In the Lone and Level Sands (47 page)

There was an elevator and a set of stairs in
the next wing. There didn’t appear to be any zombies, and it was
deathly silent.

“Lou? Johns?” Ortiz said. There was no
reply. Ortiz turned to the elevator and hit the call button. It lit
up in a bright shade of orange. Ortiz aimed his gun at the elevator
door. “Keep your aim on those stairs, and watch for movement.”

Max could hear the elevator approaching.
Then, he heard the bell, the doors opened, and Max sensed movement.
He turned as Ortiz lifted his gun, and both of them aimed into the
elevator. Lights shone in Max’s face as Lou and Johns aimed back
from within.

“Thank God,” Johns said. “You’re okay.”
Everyone lowered their weapons.

“Upstairs is all clear,” Lou said.

“So’s the downstairs,” Ortiz replied.

“This building has power,” Johns said.

“We noticed. Let’s not waste it. And we’ll
have to remember to get some gas, for the generator.”

“What happened to the kid?” Lou asked.

“We had a bit of an accident,” Ortiz said.
“My fault, I should’ve been watching him better.” Max felt
embarrassed. “Don’t worry. He’ll be fine, he wasn’t bitten.”

“Okay. Next step, then. We need to clear out
the tornado shelter in the center of the campus, and then start
building a barricade.”

“We found a city map in the library,” Johns
said. “Turns out there’s a lumber yard not far from here. There’s
also a steel mill we may be able to find a use for.”

“Great,” Ortiz said. “I recommend we bring a
truck full of plywood back here, first. We’ll board up the glass on
the ground floors. After that we’ll work on setting up the walls in
rings.”

“Can we really do this?” Max asked. “I mean,
there’s only the four of us.”

“Hopefully, more and more people will come
to take refuge. The more people we have, the easier it’ll be to
build bigger and stronger barricades.”

“That reminds me,” Johns said. “The upstairs
has a library and a computer lab. Some of the computers still work.
We booted one up and tried to access the internet, but it was no
good. There was no connection.”

“I don’t get it,” Ortiz said. “If the place
has power and working computers, why wouldn’t the internet
work?”

“The computers run on Wi-Fi,” Lou said.

“And Wi-Fi is basically radio waves,” Max
said.

“Radios are all down,” Johns said. “But if
we could get radio waves working again, we may just have access to
the internet.”

“We don’t know why they’re even down,” Ortiz
replied. “In any case, we can worry about that later. Assuming the
internet can even help us, we can just as easily hook one of those
computers up to the router the old fashioned way. But again, let’s
focus on the present, for now.”

“Right,” Lou said. “Let’s go clear out the
tornado shelter.”

****

With the four of them together, it didn’t
take very long. The sun was still a few feet above the horizon when
they finished and met outside in the courtyard.

“The day is still young,” Lou said. “We have
at least enough time to get our first batch of wood and barricade
the ground floors.”

Max was exhausted, but he didn’t want to
slow the others down, so he kept it to himself.

“Should we have somebody stay back here?”
Johns said. “You know, keep the grounds free of zombies?”

“That may not be a bad idea. Tell you what,
why don’t you take the kid up to the roof and show him how to use a
sniper rifle? Ortiz and I will find a truck and get some wood.”

“All right.”

Johns got the equipment he needed from the
Humvee, and then Ortiz and Lou were off. Max watched the Humvee
shrink as it went along the road.

“Come on, kid,” Johns said. “They’ll be all
right. In the meantime, we’ll head up to the roof of the tornado
shelter. There may not be much around to practice on, but I’ll show
you how to use this thing.”

They made their way to the roof. Johns
opened a large metal box full of gun parts and began assembling a
sniper rifle.

“The pieces go together like so.” He pressed
two pieces of the gun together and twisted, making a loud
click!
, and when he reached for another piece, the gun
stayed together. “Not too complicated. This is the scope, this here
will adjust the zoom.” He pointed to a small dial.

Johns set up the rifle, and Max peered
through the small glass disc. He could see beyond the parking lot
and into a field down the road. There were a few zombies in it.

“See?”

Max tinkered around with the various
settings. After that, Johns had him take the rifle apart and put it
back together a few times.

“Okay, seems like you’ve got that down well
enough, for now. Let’s try firing. Watch.”

Johns looked through the scope, adjusted the
rifle very slightly. Then, he pulled the trigger. The sound was
loud as thunder.

“You probably couldn’t even see what
happened with the naked eye,” Johns said. “I just took one of them
out. Now I’ll have you practice on the rest of them out there.”

Something about the way Johns said that made
Max feel upset. He thought back to the HR building, to his
frustrated rampage through the classrooms, to the few seconds where
he had found himself enjoying the slaughter. He thought back to
manning the turret on the Humvee, and back to the apartment
building. He thought about the explosion that had taken his family
away, and to the days spent scrounging for food and supplies before
then. Back to the carnival, back to the lights. Back to before any
of this, when the things he was about to shoot were people.

“I don’t think I can do it anymore,” Max
said. Johns looked at him.

“It’s simple, kid. Look, I’ve got one lined
up for you. Well, if he hasn’t moved, anyway.”

Max took a deep breath and looked through
the scope. He was staring at a zombie’s head. It seemed so close,
yet outside of the scope, Max could barely make out an outline. He
looked back into the scope, saw the zombie, saw its eyes. The
zombie would never see him, never even know he was there or what
was coming. It would just be there one moment, and gone the
next.

“That’s not what I mean,” Max said. “These
things… I don’t know if I can kill them anymore. I feel like I’m
losing myself. These were people, once. They kill us, and I hate
them, but what if they’re still
people
?”

Johns sighed. “What’s really going to boggle
your mind is a different question entirely. What if they turn back,
someday?”

Max was sure, then, that he’d never kill
another one of these creatures.

“Max, when you’re in the Army, you’re
trained to live in the moment. When you’re in another country, when
someone is running at you with a bomb strapped to their chest…
Don’t you think we stop and ask ourselves the same questions? Like,
‘what if this terrorist could be educated. What if we could change
his mind? What if he could see the error of his ways, and never
hurt another person again? What if these enemy soldiers we fight in
other countries, in all the time we’ve been around, what if they
could be like us, one day?’ Of course it makes things hard, Max.
Nobody ever said this was easy. And I don’t think anybody,
anybody
likes it.”

Max looked through the scope at the zombie.
It hadn’t moved much, and was just standing around, staring at the
sunset.

“And you know what? I’ll bet enemy soldiers
even ask the same things about us, sometimes. But that… That isn’t
our job. If we could capture every one of these things, teach them
to be human, or at least to just leave us alone, we would do that.
We always would’ve done that.”

“But it’s just so much easier to kill them,”
Max said.

“It isn’t pretty, Max. But it’s the only way
we can survive right now. In fact, consider yourself lucky.
Whatever made these things human, it’s probably gone forever. You
won’t have to worry about having nightmares decades from now, about
staying awake and thinking about all the things you could’ve done
for an enemy soldier besides killing him. But sitting back and
letting these things kill others, letting them kill you, that’s
just as wrong, Max.”

Max stared at the zombie’s eyes. They were
completely vacant. It stared at the sunlight, and it saw no beauty.
Then, it spotted a rabbit. The rabbit rushed by, and the zombie
reached for it, teeth gnashing. The rabbit passed, the zombie
missed it and stumbled to the ground. Then it stood up and stared
at the sun again.

“I’m sorry, Max. I really am. This is a bad
time to be alive. I’ve found myself asking, why now? Why wasn’t I a
soldier back in the Revolutionary War? Back in the Civil War, or
World War Two? Back when we were actually fighting for something
other than our basic survival. And you know what? I don’t have an
answer. And I never will. Because I’m alive right now, and that’s
all that matters. I’m alive now, and if there are people out there
I can save, and if the only way to do it is to kill these things
now, and wait a few decades until I’m alone in bed to ask
questions… Well, that’s what I’m going to have to do.”

Max felt his grip on the gun begin to
tighten.

“We have to help people, Max. I’m sorry.
God, I’m so sorry. You’re too young for this. You’re too young to
have to be a soldier.”

“I can do it,” Max said. He watched the
zombie, let his hand slip from the rifle. The rabbit returned from
the tree line, and this time, the zombie grabbed it as it rushed
by. The zombie brought the rabbit toward its mouth. Max reached
back up and pulled the trigger, and heard the sky split in two. He
saw a lifeless body fall to the ground, and a rabbit sprint back
into the woods. “But I can’t promise I’ll do it just like you
do.”

47

In for the Storm

The rain was strong and the wind was even
stronger. Sometime before midnight, it began to hail.

Ben had a lot on his mind. He thought about
what he’d done with Charlotte, and felt a little wrong. He had some
feelings for her, but he also felt he was rushing things. He didn’t
want to tell Charlotte, he just wanted it all to fix itself. He
wanted things back to what they were, whatever that was. But he
also wanted to take his time, make sure he didn’t screw anything
up.

He looked over to his side. The outline of
the nightstand, a lamp, and the alarm clock came into view from
time to time as lightning struck, but with no power the clock was
useless. He was glad he had his old sport digital. He pressed a
button and it lit up. He couldn’t stand lying in bed wondering how
long he had been awake. It was 2:30 a.m.

“I can’t sleep with all that rain and wind,”
Charlotte said. She sounded exhausted. She sat up and leaned
against the headboard. The window on her side was covered with a
dark sheet. She arched her back in a stretch as she looked at Ben’s
shadowy form.

“Me neither,” Ben said. He rubbed his eyes,
then felt his hand over to Charlotte’s.

Charlotte shivered, even with the covers
pulled up around her, so Ben sat up against the headboard with her.
He put an arm around her and pulled her close, rubbing her shoulder
with a steady hand. She leaned her head against him and sighed.
They sat that way for a solid half-hour before they settled down,
with Ben’s arm around Charlotte, and fell asleep.

****

Al woke up and noticed Ruth wasn’t in bed.
He was worried at first, but that was just the blurry remnants of
bad dreams working against him. He climbed out of bed and went to
look for her.

He found her in the front room. It was dark,
save for one candle on a small table by the barred window. The only
sounds he could hear were the relentlessly pounding storm, and the
quiet creaking of the old rocker. It had been left to her in her
grandmother’s will, and she always sat in it when she was unable to
sleep.

“You never can sleep during these storms.”
Al approached, his silhouette lighting up briefly with a flash of
lightning. Once he moved into the glow of the candle, Ruth could
see a smile on his face, so she smiled back. Al sat down in a
recliner a few feet from her.

“I wish I could. I’m so exhausted. I wish
the rain would let up soon. Lighter rainstorms are so much more
relaxing. Not as much thunder.” Ruth crossed one leg over the other
and pushed off with the foot that was planted on the ground. The
chair’s creaks became harsher as it rocked harder.

“You know me,” Al said. “I can sleep through
anything. I only woke up because you were gone.”

“I’m sorry,” Ruth said.

“It’s fine, honey.” A bolt of lightning cut
through the sky and rain, the room flickered with its eerie white
light. “It just goes to show how close we are. I can’t sleep if
you’re not there.”

“That’s really sweet, Al.”

They sat in silence for some time, and then
Ruth spoke again.

“At least we won’t need any rain for a
while.”

“You’re right about that.”

****

Carah sat up. She looked at the nearest
window as she climbed out of bed, hoping not to disturb Richard.
There were a few boards over the window, but she caught a glimpse
of rainwater crashing into the glass. It was a silent storm; she
missed the sounds of thunder and rainwater striking the roof. She
missed a lot of sounds. Most of all, she hated the fact that she
was living in a world where she’d always have to watch her back,
but she was grateful to have her husband by her side.

Carah made her way across the room. She
grabbed a flashlight from the dresser, switched it on, then headed
toward the hall. The bathroom was just a couple doors down. The
white beam played calmly along the floor as she walked. The floor
felt cold on her bare feet, but it didn’t bother her. She liked the
cold, for the most part.