As they watched, the woman began convulsing. They had all assumed she would roll over and attempt to stand up. Instead, her back arched, lifting her midsection off the ground. She shook violently, thrashing her head and curling her emaciated fingers. Her belly bulged larger, breaking the buttons on her shirt and revealing the putrid skin beneath. It was stretched thin, nearly to the point of ripping. The bulge pulsed and writhed beneath it, beginning to glow with a slight greenish tint.
“What the holy fuck?” Dan said.
Jake crunched his brow, peering closely and clicking his tongue. “No fuckin’ way,” he said. “She’s having a Floater.”
“What!?” Drew exclaimed.
Jake was right. As the skin of her belly burst and flopped to the sides, a glowing green ball was revealed; veined and pulsing with life, just like the Floater Drew had shot a few days before.
“Okay,” Jake said. “So now we know where they come from.”
“I’m taking it out,” Dan said, going to the mudroom.
He opened the front door, moving to the window to poke his rifle through. Dan and Drew stayed behind to observe. Dan’s hands shook slightly, his nerves broken by the strange revelation, but he aimed true. One shot was all it took to burst the emerging Floater before it could free itself from the woman’s body.
As it exploded, a green cloud of spores erupted, puffing outward and floating gently to the ground. He lowered his rifle, and returned to the living room, where Jake was searching his pack.
“We should burn it,” Jake said, pulling out a red, can-shaped object. “Incendiary grenade. This should do it.”
He tossed it to Dan, who set down his rifle and returned to the mudroom. Dan unlocked the storm door, moving the barricade to open it to the outside. He stood in the doorway, pulled the pin, and lobbed the grenade across the street. It exploded with a blinding light, igniting the woman’s clothes, and incinerating the spores in a strange chain reaction that flashed like a lit fart.
As Dan returned to the living room, Drew and Jake were grabbing weapons. They went out, cautiously approaching the smoldering body. Dan took a look down the road, making sure she had not been followed by any others. It was clear.
The woman’s body was still burning in places, but the flesh had been mostly consumed in the flash. The bubbling and steaming remains of the Floater still sat within her body cavity; burst open and lifeless. The cord that held the knotted weight was coiled within her pelvis, and the fleshy ball itself looked as if it had been attempting to get free. Now, there was no movement at all; just a dead mass of sickening, slimy tissue.
“Groovy,” Jake said, looking down with a strangely intrigued expression. “That’s something you don’t see every day. Well… maybe nowadays.”
“I wonder why the spores are always green,” Dan said. “The original fog was orange.”
“Different flavor?” Drew suggested.
Jake went around the body, and held his hand up to stifle the laughter. “Wait a minute,” he said, nodding at Drew. “He’s got something there. Now that the spores are here on Earth, they might have been changed a little by Earth DNA. Maybe that’s also why the Stalkers never seem to be finished. There is something incompatible that interrupts the process.”
“Like maybe our genes aren’t good enough to host it properly?” Dan asked.
Jake shrugged. “Yeah. Or something like that. Or maybe their transformations are just getting interrupted by people poking them or shooting them. Maybe even disturbed by the Shufflers or something.”
“You said the Stalkers are usually made of people and animals that are more aggressive and predatory, right?” Dan said.
Jake nodded.
“Then what about Lenny’s wife? What was she?”
Jake looked at them, waiting for an explanation as to who Lenny was.
“Maybe she was just a huge bitch,” Drew answered.
Dan explained. “One of the houses we looted the other day had a Stalker in the attic. The guy we found there was unaffected, but acted like he was waiting for her finish and come down.”
Jake grunted. “Come down to what? Was he gonna dance with her?”
Dan shook his head. “Dunno, man. He said the Valkyries would take them away.”
“And then he attacked us and we blew his head off,” Drew added.
“Bummer for him,” Jake said. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to find out more from the others. For now, let’s get that power grid on.”
Dan and Drew went through the house, checking to make sure everything was off before Jake flipped the switch. There were a few appliances still plugged in, along with the box fan they had been using for circulation, but almost everything was off—as usual. Dan was never big on lights.
They gave Jake a quick nod through the door, and he went in and flipped the breaker. The fluorescent lights in the garage flickered on, prompting a big smile on Jake’s face.
“Bingo,” he said.
They went inside, testing the lights. Everything seemed to be working. They even heard the water heater filling up, telling them the well pump was working, too. Dan immediately went over to light the pilot.
“We’ll have hot water soon, boys,” he said.
“Alright,” Jake said. “Let’s keep the usage to a minimum. One light in whatever room we’re in, and only the essential appliances like the fridge, and the well pump.”
“Now that we have water,” Drew said. “We can wash the dishes and have some actual cooked food.”
“On plates,” Dan said grinning.
He went to his laptop, making sure it was charging. He plugged in his phone, connecting to the underground network.
“I’ll check the BBS for any news,” he said.
“You’re not gonna find anything,” Jake said. “Indy was blown up. We’ll have to search for more sites.”
Dan leaned back in his chair, frustrated. Jake was right. The BBS was probably centered in Indy. Martin Patterson was probably dead, along with all of his nerds and techies.
“Fuck,” Dan said.
Jake fished through his pack, producing a thin CD case. He flipped through it, selecting a disc and handing it to Dan.
“Here are some pages I was planning on adding to the Compendium,” he said. “You have a printer, right?”
Dan nodded, taking the disc and inserting it into the laptop. A window popped up, showing him a number of printable PDFs. He looked at the lower right corner, seeing that the home network was active again. He had forgotten to unplug his router, he guessed. No worries; it didn’t use much power, and at least they could keep connected within the router’s range.
“Drew,” he said. “Can you turn on the printer? It’s in my office.”
“You’ve got an office?” Drew laughed, going to the back room.
Dan went out to the deck, grabbing a beer and sitting on top of the table to watch the sunset. Jake came out too, laying his Apocalypse Compendium down on the table, and sitting in front of it. The chair creaked as he sat, and he shot Dan a look.
“Walmart furniture?” he joked.
“Menard’s,” Dan said.
Jake chuckled. “Just as bad,” he said. “I was thinking those pages could go here when they’re printed. I’ve got room for all the new sections, and some separators.”
“How long have you been collecting that shit?” Dan asked.
Jake leaned back, putting his hands behind his head. “For quite a few years now,” he said. “Shit like this has been on my mind for a while. Funny you came up with the same name for it.”
“It seemed like the logical name.”
“Somewhere along the way I got an interest in blades, too,” Jake added. “I’ve got instructions in here on how to build a forge, and some basic blacksmith techniques.”
“You’ve got blades?”
“Yeah, I brought a few of them. The good ones, anyway. I should build a forge here, so we can have some backup weapons.”
“What do you need?”
Jake thought for a second. “Some cinder blocks, lots of wood, and scrap metal.”
“I got plenty of all that,” Dan said, sweeping his arm across the top of the OSB. “An endless supply of wood, too.”
Drew came out, grabbed a beer, and sat on the chair across from Jake. “It’s printing,” he said. “You were almost out of paper though. We should get some more.”
“There are some other things we should get, too,” Jake said. “I noticed a serious lack of medical supplies. You have some basic shit, but nothing good enough for serious injuries.”
Dan nodded. “There’s a clinic in Martinsville we could hit,” he said. “And we should probably search for more ammo. What does that LMG use?”
“5.56 by 45,” Jake said. “Pretty common. I need some 30/30 for my Henry, too.”
“Shall we go out tonight, then?” Drew said.
Dan nodded, looking out at the evening sky. It was clear, not too cold, and the breeze was actually pleasant. “Sounds good,” he said. “It’s a good night for it. Let’s wait until it’s completely dark, though.”
“We should get some radios, too,” Jake said. “A couple sets, so we can each have one and stay connected if we get separated.”
“The farm store,” Dan said. “That will be our first stop. That’s where the ammo is anyway.”
Pauli came to the door, sitting down to stare at them all. They looked at him. He looked at each of them, then turned and went back in the house.
“Weird dog,” Jake said.
“You should have seen the cat,” Drew said. “Talk about weird.”
“Where did you find him?” Jake asked. “The dog, I mean.”
“In Paragon,” Dan said. “He was all alone there. I brought him with us because he seemed to be good at sniffing out the infected. He sensed a horde of them coming before we did.”
“Were there any Stalkers there?”
Dan shook his head. “Not that we saw,” he said. “Mostly Shamblers. They were pissed, too. Drew and I set them on fire.”
“Molotov Cocktails would be good to have,” Jake said, smiling. “I could rig up a flamethrower, too. That would save some ammo. I’ve got plans for nail bombs in here that I got from the Anarchist’s Cookbook. Lots of stuff from it, actually. I knew it would come in handy someday.”
“Do we have the materials here for any of that?” Drew asked. “Other than bottles and gas, I mean.”
“Not really. What do we need for a flamethrower?”
“An air compressor tank,” Jake began. “Some tubing, a butane torch, some valves, a gas pump nozzle, and some fuel. Diesel should work.”
“Alright,” Dan said. “It’s getting dark now. Let’s hit the road.”
They packed up some supplies for the road; plenty of ammo, two guns each, and some bottled water. Jake also had a large machete strapped to his back like a sword. They chose the Hummer for the trip, packing everything but the guns in the back, leaving room for any new items, of course.
Dan and Drew had their beers resting comfortably in the cup holders up front, and Jake sat like the Terminator in the back seat; his LMG raised up and out through the sunroof. Dan crept slowly down the road with only the parking lights on. The orange and red glow from the lights cast an eerie glow on the trees around them, and they all watched the tree line for any surprises that may come their way.
Dan kept his eyes peeled for any other odd things, including the Watcher that was still in the back of his mind. Some part of him wanted to see it again, but a larger part didn’t. Even though the thing’s appearance was not frightening in itself—it was just a shadow—the thought of it, and what it could be, was terrifying to him.
Either way, he decided to keep his mouth shut about it.
They rounded the bend near Dennis’ house, and Dan pointed out that was where they had fought their first battle. Jake listened with interest as Drew explained the details, and was surprised when they mentioned that one of the infected had been chewed on by the others.
“It must have been a Shuffler,” he said. “Maybe the aggressive Shamblers eat them sometimes?”
That was a good theory.
Dan turned onto the highway, still keeping the parking lights on. He was hesitant to turn on the headlights, as that would give away their position from miles away. There was no need for any surprises along the way; especially road blocks.
“Jake,” Drew said. “You don’t drink?”
Dan could see him shake his head in the rear-view mirror. “Nope,” he said indifferently. “It never appealed to me. I won’t judge you, though.”
“
Thanks!”
Drew said, grinning.
“It would probably take a gallon of whiskey to get me drunk, anyway.”
“How tall are you, anyway?” Dan asked.
“Six foot six,” Jake replied. “Don’t ask me how much I weigh, though. I’ll splat your head with my fist.”
Jake then leaned forward with a huge smile. “Hey, you guys know what day it is?”
“Fuck,” Dan said, not even knowing what month it was. “Nope.”
“It’s Friday the Thirteenth,” Jake said, leaning back. “Watch your asses.”
“Great,” Dan mumbled.
“Shit,” Drew added. “I thought it was Wednesday.”
Flashing red and blue lights behind them caught their attention. Dan looked at Drew in confusion. Drew stared back with the same look. Jake turned to look, grunting. “What the fuck?” he said.
“Is that a fucking cop?” Dan said.
“It sure as fuck is,” Jake replied.
“What do I do?”
“Fuck him,” Drew said. “He’s obviously lost it.”
The cop car blared its siren, urging them to pull over. Dan was torn—and confused as shit.
“Just pull over,” Jake said. “Maybe he wants to talk about his day.”
Dan sighed, pulling over to the side of the road. The cop car pulled in behind them, its lights still flashing and its spotlight trained on the back window of the Hummer. Dan put the vehicle in park, waiting, and looking at the others as they both sat nervously.
“If he gives you a ticket,” Drew said, “I’m gonna laugh my ass off.”
Dan watched in the side-view mirror, his heart pounding. The cop didn’t seem to be doing anything, which made the situation all the more tense. Drew and Jake both shifted nervously, and Dan could hear Jake curse in a low whisper.
Finally, a flashlight appeared from the side of the cop car, and it bobbed and swung as its owner came near the driver’s side door. Dan looked up as the cop shined the light right in his eyes.
“Roll down the window,” the cop said.
Dan looked at Drew, who sat motionless, then turned back as he rolled down the Hummer’s window.
“What seems to be the problem, officer?” Dan asked.
The cop shined his flashlight throughout the cab. “You were driving with your lights off.”
“Um…” Dan stammered. “Sir, do you know what’s going on?”
The cop shined his light back into Dan’s eyes. Dan squinted, turning his head.
“Are you trying to be a smart-ass, son?” the cop asked. “I know what’s going on. It doesn’t excuse anyone from breaking the law.”
“Um…”
“Where did you get this vehicle, sir?”
“We bought it,” Dan said. “From some Arabs.”
He heard Jake snicker in the back seat.
“Sir,” the cop said; his tone much harsher. “Please step out of the car.”
Dan pressed the window button. “Go fuck yourself,” he said as the window raised.
The cop reared back his flashlight to bash the window, reaching for his gun with his other hand. Dan leaned toward the middle of the cab, putting the Hummer in gear and stomping on the gas. The tires squealed just as the flashlight bounced harmlessly off the window, and the Hummer shot forward at top speed. Shots sounded behind them, and the impact of several bullets rang out. They too bounced off harmlessly.
“What the fuck, man?” Drew said. “Is that guy fucking nuts?”
“He’s following us,” Jake said. “Punch it.”
Dan saw the flashing lights behind him as they gained on the Hummer. He stepped on the gas, pulling away, but the car kept up.
“Jesus, man,” Jake said. “He’s got a score to settle or something. Maybe you should have been nicer.”
“Fuck that cop,” Dan said. “We got shit to do.”
Dan gripped the wheel tightly, keeping his eyes on the rear-view mirror. The cop was gaining on them fast, and Dan had to come up with a plan to lose him. Ahead, the reflective green exit sign caught his attention. They would be going over route 39, where there would be a concrete guard rail. Maybe he could smash the cop into it. He let off the gas just enough for the cop to catch up somewhat, keeping a steady pace so as not to lose him or allow him to get too close.
“What are you doing?” Drew asked.
“Just wait,” Dan said, eyeing the edge of the guardrail as it came into view ahead. As the cop clipped his back bumper, he swerved to the left and let off the gas. The cop car shot up, coming parallel, and Dan swerved back to the right. The two vehicles smashed together, and Dan cut the wheel hard, driving the cop into the concrete. Sparks flew as the car’s side panels scraped against the rail, and Dan gritted his teeth in satisfaction.
“Slam him again,” Jake urged him on.
Dan cut the wheel right again, driving the cop car tighter against the concrete. Then, there was a bang as the cop hit the signpost, and the Hummer was jolted. Dan swerved to straighten out, watching the rear-view mirror as the cop car spun out; flipping over repeatedly, and skidding to a stop on its roof.
“Have a good evening, officer,” Dan said, grinning.