The Week of the Dead (26 page)

Devin awoke on the ground. Everything was fuzzy. He heard the sounds of scraping. He felt something heavy pinning him to the ground. He tried to roll on his back, but he couldn’t. He was able to pull his right arm out from under his body, and he tried to pull himself forward. He moved a few inches, but the weight on his legs held him down. Again, there was a smashing sound with the sound of metal being ripped apart. Fear set in as he felt helpless. He was able to remove his helmet to find himself on the ground with one of the legs on the machine gun pinning him to the ground. He turned to the other side to watch as the pickup truck he was previously stationed in began to lift off the ground and slam back down.

He heard metal shriek as it was being ripped from its hinges in a panicked fashion. He pushed with his left hand and pulled one leg from the beam of the machine gun. With that he began to sing to himself in a soft tone as if he wasn’t trying to attract attention. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” he sang in a hushed tone as he tried to push the leg of the machine gun with his now free leg. The truck tipped on its side again as Devin’s hearing became more honed. Something was on the other side of the truck. Something was able to pick up the truck. Devin finally kicked the machine gun off his leg. He crawled backward with his hands, dragging his butt and legs with him. He grabbed his helmet and returned it to his head. If he was going to fight, he was going to need everything he could find.

Devin moved himself up against the side of one the barricades. He watched as the Alpha tried to remove its horn from the side panel of the pickup bed. Devin reached to his back and found his handgun. He eyed the .357 magnum he found from Frank’s truck. “Hope you can save my ass again, ole buddy,” Devin said out loud. He opened the cylinder to find it filled with fresh rounds. He slammed the cylinder closed and laid the weapon next to him. He sat on the side of a vehicle and waited. The Alpha did one final jerk, and the truck blew a tire as it slammed back to the ground. The Alpha angrily picked up the truck with its hands and threw it over Devin’s head, crashing into another vehicle close by. The Alpha followed its trajectory until it laid eyes on Devin leaning against a tire rim. The Alpha turned face and got on all fours once again. “
He’s going to rush me
,” Devin thought. “
Just as I thought.
”

The Alpha sprinted toward him in an awkward motion. It hadn’t quite figured out how to run on all fours yet. It’s human mind caused it to push harder with the rear legs, causing it to do more of a hobble than a run. The Alpha opened its mouth as it zeroed in to attack Devin. As the Alpha approached, Devin kept his composure as the creature neared. Within ten feet, the Alpha was ready to chop down on Devin’s armored skull as he raised the handgun and fired a round straight into the creature’s mouth. The Alpha continued to run, but it closed its mouth in shock of the magnum round smashing through its teeth. The Alpha crashed into Devin as he wrapped his arm from under the mouth grapping the horns and forcing the mouth closed with his body.

The Alpha panicked as Devin held himself against the mouth of the humanoid that resembled a bull. He wrapped his free hand around the beast’s muzzle and fired wildly at the eye socket with his handgun. He fired again and again. With each bullet entering the eye socket and surrounding tissues of the Alpha, it shook violently. Devin could feel the remaining vocal cords vibrate against his belly as he held its mouth closed. He counted his shots. He had one left. The Alpha reared up like a rodeo bull and began to sling its head side to side. Devin began to smash the handgun into the side of the beast until he raised his arm again; he lost his grip and flew off to the side. He collided with the side of the SWAT. van. He felt the handgun leave his palm as his body crashed into the giant letter “A.” “You…mother…fucker!” He expelled as he caught his breath again.

The Alpha began to shake its head against the ground. It moaned in pain as it rubbed the injured side of its head against the side of the car like a massive house cat. Devin looked around and found his gun on the ground. As he raised his handgun again, only this time to his own head. He heard a car horn and the screeching of tires as a white and red blur slammed into the beast. “Again!” He heard as beeping filled the air. The white and red blue slowed down to become an ambulance that had rammed the Alpha. The ambulance crashed into the creature again. “Get up!” Devin heard over the carnage. He stumbled to his feet and walked to the back of the SWAT van. As Devin turned the handle, there was a loud crunch sound.

The Alpha lay still, sandwiched between the ambulance and another vehicle. Devin exchanged smiles with Ferret who got out of the van and rushed to his companion’s aid. “I thought you said you’d have it under control?” Ferret asked. Devin spit a bit on the ground and replied with “I thought you said you’d be right back?” The two men gave a hearty laugh. Ferret explained all the things they had found along with the room full of humans they found in scrubs. Isaac pulled up next to them in a fresh ambulance. “Let’s get going!” he cried out the window.

“But we’re having a tea party!” Devin retorted humorously.

“Where’s the truck?” Isaac asked. Devin just pointed at the mangled bit of a vehicle that they had arrived in.

“You go on ahead. We’re going to grab some supplies,” Devin said to Isaac. He nodded and rolled the ambulance forward.

“What kind of supplies do we need?” Ferret asked as he helped Devin off the bumper of the van.

“First,” he said as he turned the handle of the SWAT van, “these.” He opened the door, and a creature fell onto the ground in police gear. Devin moved his hand to the back of the creature, pulling up the helmet to expose the brain stem and fired his last round into the creature’s skull.

“You are a good fighter,” Ferret said pointing at the humanoid resembling a Minotaur.

“I had him right where I wanted.” He chuckled. The two of them began loading supplies into the SWAT van. They picked through the medical supplies that were left: intravenous needles, pills, canned food from the kitchen, drinks, and Ferret even put an oxygen tank in the van as well. Devin went through and found all the clean pillows that didn’t have blood on them. He was pushing a gurney that held empty gallon containers bumping against the rough asphalt. “What are you doing with pee jugs?” Ferret asked.

“Gasoline. Couldn’t find anything big—” Devin stopped when he saw the look on Ferret’s face. The little man stood still with his daggers raised.

He turned in the direction Ferret was facing. There was a dragging sound coming from the bleeding undead face of a new opponent. “I got this one,” Ferret said bravely. As Ferret approached the creature, it too began pacing forward, hiding its right hand from view.

“Get a gun,” Devin said as he tossed the jugs aside and watched. Ferret was armed with a pair of Jamadhar daggers. They looked crudely made, but that was just the condition they had become. Ferret stood fast as he waved these daggers in the air like a martial artist.

“Take him!” Devin said, offering encouragement.

“Keep packing. This will be quick,” Ferret said as he charged forward. The creature stopped in its tracks and windmilled its right arm at him. The right hand was being dragged because the hand was still caught in some piece of metal contraption. It looked like the last human it tangled with had hidden somewhere and the creature tried to break in by ripping it apart and getting its hand stuck in something along the way. The creature threw its hand that was caught forward like a hammer.

Unfortunately, the creature didn’t have a thought process because the weight of the object when thrown forward caused the arm to be removed from the shoulder. The arm of the creature flew past Ferret’s head as he pushed both daggers forward in his fists coming down on the creature with enough force to drop it to the ground. He sat on the chest of the creature and began to bring the sides of the Jamadhar daggers down until there was nothing left of its face. Ferret walked back to Devin who had begun to bleed gasoline from the vehicles that weren’t destroyed or currently on fire. Instead of siphoning gasoline from tanks, Devin found it time consuming to siphon, and he found the taste of fuel to be atrocious. He would simply stab the gas tank with a pocketknife and hold a urine jug under the stream.

Devin drove the SWAT van as Ferret hung outside the sliding door of the SWAT van. Devin handed Ferret the rest of the cigarette he was smoking from. Ferret took a few hits of it and flicked it. They didn’t want anyone coming to this place. They had raided the stock of the hospital and stolen the police van, supplies, and the ambulance Isaac was driving. There was nothing left here but death, and they made sure nothing was going to get back up. The cigarette bounced off a container that was sitting next to a container that had been spilt. The words on the side of the container said “Caution: Keep away from open flame!” and that was the end of the county hospital.

Something Is Coming

Chapter 58

Thursday 00:45

Fort Knox

H
arrison had calmed down as he paced through the camp. Josh, Ashley, Reynolds, Jenna, Phil, and some of the others were sitting around the table. The night had become eerily quiet. The guards on the wall had stopped firing. The bodies on the other side of the concrete were riddled with bullets and weren’t moving anymore. Ethan slumped against the safe side of the wall and looked at the night sky. With all the campfires and artificial light coming from the camp, he could still look up and see the stars in the sky. He marveled at how small he felt. All the battles and blood accounted for nothing when he looked up at the night sky. There was an owl that landed on the wall next to him.

Ethan made eye contact with the owl. It looked majestic as it sat on the ledge of the wall. It fluttered its wings and blinked. It looked back at him for a few seconds. Its eyes dilated and flew off. There was a loud roar coming from the tree line off in the distance. Everyone including Ethan turned to the darkness. “Hit the lights!” he commanded. The spotlights from the tower hummed to light, and a flood of lights were aimed at the tree line to the north.

“It sounds like they are far away,” someone said from the left. There was an opus of roars that followed along the tree line.

“Get your asses up here!” Ethan shouted over his shoulder.

Then, there was a new sound coming from behind him that hadn’t been heard in a long time. It was the sounds of a propeller. Ethan turned to see a bald man in flight suit and Captain Michaels sitting behind a console on a makeshift table. Ethan followed eyes to the airfield where something new was taking flight. “No way!” he said as he watched the lights turn on the Predator drone. Ethan clicked his radio on. “Let me guess, you found it in the basement too?” he asked over the radio.

“I brought her.” The bald man’s voice had a hint of Brooklyn in it.

“Is she armed?”

“No, used them all. She’s just a surveillance drone now.” Ethan watched as the aircraft lifted off the ground and climbed over the fence and into the night sky, blinking its lights.

The bald man, whose name was Henry, and Michaels watched the monitor as he piloted it over the dead zone and into the forest to the north. “Large heat signature! Lowering and switching to thermal.” Michaels gasped as he focused on the screen.

“Don’t keep us waiting,” Ethan’s voice cut over the radio. Michaels picked up the radio.

“Everyone who is armed, to the wall. Everyone else needs to get to safety!” The camp became a busy place as everyone who was asleep awoke to the panic. Things were being tossed around. The actions of guns were clicking and being checked.

Reynolds finished his coffee in one gulp and grabbed his weapon pack. Harrison came back to the table, grabbing Paul off the cot and waking everyone who could sleep through a tornado. He roused parents and children alike. “What the hell is out there man?” Josh chimed in on the radio.

“Do as you’re told, and you’ll make it through the night,” Michaels said in an authoritative tone.

“SSDD, bro,” Josh said. There was silence from the radio until Ethan clicked on.

“Same shit!”

“Different day!” Josh finished.

“Reynolds, I want you to ready the helicopters!” said Michaels.

“But Sir—” he was cut off.

“Just do it!” Michaels commanded. “
Fine by me!
” Reynolds said to himself as he ran to the airstrip.

“Henry, what’s out there, man? Don’t bullshit me!” Ethan asked inquisitively. Henry raised the radio and tried to speak, but his hand was blocked by Michaels. Michaels stood there and shook his head. He walked toward his office in silence.

“This is Henry, there’s something big happening. They’re standing in lines. All of them.”

“How many?” Ethan asked.

“Thousands! And they’re pushing something!”

“Can you tell what it is?”

“It…it looks…like a vehicle!”

The Meet Up

Chapter 59

Wednesday 1700 CST

Brownsville

D
evin and Ferret drove the van away from the billowing smoke from the hospital. They drove the heavy vehicle back the way they came. The van was silent until Devin looked at Ferret and asked, “What day is it?” Ferret looked at the light spot on his wrist where his watch used to be.

“Thursday?” he looked puzzled. Devin nodded his head because he didn’t know. “You know how to get back to the gas station, right?” Ferret looked around.

“Yeah, of course. It’s amazing what the world has become, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” Devin was perplexed.

“No rules, no jobs, no more boring television, no…traffic?” Ferret leaned forward in his seat. He saw Isaac’s ambulance pulled off on the side of the road next to some unfamiliar vehicles. “Grab me a gun,” Devin said as he saw the ambulance too.

Devin pulled the van off the side of the road. He left the hot-wired engine running. Ferret was the first to jump out. “Isaac!” he shouted as he rounded the front of the ambulance. Ferret was met with a shotgun pointed at his face. Hoots and hollers surrounded the two men as they were encircled from the high grass and surrounding areas. One stranger even emerged from the sewer drain. “Look at what we have here, fellas. A couple of Renaissance men!” The man said as he looked at the armor of Ferret and Devin’s helmet.