Colony Z: The Complete Collection (Vols. 1-4) (18 page)

“Guess they like the air conditioning.” Phillip said, breathing out a sigh of relief, along with the other two. The overhang on the garage blocked most of the sunlight from getting in, and they didn’t have a hose here. Still, even with the cost clear, Phillip ran to the key-ring near the door and snatched the keys as quickly as possible.

Once the door was shut again and they’d all piled into Phillip’s diesel truck, they set off in search of food, supplies, and then, to find more recruits.

The world hadn’t yet gone under, but the night was coming. It might even be tonight. Yes, Owen thought to himself. Tonight might just be the night.

They were going to need a bigger car pretty soon.

Aaron’s tears weren’t enough to save him as the night crept into the cracks and crevices of the basement.

Soon he’d be out of tears to spend.

When he heard the loud noises upstairs, he was sure that the monster had come back, this time to eat
him.

“Go away!” He yelled in his small voice. It couldn’t have carried very far, because the movement upstairs didn’t cease. In fact, it got louder. “Go away!”

But it didn’t go away. It gave closer and closer to the door of the basement, and then something began clomping down the steps. Slowly, searching for something…

Searching for him.

“Go away!”

And then the lights flipped on and a sudden warmness flooded the room. For the first time, Aaron could see his surroundings.

He could see Tom lying on the floor…and he could see his bruises and wounds.

He could see the mess of an old man not five feet from him. And he would’ve screamed when he saw these, but it was what he saw last that forced him to keep quiet.

There was a man standing in front of him. A very nice looking man. He stared in wonder at Aaron and then yelled up the stairs.

“I need help down here!”

Two women and two more men came tumbling toward him. The women screamed and ran to him immediately, asking him so many questions. Who are you? Why are you here? What’s your name? Who did this to you? But he couldn’t answer any of them.

When help finally came, Aaron could not explain himself. Aaron could only break down and sob in relief.

“I want my mommy…” He cried in the younger woman’s arms as the older one went  back to the men to say something. “I want my mommy…”

“Phillip, he’s chained to the wall.” Willa said as she returned to Eric, Owen, and her husband. “This wasn’t something the zombie’s did. This was someone else.”

“…where are the keys?” Eric asked, looking around. There didn’t seem to be any within sight. Night was falling. Soon, the zombies would find the empty house and take it. They needed a plan, and quickly.

“Wait.” Owen said. He then walked slowly toward the remains of an elderly man. What was left of him, anyway. His coat was torn and ripped, but the pockets were still intact. Groaning, Owen reached into the pocket that bulged and pulled out a ring of keys.

“That little…” Phillip started angrily, glaring at the remains on the floor. But Willa stopped him, pointing to the boy in a way that clearly said ‘You’ll upset him’.

“Son,” Owen said, crossing to Aaron. “Is that the man who did this to you?”

Aaron paused, then nodded. He began to cry all over again. Owen found the right key, unlocked the chain around the boy’s ankle, and then picked him up. He held him tightly, dirty pants or not, and then motioned for the others to follow him up the stairs.

When they reached the ground floor, Owen looked at Hannah.

“I need my bag. It’s in the truck.”

Hannah nodded and ran to get it. While she was gone, Owen looked the boy up and down.

“I want my mommy…” He said again.

“What’s your name, kiddo?” Owen asked. He was unsure of himself, and yet he knew he had every right to take charge. He had to be brave. Kids could smell fear.

“I’m…Aaron…” He said through his tears.

Hannah came in with the bag and set it next to Owen.

“Owen, they’re going to be here soon.” She said urgently.

“I’m not taking him out of here like this.”

Owen pulled a shirt out of his out of the bag. He helped the terrified boy slip out of his Spiderman pajamas (Owen thanked God he had on something underneath that wasn’t dirty or soiled), and then put the white t-shirt over his head. Now, at least, he was wearing something clean.

He didn’t want to ask how the man had dealt with bathroom time.

Instead, he pulled the boy back into his arms and led the others to the truck. They didn’t have much time to lose before night, and the boy was still crying for his parents.

Willa took Aaron into the truck and let him sit on her lap while the others debated over what to do.

“We can’t just take him.” Phillip said, shaking his head. “That’s kidnapping.”

“He’ll die if he goes back to his parents, if they aren’t dead already.” Hannah argued, even though she didn’t much like the idea of a four-year old tagging along either. The responsibility was overwhelming, but that’s what they’d signed up for, after all.

“If, for some reason, this end-of-the-world thing doesn’t happen like you say it’s going to,” Phillip argued. “We’re going to spend our lives in jail. It’s different if, as adults, we choose to go. This boy wants to go back to his parents. And he’s going to put up a fight.”

“Phillip is right,” Eric said. “We’re not responsible for a child.”

“He’s coming with us.” Owen said with finality. And everyone was quiet for several moments, until Eric finally spoke.

“Owen, are you crazy?”

“I know what’s going to happen if we leave that little boy here. He’ll stay with his parents for a night, maybe two, and then they’ll find the family and kill them. I’ve seen how quickly it can happen, and so have both of you. You both know what it’s like to feel responsibility for a child. You should understand, then, why he needs to come with us.”

“How are we going to convince him of that? All he’s been asking for is his mother.” Phillip said. “Listen, what if we can find his parents and get them to come with us?”

“Phillip, you’ve been missing a major part of the puzzle here.
We don’t know
where his parents are. We don’t know where they are, we don’t know if they’re alive, and we don’t even know if they’re in this state. For all we know, they could live in Texas. And that’s not where we’re going. If we really wanted the boy to go home, we’d have to take him to the police station. And those dark, dingy places are going to be the first to go.” Owen finished and Hannah nodded in agreement. Even Eric didn’t seem to want to argue.

“…alright, Owen. But let’s not make a habit of this kid thing, alright? It’s not good for Willa to be around kids right now…she’s already getting attached.”

“I’m sorry about the baby, Phillip,” Owen said sincerely, putting a hand on Phillip’s shoulder. “But this boy needs to come. Maybe he’ll be good for her.”

“…maybe.” Phillip said, nodding.

And then they all piled back into the truck. Owen was relieved to find that the boy was already fast asleep on Willa’s lap.  They didn’t have any explaining to do.

Not yet, anyway.

“Let me take him.”

Owen took the boy from Willa’s arms as he cried for his mother. They had made it a whole ten hours without the boy realizing the true situation that he was in, but no longer. No, now he would have to know the truth. Even if it had to come from Owen himself.

“Big boy,” He said to Aaron, setting him on the ground. “Whatdya say you and me go have a man to man talk, okay?”             

Aaron nodded through his blinding tears, and Owen realized that he never felt like a worse person in his entire life. He was stealing the boy from his parents, stealing him from his future, and turning him into part of the ‘world-saving’ force that none of them wanted to be on. Maybe it would have been easier to find his parents…and still Owen knew this wasn’t the best thing for him. Aaron needed this. He needed them.

So Owen took his hand and they walked into the woods during the daytime, passing through the trees and avoiding the hot glare of the sun’s rays.

“Aaron, you have to listen to me, okay?” Owen started slowly. Aaron nodded as they continued walking.

“Okay then…make sure you listen really close, because I need you to be a big boy right now, okay? I need you to be a really big, brave boy.”

Aaron nodded again, but he didn’t like where the conversation was going. Hadn’t he been a big boy? Hadn’t he been a brave, big boy long enough? And now he was free. Why couldn’t he have his mother? Why couldn’t he?

But Aaron had a very deep respect for Owen, and he let him talk on, even though he didn’t much want to hear what Owen was going to say.

“Aaron…kiddo…we can’t take you back to your parents because I don’t think they’re around anymore. And, if they are, they aren’t going to be for very long…does that make any sense to you?”

Aaron shook his head no. What did he mean ‘not around’? Aaron wasn’t really sure what that meant. He knew he didn’t live in this place, if that’s what Owen meant. He lived far away…the man had driven a real long time to get him here. He knew that much. But he didn’t dare say that to Owen. He just let him go on talking.

“Aaron…what I mean to say is…we can’t take you back to your parents because I’m pretty sure they’re dead.”

The young boy’s eyes grew wide, and he stared at Owen in surprise. Dead? Didn’t dead mean…didn’t dead mean gone forever? Aaron’s eyes filled with tears again, and he was beginning to get angry at Owen. He was beginning to not like this man anymore. His parents weren’t dead. He had just seen them a few weeks ago…before the man had taken him away. They weren’t dead. They weren’t!

“No, they are not!” Aaron yelled, pushing Owen. Of course, Owen didn’t move far. But he stared at the little boy in shock.

“Aaron, I know it’s hard for you. I understand…my parents are dead too…but I need you to be a really big boy and accept the fact that you aren’t going to see them anymore. I don’t want to lie to you and tell you that you will…because you won’t. We’re not going to find them and we’re not going to take you to them because…if we do those things might get you too, do you understand?”

At the mention of the things, Aaron’s eyes grew wide all over again. He didn’t want the things to find him…the things that had scared him so much in the first place. But they had his parents! He hated Owen for telling him this. He hated him so much.

“No!” Aaron yelled again. “No, no, no! Mommy!”

But Aaron knew his mother wasn’t going to come, no matter how much he hoped she would. He knew she wasn’t going to come save him, and neither was Daddy. And he knew this man was just trying to help him. The problem was, Aaron didn’t much want to be helped. At the moment, he just wanted to be left alone.

“…I want my mommy…” Aaron said again, falling into Owen’s arms and bursting into tears.

“Aaron, I need you to be a big boy. Can you do that for me? Can you act like a big man?”

Aaron nodded against Owen’s shoulder, still crying.

“…you’re not gonna let them get me…are you?” He sobbed.

“Of course not, Aaron. I would never let them get you, do you understand me?”

Aaron nodded again, and Owen lowered him to the ground after several minutes.

That’s when they heard the scream come from the storm cellar in the clearing ahead of them. At first, Owen thought he was hearing things. But then it came again. A man’s yell of frustration, and a banging noise on the door of the cellar.

Someone was trapped in there. And someone needed their help before it was too late and he ran out of air. Owen ran over and tried to open the door, but there a lock and the lock wouldn’t budge.

“Aaron, listen to me,” He yelled over to the boy. “You run straight back to the truck and you get help, you understand?”             

Aaron nodded and took off running. Owen, however, went straight to the gun that was on the ground several yards in front of the opening to the pad.

He picked it up and looked it over carefully. Checking the bullets inside, it was only missing two. There were four left, and he had a feeling he was going to have to use them on that lock.

While Aaron was still far away and no harm could come to him, Owen cocked the gun, yelled,
“Stay away from the opening!”
, and shot.

The first bullet hit the lock and dented it, but did not crush it. The bullet ricocheted past Owen’s head and disappeared into the yard. Taking a deep breath, he tried again.

This time, the lock broke.

Owen stepped forward and, trying not to burn his hands on the still-hot iron of the lock, he pulled the door open.

“Hello?”

A young man came flying through the doorway, almost tackling Owen as he came.

“Thank God!”

The kid was only a year or two younger than Owen, and smelled like cigarettes and hard liquor.

“What did you do? Get so drunk you locked yourself in?”

He said it disgustedly, but he knew it wasn’t possible. Someone had locked him in there, and he doubted it was one of the zombies.

“No…my girlfriend Sara…God, I’m gonna kill her. She and her friend Jasmine locked me in there.”

When he said this, he began to walk toward the house in the distance ahead of them. Owen pulled him back.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, solider. What are you doing?”

“Going to kick someone’s ass, that’s what.”

“Stop. Just, stop. You’re drunk. And there’s no one in that house, okay? It’s empty.”

“How is it empty? She was there three days ago…unless it’s been even longer than that…”

“I don’t know how long it’s been, alright? Now why did your friends lock you in there? Is there something I should know about?”

“No, man!” The kid said, glaring at Owen. “Who do you think you are, Jesus or something? Look, there was a banging on the door when we were all down there the other night…ya know, chilling. And it was this huge, hulking thing…so I shot it. And the girls flipped out and thought I killed a guy and…now that I think about it, where is he?”

Owen hadn’t seen a body anywhere.

“Probably got up and left…” He muttered.

“What?” The kid looked scared.

“Look, do you know what that thing was?”

“No…am I supposed to? Look, are you gonna arrest me or something?”

And that was when Aaron, Willa, Phillip, Eric, and Hannah ran into the clearing.

“What’s going on?” Hannah said, out of breath.

“Well you missed it now.” Owen said, motioning to the boy standing next to him. “I’m just trying to figure out the best way to tell him that he’s survived a zombie attack, and I’m fairly sure his friends didn’t.”

“I…what?” The boy stared, open mouthed. “Are you…are you saying…”

“Look, if they ran off in the middle of the night and you were just attacked by a zombie, their bodies are probably lying half-eaten somewhere in the woods. They don’t just travel in pairs. They travel in huge groups.”

“Why do you keep saying zombies?” The boy said, now looking scared.

“What’s your name?” Owen asked.

“…Robert.”

“Well, Robert, the world’s gonna end. And it’s gonna end soon. Maybe even tonight. And we’re here to keep people like you from dying. So you can either come with us, or you can stay here and maybe, probably, die. But if you come with us, your cigarettes and booze are staying here.”

“….I don’t know what you want me to say to this…I have a family, and they’re gonna miss me if I just disappear.”

“Who do you think you’re kidding, punk?” Phillip stepped in. “No one’s gonna miss you. You don’t live with your parents anymore. That would probably be a disgrace to your image at school.”

“I’m not in school anymore!” Robert said, now getting angry. “If you were trapped in a hole for three days and figured you were gonna die, you’d drink a few beers too. We gonna keep acting all high and mighty or do you want my help?”

“Why you little…” Phillip began, but Owen stepped in.

“He’s right, Phillip, he’s right. We’re being more judgmental than we have any right to be. Robert, welcome to the group.”

Owen took Robert’s hand and shook it.

But Phillip never warmed up to him, no matter how much everyone else did.