DUSK 2
“Jack, Jack…” Catherine’s hand shook Jack, stirring him from his sleep. “Your mother passed away and I thought it would be best if you did it.”
Jack was only thirteen, but Sam had taken him to the firing range every weekend. Said he was getting to be quite the shot. Now he was going to have to put down his mother, like she was Old Yeller.
He followed Catherine into the terminal ward. When they crossed the threshold, she squeezed Jack’s shoulder and pulled a .22 from her waistband.
“Here.”
He sat in the chair, aiming at the floor, waiting for his mother to try to get up, although leather restraints held her down by the neck, arms, and legs. He thought of the picture of his parents, framed in what was now only Jack’s quarters. Mom and Dad smiled, unaware of the nightmare that would consume the world and of their deaths, his at the greedy claws of the undead and hers from something as mundane as cancer.
Maybe they’ll be together again. Maybe.
Unlike some, Jack had never been able to grasp the concepts of a God and an afterlife. To him, you were born, you died, and you got up again, but he hoped some of the others were right.
He wondered how he was going to get along without…
Her hand twitched. He raised his gun, and hoped his hands weren’t shaking too bad to make the shot.
Wait until she raises her head.
Something was wrong. He could see the top of his mother’s head, only her hair was black. He lowered the gun, and stood to get a better look at who was in the bed. Careful to stay out of the ghoul’s reach, he walked around the bed to find Helen gagged and secured to the bed. She was still very much alive.
Oh my God…
She struggled against the restraints, but they seemed to be unbreakable. Jack put hand on her forehead, and leaned down towards her ear.
“I’ll get you out of here.”
Her blue eyes widened, and Jack looked back to see his mother in Catherine’s uniform. There was a bullet hole in her forehead, and she was gaunt from the ravages of cancer. Her eyes had become glossy and were a milky shade of gray. She balled her hands into fists and pounded them into her hips.
“Jack, shoot her for me.”
He tried to aim the gaunt his mother’s forehead, but his arm would not obey the command.
“Blast her in the head, once for me.”
This time, the voice came from the left. Jack swiveled to see Zach.
“Shoot her for me.”
Jack turned and saw Sam’s naked body crucified over Helen’s bed. His genitals had been removed and blood was smeared over his face like war paint.
“I bet you wish God was with you now,” said Paul from across the room, surrounded by the others who had died on the mission.
“You owe me. Kill her for me,” said Greg, who had died on the last looting before the expedition. “I’m dead because you moved too slow.”
The rapist and murderer with the strangely spelled name, Lenux, stepped out of the darkness.
“After you shoot the bitch, she’s mine.”
“No.”
As an unsynchronized chorus of dead voices called for Helen’s death, Jack stepped to the foot of her bed. Lenux and Zach pushed him onto the bed with Helen.
The wall opened, and they slid the bed inside, like a drawer, leaving Jack and Helen alone in a tight, dark crypt. He heard her straps break and a dry hand gripped his neck.
“You should have shot me.”
Helen snarled and snapped at Jack’s arm.
“Let me out! Oh God, let me out!”
“No, let us in! Let us in!”
Jack felt like he was falling. Not like he’d fallen from a tall building, but like he’d been pushed over. He wasn’t in a mausoleum drawer, but in the corner of the war room of the outpost. Helen leaned against the wall a few feet from Jack, but she was still asleep.
What time is it?
He tried to get up, but had a hard time pulling himself to his feet. When he did, his legs shook under him. Maybe he was still dreaming and the corpses of everyone Jack had ever met, living or dead, would try to convince him to join them.
He wanted to wake Helen, but she needed rest. Everyone did. Instead, he pushed himself away from the wall, grabbed his rifle, and moved outside of the war room. Since the hallway was still crowded with people who couldn’t sleep or couldn’t find anywhere else to sleep, Jack had to step around them with care.
As soon as the sun rose, Sam had drove Jack, Helen, and Catherine back to the first stronghold, so they could appraise Frank of the situation. Not much had happened all day. Jack had the day off of guard duty, but he’d gone to the roof with Helen to watch the undead with the snipers because there wasn’t anything else to do.
Some of the survivors were bouncing rubber balls in the hallway, but there was no room for any kind of sport. There wasn’t enough ammo to pass the time by taking pot shots at random zombies, or to make a contest out of it. Jack could have visited the guards down stairs, but there was no view, just plywood and metal barriers accompanied by the rhythm of the undead trying to beat their way into the building.
Jack hoped they could do something soon because the conditions were making him antsy.
“Hey Jack, wait up,” someone called from beyond the medical center’s doorway.
Jack turned to see Ted Wendell, who lived in Jack’s apartment complex and dated Erica Garrison, walking towards him.
“You headed to the roof?” he asked Jack.
“I guess. I don’t have a shift coming up, but I couldn’t sleep. How’s Erica doing? I heard about her brother.”
“She gets scared whenever I have to go on guard duty, but she’s holding in there. I heard you had quite a time on your trip.”
“People trying to kill us, cars exploding, mobs of the undead. You didn’t miss much.”
“After what happened at home, I think it’s better that I didn’t get picked for the mission. I don’t know how Erica would be doing if she didn’t know I was alive right now.”
When they reached the stairs, Jack let Ted lead the way. The stars in the sky were blocked by a black overcast. He hoped it wouldn’t rain the next day when he had roof detail.
“Hey Wendell, Smith, check this out!” a guard named Roy called, pointed down.
They moved over to the end of the roof to see what the commotion was about, and saw two zombies throwing a baseball back and forth. Neither had the reflexes to catch it or throw it very far, but one would toss it, then the other would shamble after the white ball, only to throw it a quarter of the distance between he and the other ghoul. None of the other zombies appeared to notice the game.
“Me and Heck were playing catch when Heck missed, and the ball went over.”
“Like hell I missed, you threw it too high!”
Roy looked at Jack and Ted, “I’ve always wondered what they did when we weren’t around. Guess they play ball.”
“As long as thy aren’t eating all the food in those stores, I don’t really care,” Ted answered. He clamped a hand around a rifle, as though he was thinking about blasting the two undead bal players so the other guards would watch more than just two ghouls. “Heck, you’re off. Get some sleep.”
After snatching his rifle from the roof, Heck slung it over the shoulder and walked down stairs.
“Since Jack’s here too am I off for the night?” Roy asked.
“No. Jack’s not on duty,” he turned to Jack and whispered: “Figures, they put the only two guards younger than us up tonight.”
Both Roy and Heck were teens and neither were certified to participate in outside missions, but they had both participated in security patrols inside of the colony walls. Jack was surprised that both boys were on watch.
“Now I know where they get their arm from,” Jack said.
Roy and Ted both stared.
“When we were out there, a mob of them threw rocks and bricks at our car.”
“Sweet shit!” Roy said, now surveying the mob below, perhaps looking for loose bricks.
“I believe it,” Ted said. “Once saw one trying to open a cash register in a convenience store.”
Ted was about nine months younger than Jack, but had seen his share of field action. They’d participated in the same scavenger missions from time to time and had shared shifts on guard duty. One of their favorite pastimes was frightening the new recruits with war stories, as older guards had done to them. Most of the stories were about either strange sightings or deaths that happened before their home town had been secured. Most were completely fabricated.
“My old man told me about this one zombie, back in eighty-five that knew how to fire a gun,” Ted said. “He emptied the gun at dad and his buddies, one shot hit this guy, Clark, in the leg.”
Roy’s eyes widened.
“If that’s not enough, the puss bag reloaded!”
“I hope none of them are packing,” Jack added.
Roy hunched to his knees. After moving to watch the other side of the building, both Jack and Ted snickered.
“Oh God it’s good to see we can still have fun in this world.”
“I think we just purchased a one way ticket to hell,” Jack said.
*
Helen awoke on the floor of the war room alone, with light shining in her eyes from the grimy window of the war room. The undead moaning was muffled, but louder than it had been the night before. People moved around in the hallway outside, but very few talked.
After climbing to her feet, Helen stumbled outside of the room and searched for familiar faces. She’d thought about going to the roof, but didn’t know if Jack or Sam would be there. Instead, she walked to the triage, where Catherine was more than likely pretending that she was still only a nurse.
When Helen entered the one room hospital, she was greeted by a tall, brown haired nurse with a long face and eye glasses. She guessed the nurse’s age to be around thirty.
“Is anything the matter?” the nurse asked.
“I’m looking for Catherine.”
“Hey, you’re the new girl. Do you have any medical training?”
“Just basic first aid.”
“Good. You’ve volunteered. Wash your hands.”
Perplexed, Helen followed the nurse to a sink in a what was once a bathroom.
“There’s no running water, so you’ll have to use an alcoholic solution. Just do it over the sink,” the nurse instructed. “When you’re finished, follow me.”
The solution burned her hands, and left them feeling sticky. After the clear liquid swirled down the drain to nowhere, the nurse handed Helen a white towel with a Holiday Inn logo embroidered on the bottom. She supposed there was no one around to report the theft.
“I’m Lori.”
“Helen.”
The nurse then hung the towel on a rack, and left the room with Helen in tow. They stopped at a bed, holding an elderly man with a circle of shiny, bare skin on the top of his head, surrounded by grey hair. His left foot and hand were both covered in gauze.
“Hello, Ben. How’s your foot feeling?”
“Like it’s been hit by a truck. When I was his age, people knew how to drive,” Ben grumbled.
The nurse walked away, tugging Helen’s arm.
“Ben’s an auto mechanic. A jeep rolled over his foot the day before the attack. His hand was broken while they wheeled him away,” the nurse said. “We’ve been lucky. So far, we haven’t had too many serious injuries. Just a few accidental shootings, falls, and auto accidents. We had a third degree burn, but it was nothing too terrible.”
As they passed beds full of men in their mid twenties, some of them asked when they were going to be able to pick up guard shifts again. A few of them suffered from friendly fire, while having struggles with the undead that were too close. One soldier had broken both ankles, after plunging from his guard tower, to catch a truck. He’d been lucky that no undead were close to his station and that he didn’t shatter both legs. Nurses and volunteers were cleaning and wrapping wounds, delivering sedatives, and moving joints for some of the patients.
“That is Erica,” Lori said, motioning to a bed holding a girl with long, red hair and an arm in a cast. “When we got here, she’d suffered a broken arm and infection. We were afraid we’d have to amputate, but she’s recovering.”
The girl was asleep, so they didn’t bother her.
Helen thought about declining the medical duty so she could go to the rooftops, but Jack’s shift did not start for a few hours, and this looked like a good chance to meet others from town.
Across the room, a man in black read Bible verses to a wounded guard. Though he adorned the uniform of a Priest, he lacked the white collar. When his eye caught Helen, his jaw unhinged and his eyes froze.
“That’s Phil Harker. You may have met his son.”
“Paul.”
Phil closed his spot in the holy book, and said something to the soldier. He then moved across the room. Helen’s throat tightened. She wondered if he would spit venom in her face for failing to bring his son back alive, but relaxed when his face revealed a serenity.
“I’d like a moment alone with this one,” Phil said.
“Helen, when you are done talking to him, move between the soldiers and Erica. We’re short staffed and could use the help.”
“I can do this for a while, but a friend has guard duty in a few hours, and I’d like to sit in with him.”
“Fine, just let me know before you leave. You can put your rifle in the back if you wish.”
“I’m fine.”
Lori strolled away.
“You knew Paul, didn’t you?”
The preacher’s eyes locked onto Helen’s.
“He seemed very devoted to his faith,” Helen answered.
“I didn’t want him to be involved with the guard. I thought he could do more good spreading the word and healing the sick.”
Helen wondered if the preacher meant healing the body through medicine or healing the soul.
After a moment, he sighed.
“I guess I didn’t want to lose him. He was born a couple of years before death had been defiled. I’d been having trouble with my faith, and became a slave to the bottle. One night, in a drunken haze, I was enchanted by a woman in a bar. I guess my brothers in the church felt that I had taken the final step in turning my back on them, so they repaid the favor. Eleven months later, I’m working in a 7-11, and attending AA meetings. Paul was left at my doorstep, with a note. His mother had killed herself, and her sister did not want the baby.”
Helen was not sure what to say. She considered asking the preacher why he opened up to her, but though it might be rude. Maybe he’d felt close to her because she’d known his son in the last days of his life.
“I guess you could say he led me back to my faith. I never rejoined the church, but I gave my heart back to God.”
For the first time, the man broke his gaze, and Helen felt her legs shake.
“I talked to him last night.”
Oh God, Helen though, fearing the preacher was like those she had escaped. He seemed to sense her fear and disbelief. He looked over Helen’s shoulder, then behind his own, and motioned for her to lean in.
“I know that he died on the cross for defending our savior and I know that you were not a member of the doomed scientific team,” he whispered.
Helen’s eyes widened, and she took a step back.
“No, I was a member of their security force.”
“No, you were to be part of the assault, but you disappeared. Do not be afraid. Paul does not blame you for his death, and neither of us hold any malice towards you. You reclaimed your soul.”
Sam wouldn’t have told anyone without consulting her. Maybe Frank? No, Sam trusted him. Had the preacher overheard them in the war room the previous day? He did not seem angry, but Helen knew of deception. She’d delivered it almost her entire life.
“Paul told me that the battle isn’t over. There is war being waged in your old home and it will find us.”
Helen looked around, to make sure nobody was listening.
“They’re self destructing. With any luck, there won’t be enough of them to make it two miles outside of their complex.”
“You know that won’t happen. Does the name Leonard Reed mean anything to you? A man with one eye, and a red cape.”
Helen shivered.
“I thought you were the only one who could warn the others. Sam might think that I was crazy, but Paul said that you would believe me if I gave you that name.”
His hands found their way around hers, and squeezed.
“May God be with us all,” he said and left.
Leonard Reed, Helen thought. She’d hoped any of the cult leader’s personal guards who had survived would have either been executed or killed themselves for failing in their duty. If he was leading an army of madmen, then they would not unravel within days. More likely, they would become more dangerous as he attempted to cleanse the lands with haste so they could all join their honorable fallen and their savior in paradise.
Before Lori could scold Helen for being idol, she checked on the soldier with the broken ankles.
*
“What do you make of it?” Frank asked.
“I don’t know,” Sam responded.
Catherine, and the roof guards let their eyes follow the helicopter in silence.
“Been a while since I saw one of those,” Frank said. “You think it’s hostile?”
“We haven’t had a good track record with meeting people.”
“We get attacked, and a helicopter just shows up a couple of days later,” Catherine said. “I don’t like those odds.”
Jack, who had been lounging with the other guards when Sam, Frank, and Catherine reached the roof, gripped his rifle like a security blanket.
“At least it doesn’t have guns mounted on the sides. He probably won’t attack us by himself, but more might be on their way.”
Clouds smothered the sky, but refused to leak. Sam wondered if a downpour would slow an advancing army. He wondered if a convoy of warriors would materialize at their doorstep or if death would come in the form of two cars with rocket launchers. If they blew out the bottom doors or even just the garage, they would doom the surviving inhabitants to death outside or by starvation. Maybe Franklin had been right in suggesting an escape.
Too late now.
“Get all shifts ready. Distribute weapons and ammunition to everyone, I don’t care if they’re just civilians or wounded, as long as they can hold and point a gun without shooting the wrong people. We might have to fight our way out,” Sam said. “Jack, find Helen. She has more combat experience than any of us. Frank, I want you to send two men to the other compound and warn them. Have them stay there and help with the defense there.”
On Sam’s order, Jack disappeared. Frank punched Sam in the arm, and followed Jack. Catherine stayed on the roof, watching the chopper through a pair of binoculars. Her blond hair was pulled forward by the wind. Her legs and arms shook, but Sam wondered if it was fear.
*
Jack found Helen around Erica’s bed, talking to the girl and Ted. Lori looked over at Jack, then dismissed him in an instant. He wanted to run, but didn’t want to risk a scolding from the new head nurse.
“Ted, Helen, can I see you in the hall?” he said.
“What happened?”
“I think you’d better go to the roof, now.”
Helen eyed Jack with suspicion.
“I’m off duty for a couple of hours and the world falls apart,” Ted said. “Erica, honey, I’ll be back in a few minutes. I love you.”
“Jack, what’s wrong?” the wounded girl asked.
“It’ll be okay, I just need Ted and Helen on the roof.”
“I’ll see you later,” Helen told Erica.
“I’ll catch up,” Ted told them.
Jack grabbed Helen’s hand and rushed her away from the hospital. Lori, eyed them, and looked like she wanted to yell, but Jack kept moving.
“What were you doing in here?” Jack asked.
“I was trying to find Catherine and Lori put me to work. What’s wrong?”
“Did your people have any aircraft? A plane or helicopter?”
“No.”
“Well it looks like we might have a new friend.”
When they reached the roof, Sam was asking a mid ranking officer about their arsenal. He told the soldier to hold on, when he saw them approach.
“Helen, I think we’re going to need you on the roof. Have you ever commanded a unit?”
“I can’t, Sam. I’ve only been here a day and I’m younger than most of these men.”
“Doesn’t matter, I’ll be up here with you. You have more experience with this kind of combat, so I could use your input. You’re also a great sniper.”
“I’ll stay with Helen,” Jack said.
“Good. You’ve used the fifty cal before. We have four with us. We’re going to put two on the roof and two in the upper floors of the building. We’ll fire them out of the windows.”
“Has it done anything?”
“Better safe than sorry. If these are the fuckers who took down our wall, then I want to at least give them a black eye before we go down.”