out of bullets?” Rockstar blurts out as he comes down the stairs to us.
“Well, we loaded our guns last night just in case, and we can fucking shoot as to not waste any of that shit,” I tell him as I open up my suitcase and grab some more ammo for my M4, reloading it quickly before I go down to the floor of dead bodies, then slowly trying to step over each one of them. They were once humans and deserve that respect.
Old Truck
Trevor Metzger
Even though Carter is a huge bitch to me, with every right after me being an ass, that woman amazes me with the fight she has. The will to live and get to her daughter makes me wish I had someone to fight for. All I can do now to make up for being an utter douche is by making sure she gets home safe to her girl, no matter how much she hates me or drives me wild. I will have to choke those fucking feelings down since she has made it clear she wants nothing to do with me. Only myself to blame, fuck.
“So, Carter, does your map show we are on the right route?” I ask as I make my way through the puzzle of bodies on the floor.
“Once the lobby is clear I can check,” she growls at me as she exits into the lobby.
No gunfire is a good sign that we got them all. Carson and I now join them in the lobby as they had a good lead on us. We meet them, and it takes all my strength not to laugh as Carter has her stupid map out with her nose in it.
“We are still on track, but, fuck, we haven’t made much ground from Ft. Hutchinson. I don’t know if we have made it far enough out of the blast zone to get a vehicle to work.” Disappointment spreads across her face as she brings the map down and folds it up.
“If we find an older one that’s, say, from the 80s, the EMP shouldn’t have messed with one that old,” I tell her as she puts the map in her backpack.
“Well, that information would have been fucking great like two days ago, asshat,” she growls at me as she shifts her backpack on her hip. “Why the fuck have we been walking? There were tons of old pieces of crap in all the fucking towns we passed!”
Carter is now yelling at me.
“Well, if you could stop being a bitch for more than two seconds, maybe I could tell you something. I know I fucking messed up the other night, and I fucking tried to say I was sorry, but you don’t listen. You don’t have to forgive me,” I’m almost yelling at her, but maybe she’ll fucking hear me. “All I want to do is get you back to base and to your daughter. Once that is done, I will worry about my family, okay?”
All she does is nod, her face is full of shock that I didn’t back down to her. I only backed down before because I know she’s hurting to know if her daughter is still alive and okay. I look to the front door, it’s clear so far; it’s so strong all the infected were in the stairwell.
“We need to get on the move, all that fucking noise probably called the rest of the town to us,” Harris says then heads for the door.
Carter is close in tow. Carson next, since no one trusts him with a weapon. I slept with one eye open last night to make sure he didn’t get into any of my fucking gear. This town is cluttered with so many things, it’s a wreck. It looks like everyone just dropped everything and left or disappeared. Litter is everywhere and half-eaten food on tables in the restaurants we look in. No matter how many towns we go through, this is still creepy as fuck in each one.
“What supplies do we need while we are still in this town?” I question as we are passing a shit-ton of stores.
Carson speaks up. “I could really use some shit. And fuck a weapon or four would be nice. I really hate looking like a bitch hiding behind all you fuckers.”
“Can we trust you with a gun, fuckhead?” Harris poses as we weave through the cars in the street.
“FUCK!” Carter yells and, we run to her to make sure she’s okay.
“What the hell, Carter?” comes flying from my lips.
“This bitch in the car over here scared the crap out of me. I didn’t see her and wham she was fucking there on the window,” she states as she’s holding her chest.
Harris just starts laughing at her, and the laughter is like fire, we are all doing it now. Carter’s face is full of pure hate at this point. If looks could kill, she would have murdered us all right fucking now. She storms off ahead of us. Harris is now running to stay with her as always, I’m so surprised that they aren’t a couple with how close they are. The only things they don’t do–so you can tell that they aren’t together–hold hands or kiss. Which, if they did, I would have a little green monster on my shoulder even though I fucked up so fucking bad.
Now jogging up to them, I say, “Let’s keep an eye out for anything that might have weapons, so Carson can hold his own.”
Carter’s now laughing, “Um, do you know how to use any weapons? I don’t want to get fucking shot because you don’t know how to use a fucking gun.” She doesn’t look back as she speaks.
“I . . . umm . . .,” Carson stammers, I think he’s nervous around us all.
“Could you get some balls, asshole, and say something?” Carter demands while Harris giggles.
“It's not a dick, you don't have to take it so hard, Rockstar. Sergeant Die Hard over here is used to bossing around newbies and doesn’t know when to fucking turn it off,” he boasts. “Right, Die Hard?”
“Yippee ki-yay, motherfuckers,” Carter calls back to us, still without even a glance at us.
“Why the fuck are you calling me Rockstar?” Carson inquires from Harris.
“Oh, Carter gave you the cute pet name cuz she didn’t like your real name,” he replies with a scoff.
Oh, she fucking gives the new guy a nickname, and she won’t even give me the time of day.
Ugh, Metzger, get out of your fucking head and take this like you would any other fucking mission. From here on out, this is just like any other mission, and I need to keep my fucking heart cold like I was trained to do.
Weakness
Lacey Carter
“One thing, fucker, the only friend here I need is fucking Harris. And I will tell you that time and time again,” Why does he make me so fucking mad? “So, please stop getting your panties in a bunch.”
I walk away to try and cool down. This fighting between us needs to stop. If it doesn’t, we might kill each other before I can get home. Fort Schaefer feels like a million miles away, and I’m stuck in hell with no way out. Once cooled down, I head back to where the guys have stopped. We really need to keep moving, these fuckers need to get the lead out.
“This has to stop,” I say, trying to stay as calm as I can. “Metzger, the anger we have for each other, this shit has to fucking stop.”
“More like sexual tension, well, from him,” Harris mumbles under his breath.
With a shove, I get his ass out of my way, “How about you shut that shit down, Harris? Ain’t no one got time for your ass trying to talk trash. Please, lets just get through this fuck-town before we find another horde of fucking infected. Maybe find a crap vehicle that will run and hold us all.”
“Carter’s right. Let's move, but be on the lookout for a place to get Rockstar a fucking plastic bat.” Harris laughs as he gives him a face.
I smack Harris on the ass and head out.
“Why is he the only one who gets an ass smack? I’m feeling left out here,” Rockstar sounds like he’s pouting.
“I’m on it,” Metzger says and glancing back I see him try to hit Rockstar’s ass, but he moves out of the way before Metzger’s hand can connect.
A smirk crosses my lips at that thought, maybe Metzger does have a crush on Harris. I tell myself not to laugh, knowing it’s not true. Just trying to keep my thoughts cheerful in this hellhole.
