The Beginning of the End (15 page)

Kane stood there. His
shirt and face were covered with blood spatter. He walked behind the
desk and pulled a towel from the top drawer. He used the corner of
the towel to wipe the blood off his lips, when he pulled the towel
away it was covered with blood, “You must excuse me. I look a
mess.” He said pulling a T-shirt from another drawer. Kane
unbuttoned his bloody shirt exposing long jagged scars and small
round healed cuts. Sage watched as Kane ran his finger along one of
the jagged scars, “I got this one on my fifteenth birthday because
I spilled my milk on the table.” Kane’s finger traveled over to a
round scar by his nipple, “This one was a present from my dad when
I was eight. He gave it to me because he saw a bully throwing rocks
at me after school. He must have thought putting his cigar out of my
chest would make me tougher.” Kane turned his back to the girls and
wiped away the rest of Sarah’s blood. He threw on the T-shirt and
took a seat at his desk, “Let me start by apologizing. I like to
meet with all the girls before I put them away. Unfortunately, I had
to take care of urgent business with Sarah, and our meeting ran a
little long. I appreciate you both waiting for me here in my office.”
“Meeting!” Sage shouted, “You cut that woman’s foot off with
a chainsaw, you sick fuck! And how do you expect us to go anywhere!
You have us chained to the ceiling?”

Kane followed the chain
links up to the rafters and back down to the girls, “Well, I guess
I do. All the same. Thanks for waiting.”

Kane leaned back in the
chair, interlocking his fingers and resting his hands on his chest,
“I’m sure by now you’re both wondering why you’re here.”
Kate perked up, “To get your jollies?” “Hmm. You’re not
entirely far off. You see, I like things. Especially pretty things. I
send my boys out every night, and they try to find me pretty things,
like the two of you. In return, I lead them. I teach them how to
hunt, gather food, and keep order. They follow my rules. If they
decide they don’t like my leadership, they can challenge me.
Whoever is still alive at the end of the challenge is the new
leader.” Kane pulled the cane knife out from his belt and dragged
his thumb across the blade, “And I’m always up for a good
challenge! Do either of you have any questions?”

“Yeah, what are you
going to do with us?” Kate asked. Kane smiled at her, “You
haven’t guessed yet. You two aren’t very good at this game. Why,
I’m going to cut you up into little pieces and play with you!”

October 12th 1:20am

I pushed play on the
first voice message. Chevy and I couldn’t take our eyes off from
the scrolling bar that ran along the bottom of the screen.

Nothing but silence,
followed by a click. I thumbed down to the next message and hit play.
It was more silence. “Come on!” I growled, feeling the
frustration building inside of me. I recognized the next number. It
was my Dad's. “Hi honey, the Lieutenant was looking for a couple of
guys to do a prisoner relay to New York City and back. It’s twelve
hours of double time. I told him I’d do it. I’m going to take one
of the new rookies with me and let him drive while I sleep. If you
need me, I’ve got me cell. Love you, bye.”

The message ended,
“Well that explains where Dad is.”

I couldn’t help but
think of what kind of danger he was in, with all those people in New
York City. The same thing had to be going on there. I couldn’t
worry about that now. I had to find my mom. She’s been here alone
and with Dad gone, I had to take care of her. I moved down to the
next message. It didn’t display a number, it said no caller ID. I
hit play and a female computer voice came on, “Do you feel like
you’re paying your cable provider too much?” I hit delete and
moved on.

The next number was
Dad’s again. I pressed play and listened. “Jen! Something’s
happened. Everyone is sick down here, and they’re coming back
attacking people. Get ahold of Ty and Chevy, lock the doors! Tell Ty
to bring up some weapons. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s
bad. I am trying to get back home. I love-“ The call went dead!
Fear took control of my body. I couldn’t move. Chevy was still
staring at the phone. “Chevy, Dad was scared! Nothing scares him!”
Chevy pointed to the phone, “Play the next message! Maybe he called
back!” I scrolled down looking at the next number. I didn’t
recognize it, but it looked like a local number. “Hello Jennifer,
its Mrs. Harper across the street. Could I trouble you to come over
for a while?” There was a pause on the other end. “To be honest.
I’m a bit afraid. There was just a young man trying to get into my
front door. He was covered in blood. He’s gone now, but I’m still
scared. I can see your lights on from over here. I’ll try calling
you on your house phone.” The call ended. I jumped out of my seat
and looked out the window across the street. I had known Mrs. Harper
my whole life. Her husband passed away before I was born, so I spent
most of my childhood mowing her lawn and shoveling snow out of her
driveway in the winter. Unlike most of the elderly people in the
neighborhood, she paid well. I usually got twenty for mowing her lawn
and thirty for shoveling. It was a long driveway, so she felt the
need to give me the extra ten bucks. One time, I told my mother how
much she paid me, she said that it was too much because she had
little to spare. My mom sent me over to return some of the money, but
Mrs. Harper wouldn’t take it. She said, “A fair day’s wage, for
a fair days work!” and closed the door. At the time, I wasn’t
sure what that meant, but I got to keep all the money. So it worked
out well for me.

Mrs. Harper’s house
was dark now, and the front door was wide open. I called back to
Chevy who was replaying the messages in the kitchen, “We need to go
over there, Chev!”

Chevy joined me at the
window and asked which one. I pointed across the street, “The white
house across the street with the red door.” Without looking away
from the house he asked, “The one with the open red door?” I
nodded, “We need to go over there right now!” Chevy slid his hand
down and gripped the MP-9, “Yes we do.”

I stepped out the front
door, and chambered a round in my AR-15. Chevy pulled the MP-9 from
his holster and did the same. I moved onto the porch and looked
around, “It looks clear, but keep your eyes open.” I whispered.

Chevy followed, as I
crept down the front steps. We got to the edge of sidewalk, and I
dropped to a knee. I closed my eyes for a second and listened.
Silence, came from every direction. I rose to my feet with my rifle
at ready, leading the way. We broke into a slow trot as we crossed
the street, stopping at a set of bushes leading up to Mrs. Harper’s
house. I flipped on the combat light that was affixed to the rifle’s
barrel. We cautiously entered the house. It was instantly reminded me
of Mrs. Harper when I took my first breath. Since I was a boy, I
thought that her house had a strange old smell to it. Even now, I was
overpowered by that strange ancient aroma. I tracked my rifle across
the living room giving light to antique objects in the room. The age
of her life collections gave me an eerie feeling. Why did old
sometimes feel so scary?

We cleared the living
room and made our way through the rest of the house. It was empty.
Everything seemed in place except an old wooden coat rack that had
been tipped over, and was now laying across the stairwell.

“What do you think,
Chevy?” He gave the coat rack a tap with his foot, “I don’t
know. Maybe she was in a hurry when she left and didn’t realize she
knocked it over.”

“And forgot to lock
her front door? I don’t think so, let’s get out of here and head
back across the street.”

I stepped out of the
front door first and found myself looking down the business end of a
double barrel shotgun. “What are you doing in there?” screamed an
old man. He was wearing a leather fedora that made him look a little
like Indiana Jones. My rifle was hanging from the sling, so I
instinctively threw my hands above my head, “I was just looking for
my mom!” I stuttered.

The old man took a step
back lowering his shotgun, “And just who would your mom be?”
“Jennifer! She lives right there with my dad, Sean!” I lowered a
finger, pointing to my parent’s house. The old man pushed the brim
of his hat back, “Son they’re not here.” With his hat back, I
could see his face, “Mr. Smith!” I suddenly felt a sense of
relief. Mr. Smith had lived on the street my entire life, and he used
to own the store down on the corner. Once I was old enough, it seemed
like my mom sent me there daily for something whenever she cooked.
Milk, eggs, sugar. As I think back, I have to wonder if she ever
shopped. “We need to go somewhere safe and talk, why don’t you
tell your friend, he can stop pointing his gun at me,” Mr. Smith
said. Chevy never stepped out of the house, he was still inside and
only his gun barrel was visible, which was still pointed at Mr.
Smith. “It’s okay, Chevy! Let’s go back to my parent’s house
where it’s safe!”

We walked over
together, went inside, and took up seats around the kitchen table.
Mr. Smith took off his hat and set it on his knee, “Do you boys
have any idea what’s going on?” We both shook our heads “no,”
and leaned in to listen. “I’m just going to give you the high
lights.” Mr. Smith said. “It seems someone out in Crazy-fornia
went and found themselves a case of Ebola. Well, it spread in the air
like the flu and worked its way across the world in just few days.
The good news is, that as it spread it became less deadly. It mutated
so much that for most people, it was nothing more than a case of the
sniffles. That’s the good news. It seems the government scientists
came up with a magical cure, and without telling anyone, they dumped
it in the water supply all over the world. Well, their big plan
backfired, and I guess there was some sort of malfunction with the
cure. The last time the TV worked, the President addressed the
nation. He said that if you mix what’s left of the Ebola sickness
with the magic cure in the water, you’ll turn into one of those
dead things. So don’t drink the water boys! How is it, you two
don’t know any of this? What have you been doing for the last
week?” Chevy gave Mr. Smith a bashful look, “I guess we’ve been
playing a lot of Xbox.” Mr. Smith looked back and forth at us,
“Well, you didn’t drink none of that water did ya?”

“No. I guess we drank
a lot of soda.” I said. “Lucky for you two, you’d both be one
of the dead if you did. That’s what they’re calling them, you
know, Dead!” Chevy broke into the conversation. “What about the
government and the Army and stuff! What are they doing?”

“Dammit son!” Mr.
Smith barked, “Maybe you should take a break from those video games
and watch some news once in a while. There isn’t one, whole Army’s
dead. When this thing started, most were getting sick themselves. The
government made sure they drank the water first to keep’em safe,
must have put it in their canteens. Now most of the soldiers are
either dead or the Dead. I’m sorry boys, but it’s a new world
now, and it’s not a very nice one.” Silence overtook the room for
what seemed like hours. Finally, I broke it, “This sounds like the
beginning of the end. I need to find my mother, do you have any idea
where she is Mr. Smith.”

Mr. Smith looked down
at the shotgun in his lap, wiped away an imaginary piece of lint,
“I’m sorry, Ty. She’s gone.” I sat straight up in my chair,
“What do you mean she’s gone? Where did she go?” This time when
I looked at him, his eyes were wet and glassy. “Some men took her
and Sarah. I wanted to help, but they all had guns and were driving
around in one of those big Army Humvees. One guy was even on top with
a big machine gun. I’m sorry, there was nothing I could do.” I
knew exactly who he was talking about, “Don’t worry Mr. Smith.
We've seen those men, and they had some girls tied to the back of the
Humvee. We wanted to help them too, but we didn’t have any weapons.
Now we do! I know my mom is still alive, and we’re going to find
her and save all of them.”

October 12th 7:04am

It wasn’t the
knocking that woke Sidara. It was the sun coming up over gorgeous
Lake Champlain. The heat warmed her face, and the color behind her
lids turned from black to orange. She lifted a hand to block the
sunlight, and strained to open her eyes.

Sidara worked her way
to her feet and reached for the box of cake rolls, peeling back the
plastic wrapper and shoving half of it in her mouth. A few chews in,
she was startled by a bang in the front of the house. She grabbed her
newly acquired .44 Magnum off the kitchen table and ran out into the
living room. Someone was smashing against the hallway door loosening
the makeshift chair wedge. Sidara reached it too late to secure the
chair against the door. It fell away as the door swung open. A dead
man pushed his way into the room taking hold of her vest, sending
them both backwards over the coffee table. The dead man was on top of
her snapping his teeth. She lifted the pistol against the man’s
forehead and pulled the trigger. The gun went off blowing the man’s
head backward. The uncontrollable recoil of the gun, sent the barrel
hurling up, striking Sidara on the cheek, “Ouch!” she yelped, but
didn’t hear anything. The sound of the gun left a high pitch
ringing her ears.

Two more dead came
charging into the living room. Sidara jumped to her feet and headed
for the kitchen. There was nowhere to go, but the pantry. She slung
her rifle around her neck and closed the bi-fold doors behind her.
The two dead smashed through the kitchen door, she watched them
walking around through the slats in the door. One of them was a woman
making a loud sniffing sound, lifting her head as she did it. The
woman smelled again and turned toward the bi-fold door. “They can
smell me.” she whispered as she looked through the pantry for a way
to escape. About to give up, she looked at the ceiling and saw a
framed in square. That had to be an attic access. She used the food
shelves as a ladder and climbed her way to the top. A light push
against the ceiling tile and it popped right out. She climbed up a
little further and stuck her head though the hole. Cool attic air
swept across her face. She climbed up into the attic and replaced the
piece of sheet rock masking her escape. Below, the dead woman smashed
through the bi-fold door looking for the scent.