Home Base

by C M Hoffmann

  “We’re forcing people out of their homes.”

  “No we’re not, you can bitch, moan, and complain all you want but the bottom line is these people have a choice. Cane had the right idea, secure and save the city. For once let’s not try to take on the world alone. We’ve got a few thousand people with the power to resist the airborne virus, and the testicular fortitude, as you like to say, to overcome and survive a steve invasion. Those are people we want on our side.”

  “I guess. But what if they lose that nerve?”

  “Then bitch slap them back to reality. There’s a bigger problem than what you want. Now get your shit together.”

  “Never thought you’d be a voice of reason.”

  “Shut your face, I’m not a voice a reason. I am death incarnate and I will do what I can to bring my family back. You should start thinking the same way.”

  “You know what, you’re right. I wouldn’t abandon y’all and wouldn’t expect y’all to abandon me. We’re all family, and if the time ever comes where we can’t be safe here, then we can leave.”

  “‘Bout time you pull your head outta your ass. The only reason I haven’t left is because right now they’re safe where they are.”

  “Roger that. Come on, grumpy bear, I’ll let you boot the first door we don’t get an answer at.”

  Wade smirks, “That’ll make me feel better.”

  At the next house, Basher gets no answer at the door.

  Trey, “Get to it. Aggress the shit out of that door.”

  Wade struts up to the door and puts all his weight into a kick leveled at the doorknob. The door doesn’t budge.

  Trey breaks into laughter, “Aggress it more there, fluffy.”

  Wade pushes Trey, takes a few quick steps, throws his shoulder into the door, and goes tumbling into the house after the door. Wade scrambles to get back out of the house and Trey laughs even harder. “Shut up. And remember, I haven’t cleared as many houses as you, so take it slow.”

  Trey snorts, “Alright, Grasshopper, I’ll show you a thing or two.”

  Basher clears the house slowly with Trey explaining basic tactics to Wade. They come upon a closet with a padlock on the outside. Trey knocks on the door and something bumps into the door on the other side.

  Trey, “I’m gonna break the lock, get your bat ready but look first, it may be steve or it may be a kid or something.”

  Wade holds his bat at the ready and Trey breaks the padlock with the butt of his rifle. When the door opens a steve comes falling out and falls on its back. Wade immediately takes to living up to his group’s name of Basher and caves the steve’s face in.

  When he finishes, Wade props his bat, slick with blood, over his shoulder, “Now that’s anger management.”

  Trey, “Good stress relief too. Drag this one out front and I’ll see what we can find that’s useful.”

  Basher searches the house finding some standard pantry loot, a few first aid items, and no firearms. They split up to do one last sweep on opposite ends of the house. A scream followed by a shot erupts, reverberating through the house. Trey flies through the house with unnatural speed running smack into Wade’s behind as he backpedals out of a bedroom.

  Trey, “Are you alright? What the fuck happened?” He’s confused by the lack of a corpse walking or otherwise as he scans the room with his rifle up.

  Wade, “Fucking spider! The size of my goddamn head!”

  “You’ve gotta be shitting me? You shot a fucking spider?!”

  “I can deal with steve, but I will not tolerate the existence of spiders. They should all burn in hell!”

  “This beats the campfire by a long shot! I can’t believe you shot a spider!” Trey laughs aloud, “I can’t wait to tell everyone!”

  “Oh what a dick!”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Spartan arrives to its grid and finds many houses already burned down.

  Cane, “Guess we got the easy ones.”

  Wyatt, “Yea, mind if I call Marie before we start?”

  “Go for it. I’m gonna take a walk and see if there’s anyone out and about. Just listen for me if I holler.”

  “I’ll come save you, Big Dog.” A few ‘unable to connect’ messages later he finally gets through, “Hey, baby, how you doing?”

  Marie, “Terrible, I need to see you. There have been some rumors that a huge group of those things is moving this way. I’ve got a full tank of gas. I think I can make it to you. Only the westbound side of the interstate went down. Eastbound should still be ok.”

  “I think you’re right, but please be careful. It’s getting rough out here.”

  “Well luckily a friend of yours showed up yesterday. I was going to call you but cell service sucks most of the time.”

  “Who?”

  Beau, “Me, Big.”

  “Dude! Glad you made it. Tried to call you.”

  “I figured. Y’all got room for two more down there?”

  “I’ll ask Cane, but yea I know we do. Get what you can together and make it here quick, we’re going to need a hand.”

  “Roger, hopefully we can get there tonight.”

  “Take care of my lady, bro.”

  “Will do.”

  Cane, “Wyatt! Time to work, brotha.” Wyatt hops out the truck and jogs up to Cane. “Hate to cut it short but we need to get started, we’ve got a lot of area and only a few days to cover it.”

  Wyatt, “Roger, look you think you got room for Marie and Beau here?”

  “Absolutely, glad they’re safe. They gonna try an’ make it down?”

  “Hopefully today.”

  “Sweet. Alright this is the first one. You want the honor of bootin’ it if we don’t get an answer?”

  Wyatt nods and Cane knocks on the door. After about a minute of knocking without answer Cane backs away and brings his AR-15 to his shoulder, and nods telling Wyatt to break the door down. Wyatt tries to throw his shoulder into the door and the door doesn’t budge.

  Cane shakes his head, “I said ‘boot’ the door. Not shoulder check it. Come on put all that ass to use.”

  Wyatt gives Cane the finger and kicks the door, the door gives a little but remains closed.

  Cane, “Seriously? Move.” He takes two strides and slams his heel into the door while throwing his arms backwards propelling his small frame faster and it swings open. “Now that’s how...”

  A steve comes rushing out of the door and tackles Cane. Cane uses his rifle as a barrier. Wyatt slings his rifle, grabs the steve around the waist, and heaves it off of Cane. It hits the wall and roars at Wyatt, who in a quick response, draws his Glock and shoots the steve twice in the center of its face. It falls with a sickly thud and Wyatt extends a hand to Cane.

  Cane, “Thanks for that.”

  Wyatt, “Should have let him nibble your nose a bit for that ‘ass’ comment.”

  Cane shrugs, “Guess that’s what I get for being a smart ass. But that’s why we kick and don’t shoulder doors. Never know what’s on the other side. I bet you anything Wade shoulders a door today and falls in after it. He did it once when a house was on fire in my parents’ neighborhood. Landed right next to some gas cans. Should have seen him try to scurry out. Ten bucks says he does it at some point today.”

  Wyatt laughs, “You’re on. Ten bucks. I think it’s a lopsided bet because it sounds like him, but what the hell, it’s the end of the world. Why not?” They shake hands on the deal.

  “Time to clear the house, I’ll take the lead since you haven’t done it as much as I have. Got questions, ask.”

  “Roger.”

  Spartan clears the house and meets only another single steve in a bathroom. The bathroom steve made quite the impression as it tried to come out of the bathroom when the door opened. The man must’ve died while using the bathroom, given the stench, and that the steve’s pants were around its ankles. It took a step and face planted causing Cane and Wyatt to burst into laughter even before it was dealt with properly.

  In a bed
room nightstand, Wyatt finds an old .357 magnum revolver with three fifty round boxes of .38 special and one fifty round box of .357 magnum ammunition next to it. He holds the snub-nose revolver up for Cane to see , “This’ll make a good one for Marie when she makes it down here.”

  Cane, “True, but remember not all the supplies are for us. I’m good with getting the bare essentials but most of what we find needs to go to everyone.”

  “Word.”

  When the search of the house reveals a decent supply of food, Spartan returns to the truck and proceeds through the neighborhood. After three empty evacuated houses that had already been stripped clean, they get their first response.

  Man, “Who’s there?”

  Cane, “Kenner Police Task Force, can we speak to you?”

  The door opens and a middle aged man is standing with a shotgun at low ready, “What can I do for you?”

  Wyatt, “Well it’s more like what we can do for you. We’ve got a plan to secure the city. We’d like to move you and whoever is with you to a house deeper in the city so we can build a barricade around all of us. Unless you wouldn’t want to.”

  Man, “You mean to tell me, you’re going to give me a different house with supportive neighbors in a big group with the police force backing me? Hell yea I’m in. Honey! Bring the kids, these men have just answered our prayers.”

  Cane, “Well we don’t exactly have a house for you right this moment, we’re trying to talk to people and see who’s willing to move and who isn’t. Whenever you have your stuff together you can head to the Police Department building and when we’re through we’ll get everyone situated into new homes.”

  Man, “Still sounds better than this place. Thanks, guys. Glad we don’t have to try to survive through this by ourselves.”

  Wyatt, “We’re happy to help. Just be careful out there.”

  Spartan moves on to the next house, Cane, “Well that made me feel better.”

  Wyatt, “Bound to be some people willing to save the whole city instead of just themselves.”

  RAVAGER

  After hours of each group going door to door meeting all sorts of people and steves alike, the radios crackle to life with a familiar voice.

  Chief, “Two-Six, you out there?”

  Pops, “Two-Six, go head.”

  “I need every one of you to go to Veterans Boulevard east of Williams. There’s a problem. Get there as fast as you can.”

  “En route, everybody got that?”

  Cane, “Spartan, roger.”

  Trey, “Basher, ten four.”

  Rapp, “Ninja, headed that way.”

  When Two-Six meets up on Veterans they take in a horrific scene. The groups exit their vehicles and approach the stomach turning area. They stand aghast looking at the area. Bodies are strewn about in a haphazard manner, like they were dropped from the clouds, bounced around and came to rest in the most strange arrangement of tangled limbs. Arms with the cartilage from the shoulder joint have been tossed aside after being forcibly ripped from the sockets. The arms are reunited with their owners after only the clothing is matched and in some cases tattoos fit together like a puzzle. Some hands are still clutching firearms, knives, and blunt instruments even in death and dismemberment. The legs of the defending individuals didn’t fare any better.

  Trey breaks the disgusted silence first, “What the fuck?”

  Chief, “It’s bad.”

  Gavin, “No shit.”

  Pops, “What are we looking at?”

  Chief, “Well Cane was right about the progression, there is something after lurker status.”

  Rapp, “He’s always right.”

  Fitz gestures towards the many dead non-steves, severed limbs, scattered and tattered organs, “But what could do this?”

  Chief, “I’ll show you. It’s over here.”

  The chief leads the group to a single body laid out riddled with bullets among the dozens of bodies of civilians and fellow officers. The body is grotesque. Even more so after accounting for the multitude of bullet wounds. Grayed skin. No eyelids, eyes bulging and green, no body hair, skin lacking on its extremities. It’s as if the monster’s skin was peeled away from its fingers and toes with small tendrils still flapping in the light breeze.

  Cane, “This is it? This ONE thing did all of this? There must be thirty bodies here!”

  Fred, “Brings a whole new issue to this war.”

  Chief, “Exactly, this one thing ravaged this entire patrol. There’s some other steves lying around but as far as I can see, none of them made it close enough to do anything of note. But here we are twenty-seven dead, over one hundred rounds fired. The only survivor is a civilian who got a lucky shot and caught it in the side of the head. I’m sure you’ll want to talk to him.” The chief directs them to a pale faced individual sitting on the sidewalk, “Jack, this is Task Force Two-Six, they’d like to talk to you about what happened.”

  Jack, “It was bad, man, bad. We thought it was a hunter because it was moving faster than the lurkers. But then it picked up speed. It ran at a full sprint for like two hundred yards. It wasn’t even slowing down. We started shooting, and, well, most of the shots missed because we were shaking, but even the ones that hit it seemed to pass right through. It never slowed down. Then it breached our line. It didn’t even bite. It just grabbed people. Ripped off arms. It swung its arm and it ripped right through Tim’s face. Destroyed both his eyes. It was all slow motion. I even saw his tongue impaled on one of its fingers. It was bad, man. I don’t know what it was. I tried to call for help but I fell and broke the radio. Its bones. Oh, man, its bones. You could see them on its hands. They were stiff, they never really grabbed anyone, ya know. It just stuck its hands through their chests and pulled them apart. I... I... cried. I screamed. It wouldn’t stop. I found a mag on the ground. I fired the whole thing as fast as I could. And then it just stopped. I don’t know. I don’t know. I wanna go home. Please don’t let it get me.”

  Chief pats the traumatized man on the back, “You’re ok now, Jack. We’ll get you home.”

  Pops, “Two-Six get back to that body and let’s see what we can find out.”

  Fitz, “Looks like its skin just fell off. There are no tears, it looks more like when you pull a loose thread on a shirt.”

  Cane picks up the monster’s hand cautiously watching for a reaction. With the creature’s lack of motion, Cane examines the hand. He turns it over and observes the exposed bones devoid of skin or muscle. He grabs a single finger with both hands and tries to break it, it doesn’t budge. “Ok that’s weird. The bone should be brittle after all this time, even by living standards. It’s not even bending. Gavin, see if you can snap this thing.”

  After several seconds of constant pressure the bone finally snaps with an unearthly ‘pop’. Gavin shakes his hands relieving the tension, “Dammit! That son of a bitch is solid.”

  Chief, “Guys, I’d like you to take this to the hospital. We’re lucky enough to have a hospital in the city so we’re going to use it. The remaining staff there has been trying to figure out what caused this. So far all they’ve come up with is something to do with parts of the kidneys shutting down and other parts overloading. Since this is the first one of these things we’ve come into contact with. We need to get it there. Afterwards, there are two things I need you to do. First, go check out this impromptu church that sprung up. We’ve been getting weird reports about a crazy preacher going ‘Book of Revelation’ on us. After that, meet me in my office, there’s a problem in Laplace.”

  Pops, “Will do. Gavin and Wade, load the ravager in the bed of the truck. Gavin you’ll drive and I’ll be in the back with it in case it wakes up.”

  Cane, “Hm, ‘ravager’, good name, Pops. Hunters, lurkers, and now ravagers. I hope that’s the end of the line.”

  Chief, “It is rather clever. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got to get some more info on Laplace.”

  Wyatt, “Wade, by the way, settle a bet. Did you shoulder check
a door yet?”

  Wade, “Yep, went tumbling in after it too.” Cane busts out laughing. Wade looks at Wyatt confused, “What?”

  Wyatt hands Cane a ten dollar bill, “Fucker, knew you would do that.”

  Trey laughs, “Always right. How do you do that?”

  Cane, “I’m just smarter than you guys.”

  Fred, “I say we throw him in the back of the truck with the ravager.” Rapp locks up Cane’s arms behind him.

  Cane squirms in protest, “Oh come on that’s not funny!”

  Pops, “They have a point. But not this time guys.” Rapp lets Cane go and laughs.

  Cane , “Freakin’ Grandpa Ninja can still tie us in a pretzel apparently.”

  Rapp, “And don’t you forget it.”

  Pops, “Hospital first, guys, let’s roll out.”

  Trey, “WAIT! I forgot to tell you about, Wade and the steve spider!”

  Wade, “Don’t you dare!”

  “Sissy boy over here, SHOT a freaking spider! The apocalypse is going on and we are literally in a horror movie and he still can’t nut up around spiders! Creeping around, sneaky like, and all of a sudden BOOM!”

  The whole group erupts into laughter as they wander back to their vehicles.

  Cane shouts to Trey, “You’ll have to fill in all the blanks later!”

  Chief returns to the convoy amidst the laughter, “What’s so funny? Nevermind, how’s the house to house going?”

  Pops, “Had some trouble, so far it seems like more often than not, everyone’s dead or gone or crazy. Got a few people willing to move.”

  Fred, “Same thing for us. Only, seems like more people want to stay put. We’ve been telling people about the meeting next week.”

  Trey, “Us too. We’ve run into more steves locked up in people’s houses though.”

  Wyatt, “Had to save Cane once or twice. But yea, a lot of people are attached to their shit and don’t want to leave.”

  Pops, “Chief I’ve been thinking. If we’ve got another two spare radios, why don’t we set up Scarlett as Two-Six’s dispatcher? She already knows how from her years of dispatching for the road and that way she can monitor us if we get into shit, or let us know if anyone on channel one gets bogged down.”