DUSK 2
Jasper had stepped into a bedroom, but he was no longer in the house. Instead, he was inside of a prison cell. He could not hear anything and nobody in the room could see him. Inside of his cell, he spotted the undead stranger from his dream, only this time he was alive and holding a rag over the wound on his shoulder. A black man, maybe six years younger than Sal was in the cell next-door, talking to the wounded man.
Guards in black uniforms stood outside, not saying a word. A black hooded apparition with hands gloved in black glided into the room.
The apparition faded away when the bedroom door splintered, followed by an off balanced Wade, who fell on his shoulder. Jasper was in the bedroom again. Shaking and hardly able to pull himself to his feet, Wade said nothing.
“I saw him,” Jasper said.
“Come on,” Wade said. “We’re getting the fuck out of this house.”
“No, I think it was trying to warn us.”
Recovering from his fall, Wade jumped to his feet, grabbed Jasper’s arm, and pulled him out of the room and down the stairs where Sal and Sarah greeted the two runners.
“We’re getting back in the station wagon. It’s not safe here,” Wade said.
“No we’re not and that’s an order.”
“The door closed itself!”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Jasper ran into a bedroom and a door that had fallen off of the hinges just lifted itself up and blocked the doorway.”
“I saw someone from a dream run inside,” Jasper said.
“Just shut up!”
“What did he look like? Was it someone we knew?” Sal asked.
“No, he was a stranger. Blond, maybe five-ten with short hair. Early twenties with a gunshot wound in his shoulder. He didn’t move like he was hurt though.”
“Was he with a black man about forty, a twenty year old boy with brown hair, or a teenage girl with black hair?”
“I saw the black man upstairs.”
“He was alone in there.”
“I wasn’t in there. I was in some kind of a prison cell.”
“I’ve dreamt about them,” Sal said.
“What?” Wade and Sarah asked at the same time.
“This house was in a dream as well. I had to see it for myself.”
“Well you saw it. I think we should leave now.”
“We need rest. Besides, I think someone is trying to tell us something.”
“This is crazy,” Sarah said. “You only had a few dreams.”
“The dead walk, but you think ghosts are impossible?”
“That’s just it. I’ve seen the dead walk.”
“And I’ve seen ghosts.”
“They were dreams.”
“How do you explain the door then? Maybe these people were all murdered by the ones who hit us,” Sal said.
“If something is going on, how do you know the dead are trying to talk to us?” Wade asked. “How do you know they don’t want to help their friends get a free meal?”
“If they wanted that they could have disabled the car,” Sal answered. “Besides, I used to live in a haunted house. I’ve seen ghosts before.”
“Daddy!”
“Let’s grab one firearm and whatever ammo we can carry, then check that gas pump,” Sal said. “We’re settling here and that’s an order.”
They followed Sal out of the front door and to the station wagon.
*
“What do you make of it?” Jud asked as Ty watched the walls from his dream through binoculars. Although it was what he’d been promised, Ty could not believe that he was looking at the settlement from his dreams in real life.
Although excited, he was troubled by the activity inside of the walls. Just like I his vision, he saw lights inside. Motorized patrols rolled around outside of the walls, while smaller lights occasionally swept through gaps in the mortar. Whoever was there didn’t live there. Ty knew that much from the warning.
“Should we get a closer look?” Hayden asked.
Yes, the voice said, so Ty nodded.
They were three hundred yards out, and perched on a rooftop. The station wagon was hidden in a alley and ready to go, but it would be left there. Though there was a risk of running into the undead, they would be spotted for sure if they drove up to the front gate.
“We’re getting closer on foot. Try to avoid lepers if you see them. We don’t want to attract any attention.”
*
“You never told me about ghosts,” Sarah said.
Sal watched Wade and Jasper fumbled with the gas pump. His hunting rifle was trained on the woods in case there were any surprises.
“It never came up.”
Sarah kept her gun low and her eyes between her father and the gas pump. They stood only ten yards back, but the others didn’t seem to hear the conversation.
“When was this?”
“When I was little. Nothing major happened. Just some chairs moving by themselves. I’d see a man in the hallway or sometimes the bathroom mirror. Feel someone watching me. My door would open and close on its own. The front door would lock itself. We kept a spare key outside, but the chain… we had to get rid of that.”
Ghosts, Sarah thought. It was impossible, but had anyone said the dead were going to walk before it started happening, the messenger would have been locked in a cell. Zombies, Ghosts. What’s next? Werewolves?
“She’s dry,” Wade called.
“Okay, let’s get ready to turn in for the night,” Sal said.
“I still say this is a bad idea.”
Although it was only thirty yards, the walk back to the house seemed long and silent, like they were astronauts walking on the moon without radio equipment. Sarah remembered seeing pictures of the moon landing, which had been a cornerstone of scientific achievement and happened ten years before the dead started to rise. Her father believed the entire event was a hoax. Sal had also been vocal in a movement which claimed the dead had started to walk because of government experiments with alien technology. His unfounded claims had resulted in the public humiliation of his daughter throughout her childhood. It hadn’t stopped until she’d proven herself to be a rational human being, on the research staff. Sal had bee lucky that he’d excelled in field combat and wilderness survival. Otherwise he’d have been run out of town.
When they were back inside of the farmhouse, Sal inspected the living room, looking for the best points to watch. Jasper sat in a corner, and looked out through a shattered window. Wade stood by the front door, looking down. He flicked a lighter and a flame grew from the tiny box.
“Hey Sal, check this out,” he said. “Looks like someone was here not too long ago.”
“What is it?”
“It looks like the floor’s been cleared. There should be glass everywhere but there’s hardly any dust.”
“Maybe our friends were here before they were killed,” Sal said.
This time, Sarah didn’t argue the issue. Once her father was hooked by a fantastic explanation, there was no point in arguing with him. Instead, she inspected the floor where the fire light revealed.
Strange, she thought. Maybe there were small groups surviving in the outside or maybe someone had stopped here to rest. The others had seen a car roll by so this house could be on a regular supply line or patrol route. Maybe scouts had been going back and forth since the attack.
Sal yawned.
“We should keep two of us on guard duty. If anything goes wrong, wake the other two,” he said.
“Dad, you’d better take the first sleep shift.”
He didn’t argue.
“I think I can last a couple of hours,” Wade said as he sat in the corner.
“I’m not looking forward to sleeping, but maybe I should see if I have another dream,” Jasper said.
“I haven’t been running around for days, I can stay up,” Sarah said.
Sal found a spot along the back wall and laid his backpack on the floor, using it as a pillow. Jasper did the same at the other wall. Though there was an old couch in the room, nobody had chosen to use it. When sleep took them, neither Jasper or her father looked like they were having nightmares or dreams. They just laid their, oblivious to their existence and Sarah wondered if she would be able to wake them if the need arose.
After a few more minutes, Wade braced against the wall and lifted himself to his feet. Sarah turned to watch the door.
“Wait a minute,” Wade said, pulling off his jacket. “We never gave you one of these.”
“It’s the middle of summer. I’m not cold.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
“What about you?”
“I can handle myself if I have to. I think both Sal and I would feel better if you had this.”
Without further protest, she slipped off her backpack and let Wade slide his jacket over her arms. The material was denim, and would offer a little protection, but would not repel a full bite. She wondered if it was worth the risk of the garment being grabbed. Then again, her hair hung down to the middle of her back, and she’d never bothered to tie it up. She’d dealt with that risk so far, while she could always slip out of the jacket in a pinch.
Wade’s hands glided up Sarah’s arms and stopped at her shoulders where they began to massage. She felt his body lean in close as he sniffed her hair, then kissed the back of her head. Sarah turned to face him.
“We should be keeping watch.”
His hands slid back down her arms, and he held her hands for a moment before kissing her on the forehead and walking back to the other window.
Sarah quivered. She hadn’t been alone with Wade for over a week, and she wanted to take him upstairs, but her father was with them and they were in a dangerous situation. Though they had not encountered anything, living or undead Sarah couldn’t shake the feeling that something might come from the woods; something horrible which had never before been caught by living, human eyes.
Sal grunted and snored. Jasper began kicking.
*
On their way to the compound, the only lepers the crew had encountered were destroyed, piled up, and burned. There had been a local cleansing, and it had been recent. If the resident heathens had wanted to cleanse their land, they would have done it a long time ago. This further supported the vision’s message, that someone invaded the settlement before Ty had arrived.
They had helicopters, a motorized cavalry, and patrolling guards. All looked to have more advanced equipment than God’s army. The guards kept in contact through portable radios and most likely spoke in code. They were each armed with either a shotgun, automatic rifle, or hunting rifle, with a sidearm and probably a knife.
Any structures around the compound had been demolished, possibly to build the protective wall, so cover was scarce. The scouts rested behind a pile of rubble and burned corpses, less than two-hundred feet back. When they moved, they did so with care, and watched the spotlights.
“We’re in a horrible spot,” Jud said. “If they sneak up behind us, we’re pinned.”
“You could have stayed behind,” Ty told him.
“He’s right you know,” Hayden said.
As if their pessimism had summoned it, the headlights of a jeep swept over their position and gunfire erupted almost instantly.
“Fuck!” Hayden shouted as his calve exploded.
“Okay, we’re getting out of here,” said Ty.
While Hayden grasped his leg, Oscar returned fire, aiming for either the driver or the engine block. He kept on his knee, to make the smallest target possible.
As consciousness faded from Hayden’s eyes, Ty shot him once in the head, and stole his backpack, jacket, and rifle. He passed the pack to Jud.
One of the jeep’s headlights shattered, but maybe ten ground troops, with flashlights mounted on their firearms dashed through the walls, sandwiching the scouts.
Run, the voice in Ty’s head instructed. He did as he was told, leaving Oscar and Jud to either follow or fend for themselves. He didn’t look back, but heard the sounds of gunfire. Oscar had been trained as both a sniper and an assassin, and would put up a fight, but he would be no match against this force. Jud was a problem. Unlike Oscar, he might allow himself to be captured. The man was a resourceful mechanic and held his head in combat, but he was a weasel. Lacking any real faith, he would likely turn on the rest of the group if it was in his best interest. However, Ty preferred him to the fanatics who made up most of God’s army.
Something exploded, but Ty did not look back to see what it was. Instead he kept running, until he reached the station wagon. He yanked the door open, and hopped into the driver’s seat. Before he could start the engine the other front door swung open and Jud dashed in, tossing the backpack in the rear.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here!”
“Did you see Oscar back there?” Ty asked.
“Who gives a fuck? He’s dead by now and if we pick him up we are too.”
Drive!
Ty started the engine and peeled out of the alley, keeping his eyes on the rearview mirror more than the road ahead. The sounds of battle continued, confirming that Oscar was still alive, when they left him behind.