Chapter Three
“At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world.” – Charles Darwin
I was in a field by a quiet lake; the sun was bright on my face and the heat flushed through my skin. The rays of light lit up my closed eye lids as they blazed bright and gold from within. The sun soaked in my hair as it heated each strand; warming my head and perspiring the crowning surface. I could feel the dew of sweat as it pooled on the cap of my head and ran down the side of my face, leaving a wet trail that felt cool before drying with the small breeze.
The birds chirped happily around me as I waded in the warm water, my jeans rolled up to my knees. I could hear their feather light wings as they flapped and fluttered together while moving from tree to tree, and the leaves as they rustled with the light weight and gentle touch. As I stood in the cool drink I squished the sand and mud between my toes and skimmed my hand over the rippling surface, the smell of fresh water, clean air and wet grass filling my lungs as it cleared my head.
“Abby…” A familiar voice called from behind me. I knew the sound; I was even comforted by it, so when I turned from the watery view I wasn’t surprised to see my father approaching me. I could feel my cheeks pull up with the smile that was forming on my face as I turned toward him, the movement causing the water around me to lap up higher against my legs, dampening my jeans and leaving the flesh wet with its touch.
“Abby…” He called to me again, his advance quickening with each step as he began to move toward me. I felt myself sinking into the mud and the sand of the water as I struggled to pull free of its grasp, my heels pushing into the soft earth first, followed by the balls of my feet as I sank in further with each shift of my weight. I tried to move toward him, but the pull of the water became heavy as the clay thickened around me. I was glad that he was so close, my father, so that he might help me escape this water.
I reached out for him, his name a mumble on my lips as he began to trample through the water to get to me. He could see my struggle, his movements evident as he broke the calm surface with shattering force to catch up to me, each determined step bringing him closer as he walked with ease through the lake. As he moved deeper in, the liquid changed, and he too began to struggle against the immersion. His speed and stride slowed into dragging movements and his face converted from concern to desperate until finally consuming with need.
I flinched away from him, bringing my outstretched hands against my chest protectively at his approach. I tried to move back from him and his progress only to find myself still trapped by the mud and water and the wind as it pushed against my back and held me by my feet, caging me in and cornering me as if against a wall.
The world began to spin around me and I felt dizzy with despair as I looked into the hollow death on my father’s face. His clothes were stained black with blood and dirt, ripped and torn as the threads tentatively held together. His jaw unhinged and skewed as his broken and dirty teeth clapped together with anticipation, his eyes clouded and bloodshot, sunken and purple. I moved, frantic now, to get away from him, but my body wouldn’t cooperate, I was stuck, dumb and slow and I felt heavy and defeated with dismay.
“Abby!” The coherent word bellowed clearly through his rotten lips just has his bony hand reached out and grasped me around my shoulder…
My panicked inhale accompanied by the gentle rocking woke me as my eyes flew open and I took in my surroundings. I bite down on my desire to cry out with tears of relief once I realized it was only dream.
“Abby, are you alright?” Hendricks asked me as he pulled his hand away from where it had been lightly shaking me awake.
I nodded to him while swallowing the lump in my throat, unsure yet if I could trust my voice not to crack, and rubbed my eyes hoping to rid myself of any remainders of sleep or tears that might have escaped.
“We’re about twenty miles out of town.” He told me once I was upright and sitting. “You should get something to eat and drink, wake up and stretch your legs before we leave again.” He said to me and then opened the doors for us to get out.
I did as I was told and walked off the remainder of the dream and let the fresh air clear my head. After getting something solid in my stomach and washing it down with a bottle of warm water, I went over to where the rest of the group was gathered and talking, waiting for everyone else to refresh so we could leave.
“I want everyone with their regular team members; you’ll follow my lead and stay close.” Commander Hendricks said. “Ryan, you’ll be with me.”
“Once we are in Honor, we’ll see what we’ve got and go from there. Keep your radios on in case Grady gets a signal; otherwise we’re going in with only the hope of finding survivors. Any questions?”
When no one said anything he nodded to the group in approval, then looked over to Kat, his second.
“We’ll be going in through the remains of Newcastle and circling back around to get to Honor.” She began explaining, showing us on the map what she meant and how we would approach the town. Newcastle was the old city that was located next to the Honor Camp. “There we’ll go in through the north side of the camp, which should put us on the main road that runs straight through the whole compound. Once we’re in we’ll radio for you to follow if it’s safe.” She said, then stepped back to let the Commander finish.
“Alright people, stay alert and stay alive.” Hendricks said, putting his cap back on. “Let’s move out.”
We all followed his direction and found our teams then loaded up and finally headed out to Honor. Brooks, my team leader, had been assigned to follow Commander Hendricks and his team. The commander took the lead in an old military GILA armored vehicle, while we followed behind him in a military Humvee. Each of the lead vehicles had roof-mounted gun rings and turrets, each chosen to go in first specifically for this reason. Behind us were Blaise and his team in the Ford F250, followed by Dan’s team with the bus and then Rick’s in another Humvee taking up the back.
The twenty minute drive felt faster than it actually was and as we passed through the ransacked and burned remains of Newcastle I felt saddened at the thought that some of these people will have lost their homes twice. Newcastle itself had long ago been burned to clear out the infection and the Honor facility was where they went to start again.
As we slowly approached the perimeter of Honor it became obvious that whatever had happened was let in easily because the trauma was in trying to get out. The broken border surrounding the camp was expelled outward rather than in, the fencing lay and pushed out at awkward angles while piles of brick and debris scattered around the barrier as obvious attempts were made to flee. Small plumes of smoke still rose from various places across the small compound while other buildings blazed with the consumption of what was left.
We stopped outside the facility and waited as Hendricks went ahead and then signaled for us to follow. Dawsen sat as gunner at the turret in our vehicle while the rest of us took aim through the open windows as we crept in slowly, making our way to the middle of the town to stop behind Hendricks and his team. Once we were all in and parked we began filtering out of our transports and waited for further direction.
The whole area looked as though it had been hit with a bomb; save for the fresh blood, bodies and fire, it looked as though it had been abandoned long ago. Layers of ash covered the surfaces all around while garbage and lost treasures littered the streets; burned, warped and faded. A sad and hollowing wind whistled through the broken windows and vacant buildings as it pushed the smell of smoke and pulled the scent of death through the area around.
As we walked around the vehicles and began to move closer to the front, the sound of dirt and dust was a loud echo as it crunched under our boots, leaving our imprints in the dust of death. On the other side of the armored truck a chorus of shuffling feet and moaning made its way closer before being cut off by quiet po
ps from a silenced riffle, the sound that followed was a hollowing thud as a couple of bodies fell to the ground.
“Abby!” Lauren, one of my vanguard mates, whispered intently at me just as a kook rounded the corner of a building to my right.
“Got it.” I said to her before putting a bullet between what was left of its eyes. It staggered to a halt, falling first to its boney knees before face planting itself to the earth.
As we made it to the front of the GILA a dozen other pops and thuds went off all around us, intent whispers and quiet commands were the only discernible noises that could be made out between the carrion and quiet. As everyone made their way to the front we formed a half circle around the nose of the armored truck, making sure to watch and cover all angles and directions.
The Commander was positioned in the center and was whispering intently to Ryan with both of his hands wrapped around the man’s face, making him look him in the eye. The sight of his home as it lay in shambles with no living person in sight was weighing heavier on him than he had thought or allowed himself to believe. A frantic and desperate look played on his face as he barely held it together, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, clenching and unclenching both his fists and his jaw.
We were approximately in the middle of the compound and were able to see almost everything around us. The little town was completely destroyed, these people had fought back, that much was evident, but ultimately they lost. Dozens of bodies littered the streets, some were old, their death unmistakable from long ago, and the ones that were new were only made out differently by the color of fresh blood.
The Commander had calmed Ryan down enough to give us directions on what to do next. “Search only the major buildings, stay in your groups and keep your ears on.” He said to us. “Team leaders need to stay in constant contact; we’ll meet back here when all the building have been cleared and confirmed empty.” He finished saying to the group of us.
“Blaise, I’ll need you with me, Kat will take command of your team.” Hendricks said lastly, before my team broke away from the group to begin searching.
There was only one reason Blaise and Kat would trade positions in a situation like this and it meant that Ryan wasn’t stable, which could potentially mean problems for all of us. Blaise has a special way of dealing with hysterics and it usually involved quick reflexes and pressure points, his massive frame and upper body strength would also be needed to carry Ryan if he was put out.
This didn’t bode well for the rest of us or our efforts to process through this town with as little notice as possible. We hadn’t been in a situation like this in years, and we certainly didn’t make it a habit of walking into a fresh den of the dead, so we could only hope that Ryan was in control enough to allow us to do our jobs and get all of us out of here safely.
Brooks, my team leader, indicated to us to follow him. We headed in the opposite direction of Blaise, Ryan and Commander Hendricks, and went for one of the larger buildings that we were told was used for storage. And as we passed through the scarlet painted streets and the bodies that lay in them, we made sure that the dead would stay that way by silently keeping them in their resting places with bullets to their brains.
The whole front of the building we went to first, and the left side, had been burned away, leaving only smoking support columns and singed floors and walls to the right. The basement was where we were headed and after carefully making our way through the battered shelter we found the stairwell that would lead us to where Ryan had said some people might have escaped too to hide.
With our gun lights on we made our way down the uneven concrete stairs and into the creepy basement. There were only two directions that could be taken once you reached the floor and they met up in the middle again, making a square route. We split off in half and began sweeping the area, checking all the doors and rooms as we went. By the time we meet back up with the rest of the team nothing had been found expect for a stray cat that belted out in fear when one of the doors had been opened. As we made our way back through the basement and up the stairs into the light, Brooks, while holding the scared feline, radioed to the other team leaders that this building was cleared and that we would be moving on to another.
We searched this way through two more buildings, finding nothing but darkness and ransacked items. With three other teams doing exactly what we were, we found ourselves finished of clearing the city in no time. There was only the one main building left and as we made our way back to our meeting place, Hendricks and Dan’s teams radioed that they were getting ready to head in.
It was a few minutes later that the two teams who had made it back to the convoy had radioed that something was wrong. And as soon as we received the message we began to run toward the group just as un-silenced gunfire began to permeate the vicinity.
We had just come into view when Hendricks belted over our ear pieces “All teams, Get out! Get out of here now!”
Next to the convoy there were two gunners working the turrets on the lead vehicles while the rest of the group stood around them shooting at the kooks from the ground. They were coming at them in troves, one after another, dodging around fallen bodies and pushing their way past each other to get to the front.
“Their evo’s!” Brooks yelled into his radio, which blasted in surround sound for me, as he relayed the information to the rest of the party. Evo's were the smart ones, the group hunters and the most dangerous of the zombie breed.
We were heading toward the other unit to help when Kat noticed our approach. “Stay back!” She ordered just as everyone with her began piling in the two lead vehicles.
We moved back and took cover following her direction just as the two vehicles tore out of the area they were in, but not before throwing out two Hg-80 bombs in the cluster of the dead. As soon as the two shell casings hit the ground a bluish-gray smoke of the mercury plumed out before exploding and then dispersing in the air. The kooks that weren’t incinerated by the blast soon began to stumble and falter from the mercury left in the air as it attacked and attached itself to their dead flesh.
The fifteen or so that were left to be effected were soon a mound of melting and rotting flesh as the mercury ate its way through their systems, hissing and bubbling off blood and guts, leaving only scarred and broken bones to simmer in the slimy mess.
Hendricks noticed what was happening and stopped his team from coming any closer, instead turning them back around to face the building they had just come out of and begin killing off the kooks coming after them in that direction.
Brooks had ordered everyone but himself and two others to meet with Hendricks while they retrieved the vehicles. Evan, Lauren, JR and I formed a loose circle around one another and headed toward the Commander, while Brooks, Dawsen and Justin went to retrieve the rest of the convoy.
The evo’s poured out of the one building they were hiding in, and as soon as we made it to the Commander, they had us surrounded. There were seven of us and twenty of them and counting and it was only getting worse. As the horde grew and drew in on us Ryan began to fall apart as he prattled off random names that meant nothing to any of us, but something very real and close to home for him.
He was inconsolable and every time any one of us tried to get him to focus he would look out and see another face that he recognized. We couldn’t control him and when one of us would shoot one of them he would scream and it would start all over again.
“Blaise!” Hendricks yelled out only one time, then went back to firing on the dead coming at us. It only took him the span of a few seconds and Ryan was rendered unconscious and draped over the guys shoulder hanging lifeless off his back.
The Humvee that Justin had retrieved plowed through a section of kooks, with the other F250 that was driven by Brooks behind it and the bus with Dawsen.
Blaise shoved Ryan in the back of the F250 along with some other guys and told Justin to get out when the bus pulled up on the opposite side of where we were standing. The rotating bl
ades on the tires sliced through a handful of evo’s before coming to a halt. Dawsen was driving and pushed open the double doors just as Holden ran to the back and flung open the back door and hollered at us to get in.
One minute we were standing there surrounded by advancing kook spawn, picking them off one at a time and as fast as we could pull the triggers, and in the next we were surround by members of the Vampire Guard and their long sharp swords as they began slicing through the dead all around us.
“Get in your vehicles and leave.” One of them ordered calmly, then began to dance and decapitate the dead in blinding speed.
Aston and Lauren were making their way over to get in the Humvee that Brooks had drove while Rick, JR and Evan were making their way toward the front door of the bus, as Dan headed to the back where Holden was waiting to pull him in.
Hendricks, Blaise and I were still in the midst of moving and shooting with the Vampires guarding our backs when we heard the horrific scream as one of us was taken down. I couldn’t afford to look away from where I was shooting but I heard Hendricks curse the name Evan under his breath and could only guess it was him who was lost.
We finally reached the back of the bus just as the first two armored vehicles came back through the dead crowd, plowing through kooks and shooting the rest. Blaise was getting ready to boost me into the back of the bus when a couple of stragglers came from around the side. I still had my riffle positioned and ready but Blaise was too close and in my way for me to get in a good shot. The man was adaptable though and had his knife pulled out and planted in one of the kooks heads before I was stable and on the ground.
I was just getting ready to put a bullet through ones skull when the zip of a stray bullet whipped passed me, landing in the Commanders left shoulder. Off in the distance Clay, one of Dan’s team members was being taken down by an evo and the gun he was holding was shooting off aimlessly in our direction.
The commander caught another one in his leg before hitting the ground. As quick as I could I shot the kook that I had been aiming for and then knelt beside Hendricks. Blaise had managed to pull out his pistol and started shooting the others when a Vampire appeared and finished off the small herd that was upon us.
As soon as the immediate danger had been abated my focus turned instantly to Hendricks and his wounds and no sooner had I set my weapon down to access him was he yelling at me “God dammit Abby get on the bus!”
I was about to protest when out of the corner of my eye I saw more of the dead approaching us. I picked up my weapon getting ready to aim when I suddenly found myself being grabbed around the waist and hustled into the back of the bus. When I was finally able to catch my bearing’s I turned around to find Blaise and a member of the Vampire Guard working together to protect the Commander as he lay on the ground.
When there was only a few left the Vampire knelt down and picked up the Commander faster than I could keep up with my eyes and was bringing him over and slowly placing him on the floor of the bus. “Grab under his arms and pull him in.” The Vampire instructed me before turning and going off in another direction.
I did as I was told and as gently as I could I pulled the Commander inside the bus as Blaise pulled himself in and slammed the door shut. The team members that were in the bus with me were shooting out of the windows, while the bus itself turned back into a grinding weapon as we drove through groups of the dead, sawing and eviscerating them in half, leaving in our wake a river of blood and entrails and loosely ground up flesh.
Over the radios I could hear as the other teams confirmed they were clear of the town and were heading back to the hangar to wait for the others, making us the last to leave. The crew that were in the bus with me were still firing and killing off kook spawn as I worked on stopping the bleeding from Hendricks’ wounds.
We pulled out of the town and were on the paved road heading away from Honor when I looked up and out the back door window, seeing for the first time what and who we were leaving behind.
“Stop the bus!” I yelled at Dawsen before moving to the back readying myself to open the latched door.
“What the hell are you doing Abby?!” Holden yelled at me, pushing my hands away from the handle.
“We can’t just leave them here! They’ll get killed!” I yelled, pointing out at the four Vampires that were left on the street. There were dozens of evo’s closing in on them and it didn’t matter how fast they were, there were too many and I knew they wouldn’t survive.
Dawsen had slowed down the bus by this point and I had just un-latched the door and swung it open to yell at them when Holden pulled me back and clasped his hand over my mouth. The Vampires were fast, and must have heard what I’d said because they were there and on the bus just as Holden began to pull me back and away from the door.
“Let her go.” One of them said, his voice like ice as his words sliced the air and slivered down my spine, the threat laced in that came with defiance.
Holden wasn’t hurting me; in fact he hardly had a grip on me at all, so when I elbowed him in the gut he easily let me go so that his full focus and attention would be on the four Vampires that stood before us.
“I wasn’t hurting her. Now get off the bus.” Holden said to them as he moved to stand in front of me; now blocking the isle, and my view of the vampire with his body.
The horde of dead that were left when the Vampires made their way onto the bus was now coming at us quickly, their hungry sounds and the smell of fresh blood pulled me back into the reality that the Commander was losing a lot of blood of his own and needed medical attention.
“We don’t have time for this!” I yelled at no one in particular as I bent down and picked up where I left off, removing Hendricks sticky clothes away from his blood soaked skin.
“Commander?” Holden asked. We didn’t deal with Vampires, that was the rule, and I had just gone and invited them in.
“Just drive.” Hendricks looked at me with a weak smile, then passed out.
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