Lou said, “When this shit gets cleared out, I’m taking my daughters to bury and taking enough supplies to try and start somewhere on my own. I’d rather leave, and I have a feeling most people that were in my group are going to feel the same way. If you guys want to stay here and continue to try and fight off every piece of shit that wants to take what you have then be my fucking guest. Life is precious and I’m not going to waste mine pretending to be a soldier. I intend to coexist. I’m more than capable enough of staying off these things radar.”
“We are going to get revenge, Lou. This isn’t going to happen again, at least not by them. Christ, if they’d have just come here to try and talk first I’m sure we could have worked something out with them. I can’t promise that there is not going to be some other lunatic that will try and come after us.”
“You think that this was the only fight we’re going to have. Unless you kill every one of them then I don’t think you have heard the last of this. I can't imagine that you truly feel the same way considering you aren’t new to this game.”
“Once my eyes are working again, Lou, considering that they do work again, then I’m going to make sure they don’t come at us. Aslin will regardless of if I’m forever like this I can assure you. You don’t have to leave, Lou, you can stay.”
Lou laughed and said, “The only reasons that I had to be here are both lying on the ground with bullet holes in them. Clary, maybe you don’t know this but a father should never bury his children; it isn’t how it is done. They didn’t deserve this, not that any of these youths or adults did.”
Lou looked around for the first time feeling even worse when he saw that Ricky, Kya, Ellie, and themselves were the only ones still alive. He tried to count but couldn’t keep going once he’d hit twenty. Clary said, “Lou, we can talk about this later but people need you.”
Lou laughed walking around and said, “No one needs me, Clary, they’re all dead. Every single one of them but Ricky and Kya because they were in here. Those men were relentless and thorough.”
Clary said, “We can talk about this again after you’ve had some time to think about things. Maybe you’ll come to terms with this and decide that you can stay for a while, like forever. You realize what our chances of finding another doctor is going to be, right?”
“I’m a nurse, given it is better than anything else you have but I don’t want to keep watching these babies brought to me dead, Clary.”
Lou went into a world of his own walking to each of his daughters and picking them up. He didn’t see a maturing teenager in his arms, he saw babies that he’d gotten up with at two in the morning to feed, and little toddlers walking slow and unsteady around the living room while he and his wife, who’d he’d lost to the dead already, watched as they walked around the living room with wobbly legs. He covered them with sheets and then went to the rest of the dead and began to do the same.
Ellie was trying to be considerate of him and knew that she might not have lived if it had not been for his knowledge. She watched out the windows thanking God that they were equipped with bars. One of the first things that they had begun to do when they took the base over was make sure that there was going to be a safe place that they could hide in. Clary and Aslin had both said that they needed somewhere to seek refuge if that fateful day ever came when the guns clicked empty and the dead were trying to take over the base.
Ellie leaned into Kya, “How many magazines do you have left?”
Kya patted her pockets feeling three and then remembered that she had a bag under her bed for the absolute worst emergencies when the shit hit the fan in a bad way. She had forgotten about it because of the fact that they had not had any issues since they had arrived on the base. She ran to it thankful that with the exception of the extra rifle that Patrick and Shaun carried they all had the same rounds to use in their rifles.
Ellie dropped her magazine sliding in a fresh one and that was when the death tried to make its way inside of the bunkhouse. Ellie watched Kya trying not to think of how hard the time to come would be on her heart and the healing she was going to have to go through.
The thuds were strong against the walls and door. The window shattered immediately when the dead came up to it. The Turned struck it with everything they had. The bars that went across the windows also went four feet into the ground. The strength that they possessed wasn’t anything anyone at the base had overlooked for even a second.
They reached blood covered arms in through the holes in the bars. Ellie brought out a machete to bring it down one after another until they had a small pile of arms. The blood was blackened and sluggish coming from their bodies. Kya kicked the arms out of the way as Ellie chopped at them. If any of them got close enough she would use the machete to stab them through the skull.
Kya said, “I can’t believe this is working, pretty soon they’ll be on their own and unable to grip anything, won’t they?”
Ellie never stopped bringing down the blade. She could feel a fire that was slowly materializing within her arms and hoped that she would have enough energy and strength to make it through until reinforcements came, no matter how few they would be.
Kya and Ellie both had plans to live through the day. When Ellie couldn’t bring down the machete any longer Ricky came over tapping her on the shoulder quickly and then backing away. He said, “Would you like me to take care of those things for a while? I haven’t had to burn up any energy and weren’t you, like, getting out of the hospital today or something?”
Ellie nodded, the sweat was soaking her and her shirt was starting to stick to her back. The words of Lou telling her to take it easy rattled through her head and she knew she had epically failed. She was aware that it was not in her best interests to keep going at this point, or she would find herself looking up from the ground when she passed out. “Yeah, happy release day, right? I finally get out and the world goes to shit…again. Can you take care of this for a while? If you get tired maybe let Kya give it a shot for a while. I’ll head back and see if there’s anyone else back there.”
Ricky took the blade, weighing it in his hand and liking the weight of it. He said, “There isn’t anything that you are going to be able to do back there but stack the dead. Is there a reason you two aren’t using machine guns to take care of these freaks?”
Kya cut in before Ellie could speak. “Yeah, there is a reason, there’s always a reason. We don’t have the support to be able to use the guns.”
“Could you say that in English by chance?”
“The guns are loud, Ricky. If we go boom, boom with the gun then we don’t know how far this shit will echo, but do you want to see how many more of the Turned that we can bring here?”
He thought about it and motioned them to the side. The answer was so obvious that it wasn’t warranted to be spoken aloud. Ricky brought the blade up and chopped down with all the force he was capable of mustering.
With every chop he thought of his friend Bryan, his parents and siblings. Every time there was someone that made him feel like there was a reason to go on in this place they were taken away from him and he hated the things for it with a passion. When the arms stopped coming they climbed up on the bunks to look out and see where they had gone. The dead, mostly all of them at this point, were without arms and the three teens felt like kings momentarily, knowing they’d bought themselves that much more time.
Ellie hit her radio trying to call to Shaun but it just went straight to dead air. Kya said, “Did you see Patrick, Ellie? Did he and Bella make it safe to the hospital? He was supposed to meet me later but we never made it to that point in time. Do you know if he is okay? It makes me sick thinking about the things that could have happened to him.”
Ellie opened her mouth to say something and then shut it shaking her head. There was no way to say anything that wouldn’t break the girl’s heart. Lou who had already been through enough for a lifetime today walked forward gripping her by the shoulder and said, “They took him out, Kya. He held on as long as he could but there wasn’t anything that could be done. Bella did it. She took out Patrick and then Joey took her out. Clary said that he is sure she was some type of spy or whatever you would call it. I don’t think she needs a label but she ruined everything good that we had going for us.”
Kya looked at Ellie and said, “You…you let me think that he was alive. You knew he was dead this entire time didn’t you? Why would you keep something like that from me, Ellie?”
“There isn’t a good answer, Kya, but honestly we needed you to be able and ready to fight if that was what it came to. I didn’t know if those bars would hold or the door, or if they’d just rip a hole into the damn building. I know I’ve seen some crazy shit those things can do when they want to. The last thing I wanted to have happen was for us to be a meal after surviving so much. I'm going to see this thing to the end, and if the worst thing I do is save your heartache a few minutes of pain then I don’t think that is as bad as it could be.”
“That’s easy for you to say, when you still have Shaun coming back to you. You aren’t going to be alone. I love him, damn it!”
“We all loved him, not like that but you know what I mean. We’re family and we are going to continue going on being one as well, regardless of how dysfunctional we are. You can be mad at me but I was thinking of you and the others when I did that. I'm sorry but I think it is what was for the best. If that ever happens to me you feel free, if it is going to save you, to do that.”
That was when the tears that Kya had been holding back poured out. She wanted more than anything for Patrick or someone that she didn’t hate now to hug and hold. She walked slowly, handing her rifle and bag to Ricky, and went to her cot climbing up to the top where she lay in the fetal position trying to hold herself together and feeling like the building had dropped twenty degrees in a matter of seconds.
Clary felt his way over to her, gripping her shoulder. “It isn’t ever easy. The spoils of war never are. If we want to keep this place we’re going to have to fight and I know that it sucks and we’re going to lose people but there isn’t anything else we can do about it until we get rid of those pieces of shit. I promise the moment that I’m able bodied I’m going to do absolutely anything that we can to try and exterminate them from this world.”
Chapter 17
Aslin sat staring through binoculars shaking his head. “Fuck me, we were only gone for an hour or two. How the fuck did everything go so horribly wrong in such a short time?”
Shaun had heard his dad say it more times than he could remember. He was actually saying it to himself more than to anyone else. Shaun whispered, “Plans are just God’s way of letting us know just how little we’re in control Aslin.”
Aslin said, “Well, then we are pretty fucking out of control, aren’t we?”
Shaun nodded and said, “You think anyone’s still alive?”
“We won’t know if we don’t get down there. I don’t see anyone moving around though…anyone living at least. Shaun rested the scope on the truck’s hood staring into the distance at the base. He saw that there were Turned but had to dial the scope into its maximum reach. Shaun said, “Hey, I think we’re good to get down there. They look funny though, what the hell is wrong with them?”
Aslin said, “Besides holes in them and the fact that they’re walking around eating people?”
Shaun took one last look but Greg had a pair of field glasses that reached further and said, “I cannot tell you guys how good I feel that you are the snipers of our little group. I mean that really deep down, but blind as shit and don’t know what is going on for anything.”
Aslin wanted to say something in regards to why he didn’t want to have children in his life but Shaun said, “We need to get down there but tell us what the hell you see, stop being an asshole and wastin’ time, Greg.”
“Okay, smart guy, fine. They don’t have arms.”
“What do you mean they don’t have arms?” Aslin asked.
Greg rubbed at his face; his patience had never been amazing unless he was on the range and teaching. “The shit below their elbows is gone. Look closer, they look like they were chopped off clean, like with a machete or some type of a blade.”
Shaun said, “You got that machine gun ready to rock?”
Greg checked the feed and nodded. He said, “It’s just a paperweight without it, right?”
“I know it is a lot of fun sitting up here and watching all of this go down but it’d probably be a good idea if we went and got down there,” McQuaig said. “There might still be some people that need help. I can only assume that there are since I’ve yet to see any prior to today that had arms cut off. I guess I’ve seen them ripped off but that was under totally different circumstances.”
Aslin said, “Shaun, you ride up top, here you can take my extra, high powered ammo with you. We are going to stop short and get as many of them as you can, as quickly as you can. They don’t have to be all head shots just get them down. When we can make our way in there then Greg can mow the bastards down. It won’t matter about noise so much once the immediate threat is taken care of.”
Shaun, who sometimes surprised Aslin and Clary with the old soul he had said, “Noise always matters, Aslin. There are cities in every which direction and they can come from anywhere. We can’t waste the preciousness of noise and quiet. If we can keep things on the down low we should. If they don’t have arms they aren’t nearly as dangerous as they usually are. I’m not saying that we should underestimate them. I’m sure that their teeth and their jumping is no worse off than it was before they lost their arms. Hell, if anything they’re probably pissed as hell if they can get that way. I don’t know if they feel any emotions or just hunger for blood which makes them crazy.”
Aslin climbed into the truck and the two of them took front lead on the drive down. When they were within two hundred yards, Shaun pounded on the top of the truck startling Aslin. , “Not much reason to waste any more of that precious distance, is there?”
Aslin put the truck in park letting it idle and Shaun sat for a moment waiting for the wind to die down. He said that it wasn’t a requirement to hit them in the head but could not for the life of him think of why he would waste one of his bullets and then have to waste the ones that Greg had as well. He dialed in as well as he could and started sending lead down to the dead. The bullets seemed to come out of nowhere. The Turned looked pissed watching their brother’s and sister’s heads explode in a blackish pink bloody mist.
When the front third of the base was as clear as he could get it from where they were Greg said, “You think that maybe we could let someone else do some of the work? I know it is great that you have all that scary quiet power but for God sakes I send hundreds of rounds a minute. What are you doing like three?”
Shaun was giving the leaders answer and not thinking with his heart or he’d have answered differently. “It isn’t about speed, Greg.”
“Well, it is when the girl that I know you love is down in one of those bunkers or in an attic or pinned down by one of those dead. We can sit here all day for all I care. But I have a feeling that you want Ellie alive and well even more than me.”
Shaun said, “You take them out, then. We can clean out whatever is left after we get done. Just make sure that they’re done. Take out their legs, and cripple them.”
A gleam of pure joy spread across Greg’s face. Shaun knew that he hated these things almost as much as he did and never had less reason to. Much like himself he knew Greg had lost everyone. He was aware of Greg having a bigger heart than he did. As much as he tried to forgive his dad for his mistakes, it was something that plagued him every day of his life.
Greg didn’t so much as hold blame against Shaun or his dad. Anytime he had ever heard anyone coming after Shaun or telling him that he didn’t deserve to be here those people usually were the ones who ended up on the flat of their backs.
Greg said, “Yeah, I think that I’ll be able to handle that. You guys let us ride in front the rest of the way in. If there’s anything up on the roofs then we need you to take care of those for me.”
Shaun nodded and tapped the roof again. He looked at the truck filled to the brim with odds and ends that Aslin thought were going to give them longevity in the world, and they pulled forward. He questioned what might have gone differently had they been here when it happened, or if he would have been alive. He already knew that they would have fought and that if it was intruders that had caused the problems today that there would be retaliation. He assumed right off the bat that those guys had come from the place in Johnston. The dead on the ground were all adults, and with everyone that was on the base they still didn’t have that many people.
McQuaig drove up towards the base where the two trucks that Clary had nailed with the grenades were now smoldering, The Turned that had been standing around it dead and Greg looked back over his shoulder to Shaun. He said, “Kind of deja vu isn’t it, Shaun?”
“How’s that?”
“You know from day two when we came to this place for supplies. Except the Turned that were out front that day were the soldiers who had tried to make it back after the dead had taken Des Moines.”
Fox thought about that and then thought of Joey’s brother and sister, and Tina. “Yeah, that doesn’t bring back the greatest of memories, Greg. We lost a lot of good people that day.”
Greg said, “Better to be able to count those horrible days on one hand then think of struggling for a year, right?”
Shaun gave a thumbs up and Greg leveled the machine gun, ready to go. As they made their way inside the Turned that had been left were given quick bursts of gunfire decimating their legs and kneecaps and leaving them handicapped on the ground. As they drove by McQuaig shot them in the head with a pistol, not wanting to have to come back to do cleanup.
They stopped in the middle of the base staring at the damage and looking at the fence line immediately seeing the large hole in it. The four wheelers that were still idling that had been crashed into the side of the bunkhouse that they saw had been pegged with hundreds of bullets. They went over seeing Bryan on the ground and Shaun switched from his high powered rifle to a machine gun, stepping down slowly. The idea of Ellie in there made him sick to his stomach.
A whistle came from behind them that he was just barely able to hear. When Shaun looked around, rifle at the ready, he saw Scott still atop of the building and waiting for something good to happen. He’d watched the dead coming away from the bunkhouse without arms and decided it was safe to just stay up there and out of their radar. Scott was dangerously low on bullets as he had only gone up with so many to start with. He was well aware that he was not a strong enough shot to be able to take out an attacking horde if they were on the move towards him. Shaun hit his radio and said, “Just stay up there, if you see anything do me a favor and be my angel.”
“I don’t think angels have sniper rifles, Fox?”
“The ones that are watching over me need to be,” Shaun said.
He went to open the door but it swung open quickly with Ricky on the other end of Ellie’s borrowed rifle. Ricky could not have looked happier to see someone. “I’m glad you are back. It didn’t go well, Shaun. Things weren’t good at all.”
Shaun stepped in slowly and the others fell in behind him machine guns ready. Ellie was on the bunk not moving and Shaun actually started to wonder if only for a second. He’d taken in the beds all covered with bodies that had white sheets stained in blood pulled up over them. There had to have been thirty of them lying there. The number of people left alive were drastically lessened.
He ran to Ellie’s bedside and startled her. He laid a hand on her shoulder thanking a God on most days he wasn’t sure existed, that she was still alive. “Ellie, are you okay? Damn it, you scared me.”
“Remember, I was supposed to take it easy per Doc Lou? Well, that hasn’t really been possible today and I’m sure that I over did it. I don’t know what hit me but I got tired as hell all of a sudden and had to lie down.”
Shaun looked at the blood on her hands and said, “You didn’t get hurt did you?”
She assessed her hands realizing she had the blood of the dead on them, and of her friends. She said, “No, that isn't mine. When the dead were trying to stick their arms in through the holes in the windows we chopped them off. I’m sure you noticed one or two of them walking around without arms.”
Shaun tried to smile but the death that was everywhere around him, most were people that he cared about made it difficult to try and be pleasant. Ellie lifted up his chin smiling lightly, “Hey, at least we’re still alive. I hate the idea of anything happening to you and we’re lucky every day we make it another, Shaun.”
He nodded looking back at Greg who was standing in front of a set of beds looking left then right and shaking his head. When Shaun moved so that he could see what he was looking at, he saw Karen and Theresa. He thought about Christy and could imagine what was going through him. He put a hand on Greg’s shoulder but he shook it off. He said, “Am I fucking cursed or what? God hates me maybe? Zombies with the first, assholes with second, what in the hell is it? Are we not meant to try and have people around us that we can afford to care about anymore?”
Shaun said, “You know that people care about you. We’re family at this point, man.”
“That is probably really hard for you to say knowing that you have Ellie sitting not more than a few feet from you ready to give you caring love anytime you need it. Someone who is going to hold you and tell you things might be okay even on the shittiest and bloodiest of days.”
Shaun looked at Ellie thinking that she very well had done such a thing and said, “Well, just remember a few months ago I was pretty sure multiple times that day that I was never going to see her again, and that was a fire in my heart I can’t say I ever want to feel again. But I don’t want to lose her at the same time. I guess I don’t have the answer, Greg. I'm sorry, man.”
“I wasn’t looking for apologies, or answers for that matter, it just seems like a long run of shit. These things or complete strangers out there that have nothing but bad intentions are what is going to ruin this world.”
Clary felt his way over and said, “Greg, we’re going to see this through and we’re going to go kill those fuckers. I can promise you that, son. The only thing that was keeping us in here was waiting for you guys to come help clear those things out. Oh, and the fact that I'm blind right now.”
Greg who had not yet seen or spoken to Clary said, “What in the hell happened to you?”
“I’d say that someone shooting at me didn’t know how to shoot worth a damn but it seems that wouldn’t be real accurate since I can’t see anything. I threw a grenade at them though and took most of them out. I'm going to be able to use one of my eyes; at least that’s what Lou said. But that might have been before he told me he was going to leave. If I need any type of real medical help I'm going to be screwed. I think he’s going to head out on his own once the mess is cleaned up. He wants to go off and bury his daughters and find a place that he can survive on his own. He brought up that he only came here with us because he had been looking for somewhere safe for his family and this seemed as good of a sanctuary as any. Unfortunately, that wasn’t how it played out of course and he’s alone, or at least he thinks he’s alone. But from listening to you and Shaun you seem like you are in the same boat.”
Greg said, “I don’t know much about me being alone but I would say lonely is definitely an accurate statement that you can make. I sure as hell appreciate the people that we do have here and the friends I got but having someone else is just as important. Don’t tell me what you would do for some fifty-year old your age to have as a girlfriend, or wife, or whatever you old dudes do for love.”