DUSK 2
No longer concerned with saving energy, the trio charged through the walls of their old home, and continued running to the motor pool. As they dashed through their home, they saw signs of a gun battle everywhere. The guard towers had been demolished. The walls of some of the buildings had taken high caliber hits. Dead bodies were in the streets, where they had been mauled by rats in the days after their second deaths.
Though he knew everyone he’d ever cared about was now dead, he was still afraid to look at the corpses for risk of seeing a familiar face. He thought of his wife, sister, and mother. They’d all lived in the compound, and were all probably dead or being held captive somewhere he could not find them.
“In here!” Sal shouted when they reached the motor pool.
The door had been removed, but there were still a few vehicles inside.
“Alright!”
“Don’t get too excited yet, Jasp. We still have to figure a way to ditch the undead long enough to get one of these cars ready to go.”
“Should we hit the armory?” Wade asked.
“No, I imagine that’s dry too. Check any corpses you see. They might have some ammunition. We’re still saving ammo, so don’t use your guns on the undead unless I say you can.”
Jasper checked a decapitated corpse near the door. The soldier’s sidearm, rifle, and supplies had all been stolen. He wondered if the soldier was one of his friends. The body next to him had belonged to a man named William, who had gone through security training with Jasper.
“It’s no good! Fall back!” Sal shouted. “The cars have all been sabotaged.”
“You hear that?” Wade asked. “They’re inside.”
“To the main dormitory,” Sal ordered.
They ran to the center of the compound, where the large, dome shaped building stood. Though not everyone lived inside, the structure was designed to hold the compound’s entire populace. The walls were sturdy and there was an observatory on the top floor, where the entire compound was visible.
The front door was closed and intact and the lights were still on inside. Jasper hoped they weren’t locked. The moans of the undead grew closer.
“You think anyone is inside?” Wade asked.
When they were inside, Sal swung the doors shut, locking them. There were no windows on the first story, but the door would have to be reinforced. They were designed to withstand a large scale undead assault, but there was no telling what damage might have been done during the attack.
“There’s a small, hidden stockpile in this building. If they come back we’ll need it,” Sal said.
The dormitory was supposed to be self sufficient, in the event of a breach in the other defenses. There were storage rooms full of food, water, and ammunition, but Jasper assumed that all of those rations had been raided. The hidden stockpile must have been Sal’s doing, because Jasper had never heard of it before.
“Let’s secure the door, then find the fuse box so we can kill the lights,” Sal said.
Blood trails led down the narrow hallway out of nearly every room, all ending at the ballroom. A knot tightened in Jasper’s stomach, but he followed the others into the first room.
They hefted the dresser from the bedroom, and dropped it at the door. Then they returned to the room and grabbed the bed, placing it behind the dresser for further reinforcement. There was still more furniture to move, but this would do for now.
They moved down the hall, where there was a stair case to the basement. When they reached the door, Sal grasped his crowbar in one hand ready to swing at anything that may have once been a loved one.
As soon as the door opened, gunfire burst from the inside. Sal rolled out of the way, raising his rifle. Wade and Jasper both discarded their close combat weapons and readied their weapons. More shots erupted, while none of the three were in the doorway, followed by more shots.
“Hold on,” Sal told the others. He lowered his rifle, and cupped his hands over his mouth. “Hold your fire, it’s Sal McCree and two losers.”
“Daddy?” a female voice called, followed by rapid footfalls.
“Sarah?”
Sal’s hand opened at the sound of his daughter’s voice, and the rifle fell to the floor. Sal’s daughter had been born ten days before the dead started to walk, and her mother had died during child birth. Although the girl was a member of the science team, Sal had made sure she was just as good with a gun as any member of the security force. Jasper was glad Sal hadn’t taught her any better.
When the girl reached the top of the steps, she threw her arms around her father and kissed his cheek.
“I thought you were dead,” Sal said.
“How many are with you? Is Connie alright?” Jasper asked.
Sarah’s face tightened, as though she wasn’t sure how to answer the question.
“There are only twenty of us, just civilian women an children. They tried to hide us in some of the secret chambers before the raiders could break in,” she answered. “I haven’t found anyone else.”
That wasn’t what Jasper wanted to hear. He wanted to know the whereabouts of his wife, sister, and mother.
“Where’s Connie? What about Patricia and Mom?”
Wade was still too shocked to speak.
“Sweet heart, how long have you been wandering around?” Sal asked.
“I only came out yesterday. Got the lights on and looked for the others. Maybe they went out to get help or something.”
She was dodging a subject.
The lights no longer mattered. Jasper’s attention turned to the blood trails and his feet followed. Sarah pushed her father aside and dashed to the door.
“Jasper, you don’t want to go in there.”
“Move aside.”
“Please, you don’t want to see it.”
“I have to.”
“He’s a big kid, sweetheart. He’ll have to see it sooner or later,” Sal said. He seemed to know what would be waiting on the other side, based on his daughter’s actions.
She looked at her feet, sniffled, and stepped out of the way, letting a hand move to Jasper’s shoulder. Jasper opened the door as the others stepped behind him.
The three men gasped at the scene. Inside, maybe thirty women had been stripped, tortured, raped, mutilated, and murdered. They’d been left not only as squirming zombies, but with the weapons still stuck in some of their bodies. His younger sister was among the first he noticed. Patricia was hog tied and had a knife stuck in her throat.
He felt a sick quiver as he searched familiar faces for the other two women in his life. As he walked through the floor, several women attempted to bite his ankles. Others tried to slither towards him. Jennifer Potter’s slim body was nailed to the ground, with both legs stuck open. Her breasts had been cut off and her teeth were missing. Heather Askew’s arms and legs were tied together and her head had been scalped. Both women had been close friends of Connie’s.
Two women were crucified on the walls, wearing barbed wire crowns. Like the rest of the corpses, the two women were naked. Their eyes and noses had been removed, but Jasper was able to recognize one of them as his wife.
“Oh Connie, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Jasper dropped to his knees before his wife’s feet, hoping she’d hop off of the wall, kiss him on the forehead, and say “April fools, dear.” Sobbing, he caressed one of his wife’s feet.
“Do we have enough ammo to take care of them?” Wade asked behind Jasper.
“I doubt it,” said Sal. “Jasper. We have to move. If a patrol comes they’ll see the lights, and this will happen to everyone else.”
When Jasper continued to rub his wife’s foot Sal grabbed him by the cuff of his shirt and pulled him away from the wall.
“You have to push it down.”
Jasper grabbed Sal’s arms.
“Aren’t you pissed?”
Jasper nodded.
“Do you want the bastards to pay?”
Jasper nodded.
“Would Connie want this to happen to anyone else?”
“No.”
“Come on. We have to get the lights off then. I doubt there’s going to be another search on this place if they don’t think anyone is here, but those lights are a dead giveaway.”
Without gazing away from his wife’s eyeless sockets, Jasper followed the others out of the room.
When they found the fuse box, Sal cut the power to everything above the first floor. He said that the basement and ground level were fine because there were no windows. They then checked on the survivors, most of whom were young children. The oldest were Sarah and Sonny’s girlfriend, Adeline. When they told Adeline about Sonny’s fate, she fell to her knees and sobbed.
Each of the adults and teens were armed and sat on a stockpile of ammunition, food, and medical supplies all in their room, which they probably hadn’t known about before they were pushed inside for their protection.
Sal grabbed four shotguns out of the boxes, along with additional ammunition for their firearms.
“Keep everyone inside of the storage room,” Sal said. “We don’t know what we’re goin' to find upstairs.”
Sarah followed the others against her father’s advice.
*
A battle had taken place in the higher floors. The walls were splattered in blood and dented where bullets had been imbedded. There were burn marks here and there, but nothing spread since the walls and carpet were all fire retardant. They found the occasional animated body nailed to a wall or decapitated on the floor. Though Jasper’s mother was not among them, he held no hope that she was alive. They could restock their ammunition, so the search party put down every reanimated body they encountered.
The dome itself was three stories high, with the top floor acting as an observation deck and a radio room. What communications equipment that was still intact had been stolen, leaving empty desk space between shattered equipment. The radio operator’s decapitated corpse had been left on the floor to rot. His chest had been torn apart by gunfire. There were bullet holes everywhere, and some of the windows had been shattered. Blood had been splattered all over the walls and ceiling, but the only body left in the room was the communications specialist.
“Fan out. I want to make sure we’re alone,” Sal said. “Call out if you run into trouble.”
Each of the four walked in opposite directions, keeping their firearms raised and ready. Just I case he needed it, Jasper kept the baseball bat fixed to his shoulder by a thin rope. His hunting rile was slung over his other shoulder, and he aimed the barrel of the shotgun forward.
Because the room was open, Jasper only had to search behind a few desks and in some cubical offices. When he reached the window, he stopped himself from turning around to give an all clear. Instead he raised the binoculars to his eyes.
“Shit!” he shouted. “Guys, you better take a look at this.”
Sarah, who had retrieved her own pair of binoculars was the first to the window. When Sal arrived, Jasper handed him the binoculars.
“Shit indeed.”
A pair of headlights swept across the street and turned inside of the base through one of the holes in the wall.
*
Alvin Stemme swore he saw lights in the enemy compound just minutes before. Now they were dead. He’d been picked to lead team in search of the heathen’s headquarters, and maybe this was it. It made sense that survivors form the compound would want revenge. It also seemed logical for them to return home if they thought the threat had ended.
Alvin’s team had been sent out hours after the other three, because of mysterious car troubles. Their station wagon had been working fine, but when they were sent to leave the car would not start. The mechanic could not find the problem, so they switched vehicles. That one wouldn’t start. They switched again, with the same results. Each vehicle would work when Alvin was not supposed to ride in it. When they deemed it drivable, it would stop working.
As suddenly as the problem started, it stopped, allowing Alvin’s team to leave. He’d known it had been the messiah’s work, but now he saw why. Had he left sooner, he would not have been able to see where the heathens were hiding.
“Turn inside,” Alvin said. “I want to check this out.”
On the way in, the group passed several lepers, thinly spread trough the compound. They’d either been attracted by the battle and hadn’t figured out how to leave the compound or followed the heathens inside when they returned. Either way, Alvin was going t have to act quickly.
Frost turned the wheel, and parked a half of a mile away from the large dome. Duke and Wiley hopped out of the car first, ready to shoot. Alvin peered out of the window through binoculars and saw a figure moving in the top floor of the dome. Female. Maybe she was the little Judas who shot the messiah.
Alvin ordered Frost to cut the engine and cover the rear. Under the cover of buildings and shadows, the four holy crusaders stalked their way to the dome. The lepers moaned in the distance as their attention turned towards the newly parked station wagon.
“Wiley, check the front door. We’ll cover.”
The short solder dashed to the door, but when he was five feet away, a shot erupted, and the back of his head exploded, spraying red and pink mass into the air. His body crumpled to the ground, and Alvin dashed around the side of the building.
Frost returned fire while Duke ran around the other side.
Something hit Alvin’s face, and he flew backwards towards the ground. His face stung like he’d fallen to sleep on a hornet’s nest and blood flowed into his sinuses. He guessed that his nose was broken.
“You son of a bitch rat faced bastard!” the heathen shouted as he brought the bad down, this time missing Alvin’s head and hitting his shoulder.
The heathen swung again, striking Alvin’s chest. Something snapped. Another swing broke Alvin’s arm. The next swing shattered his temple, sending him into permanent darkness.
*
Wade and Sarah provided cover fire as Sal and Jasper repelled through a broken window on the second floor and snuck around to gain better firing positions. He heard Jasper shout something, but kept rushing around the side. The boy could handle himself, and he needed to use some of his rage.
A muscular man in black pointed an M-16 at Sal. Before the brute could squeeze off a shot, Sal dropped to his knee and rolled out of the line of fire. A shot rang out, and sparks flew from the outer wall of the dormitory.
Before the thug could correct his aim, Sal raised his shotgun, and blasted the attacker’s head into nothing.
He saw a zombie stagger forward, but it was a quarter of a mile away. The scattered moans were still distant, so the dead were the least of Sal’s worries. Apparently the dead had lost track of their prey after following the living though the hole in the fence. Without a reason to be there, maybe some of them wandered around or tried to leave.
More gunfire sliced through the night. There had only been one car, so there were probably only four or five of the thugs.
Sal charged towards the front of the building, hugging the wall as he went. In the distance, he saw a figure alternately shooting at the second story window and ducking to avoid gunfire. Sal couldn’t see anyone else, so if nobody was sneaking behind him, this must have been the last thug. Sal set down the shotgun and raised his hunting rifle, taking time to get the gunman’s head in his sights.
The shot splashed the wall, sending the gunman’s corpse into convulsions.
As soon as the body hit the ground, Jasper rand around to the front of the building, brandishing the handle of the baseball bat. The blunt end looked to have been shattered. The front of Jasper’s shirt and pants were splattered with fresh blood.
“Where’s our fan club?” he asked, referring to the zombies.
“You alright?” Sal asked.
“Fine. Let’s take their supplies and get a move on it.”
Sal didn’t like the grin on the kid’s face. Before he’d been the cautious member of the group, keeping them from doing anything too reckless, save for walking through a zombie infested city on foot. Now he seemed like he wanted to charge into the enemy front lines.
Jasper tossed the broken club aside.
Wade and Sarah repelled down the front of the building, then Adeline pulled the line back in.
The staggering zombie had not even closed a quarter of the distance, but the moans were denser and closer.
“Hold it there!” Sal shouted and turned to face Sarah. “You’re staying in there.”
“So I can worry about you?”
“You don’t know how to handle yourself. You nearly blew me away earlier.”
“But daddy, I was scared.”
“How are you going to feel when we face the real enemy?”
“I thought you were the real enemy.”
“And I’m glad you weren’t a good shot.”
“Daddy…”
“They need you inside,” Wade said.
“No they don’t. They’re just going to sit in that room until you get back.”
“What if we don’t get back,” Sal said. “They are going to need someone to lead them to safety.”
“Oh you know that’s bullshit! How am I supposed to do that? If you don’t come back, we’re all dead. You know that as well as I do,” Sarah slapped the ground with her tennis shoes. “Besides, you need a fourth gun.”
“Adeline, you lower that rope or I’m going to climb up there and strangle you!” Sal shouted.
“Don’t listen to him. I’m not staying. Just go back to the others and don’t open up for anyone. You’ll know when we come back. And keep the lights off!”
The girl nodded and ran away from the window.
“God damnit!”
Sal turned to find Jasper gathering equipment from a dead body.
“Take what you can carry,” he told Wade and Sarah. With whatever the troops were carrying, they would have enough ammunition to take out a small unit and maybe even a substantial number of undead. If they didn’t hurry, they might need it to get out.
*
As the station wagon passed a small town, Ty spotted several zombies in plaid shirts staggering around the road. Three of them congregated around an old diner and gas station. Others wandered through a field, littered with the mummified remains of long dead cows. The crows and rats had picked away everything but the bones and some scraps which stuck to frame, giving the corpses a blackened and charred look. Though most of the corpses were hidden by tall grass, Ty would not have been surprised to find hundreds of them in the field if he stopped to inspect. In his youth, his parents had taken him cross country by car and he’d been amazed at the volume of cows in the United States. He supposed that some drives revealed nothing but dead cows these days.
“Stop the car!” Ty ordered a few miles later.
He spotted a farm house, which he’d seen in his dream. It was two stories tall and looked like a strong gust of wind could knock it over. The front lawn was littered with broken furniture and shattered wood beams and boards. There was a gas pump out front, but Ty guessed that it was empty. The tall grass in the field fed into a small forest and five deer gathered outside, grazing. He’d seen the place in a dream, and the deer could be used as food. Maybe it would be good shelter for the night.
Suddenly, the deer ran into the woods, and Ty felt something squeeze the inside of his skull.
Keep moving. You can rest later, he thought, only the thought wasn’t his.
“Skittish little bastards,” Jud said.
“You want to hole up here for the night?” Hayden asked.
“Keep moving. We can rest later.”
He shivered as the car resumed motion.