Aftershock: A Collection of Survivors Tales (22 page)

As I moved out of the stairwell into the second floor hallway I heard voices. Faint but there, coming from the last door on the right. One of them was crying. I moved against the wall and made my way slowly up the hall holding the knife low, ready to gut the next motherfucker I saw. Outside the door I could definitely make out three distinct voices. One female and two male. Guess which one was crying?

I tried the knob, but the door was locked. I reared back to kick in the door, but I heard one of the male voices moving toward the door. I backed up and hid in the next room, falling just out of sight as I heard the door open. Whoever it was hawked and spat on the floor. He moved past the doorway I was hiding in and I got a good look at him. Another fat mountain of flesh, pale and sweaty, dressed in filthy sweatpants and no shirt. The way I saw it, I was doing what was left of humanity a favor by ending this shithead’s life.

I moved behind him and in one motion rocked his head back with my left forearm and brought the knife around and into his throat. Blood sprayed the carpet and he dropped to his knees with a thud. His hands went to his neck as he tried to spin around to face me. The look on his face was totally incredulous, like he couldn’t understand how he had gone from raping some woman one second to bleeding to death in a dank hallway the next. I put a boot in his face and sent him to his back.

“Rot in hell you piece of shit.” I hawked my own loogie and spat in his face.

I turned toward the room again and moved into the now open doorway. I only saw the woman. She way tied face down to the bed. She wasn’t crying anymore, probably because she was dead. Maybe she was better off that way all things considered.

I waited in the door way for Mystery Guest #3 to show his face so I could peel it off his fucking skull and wipe my ass with it. I stood there for at least a minute and nothing which meant he knew I was there and wasn’t going to show himself.

“Come on out asshole, “ I called into the room, “Let’s get this over with.”

“Fuck you!” came the reply.

I moved slowly through the door watching for any movement. I caught sight of the bastard’s elbow around the corner behind the bed. What kind of weapon did he have? It couldn’t be a gun otherwise he would have fired by now. I bent to pick up a shoe off the floor. I whipped it at the exposed elbow and chuckled when he cried out. I heard the thud of whatever he was holding and charged him. As I came around the corner, he had crouched to pick up the baseball bat he had dropped.

I brought my knee hard into his temple and he went sprawling to the floor. I came down on top of him with a knee in his chest and hit him three times in the bridge of the nose with the haft of the knife, knocking him out.

I could have just slit his throat and been done with it, but I decided that might be too good for this puke. I got up and looked back at the bed. The naked body looked used and empty in a way I had never seen before. I cut the ropes and rolled the body to the floor. I picked up the unconscious fuck and tied him down in her place. I stuffed a dirty rag into his mouth for when he woke up.

I moved around to the head of the bed and grabbed a hold of his thumb. I bent it back sharply toward the wrist until I heard it snap. He came to instantly, his eyes went wide and he immediately started screaming behind the gag. I smile at him as I grabbed his index finger and snapped it sideways. His eyes clamped shut now and it was his turn to cry.

“You are a group of very sick individuals,” I told him as I moved around toward the left side of the bed, “The world has gone to Hell. Literally. And you and your little group are here doing this?!” I motioned toward the body on the floor. “Just so you know, there is always a price to pay. Walking corpses or no.”

I snapped the fingers on his left hand one by one. By the time I took hold of his pinky, he had passed out again. I didn’t want to leave him the opportunity to try and get free so I also broke each wrist. I scooped the bat off of the floor and swung it hard at both of his knees.

“Enjoy your slow death.” With that I turned and walked out of the room, bat in hand, buck knife in my back pocket.

With the rest of the hall cleared, I moved to the ground floor. The entrance to the building took up most of the space. Two large supply closets lined the back wall. I opened the first and found cans upon cans of food and three cases of MRE’s. There was also enough bottled water in here to last William and I a month. The second closet held the contents of the Jeep. My rifles, William’s backpack, and there in the middle of the pile, with a big fucking halo around it was Cappy. I tossed the bat and grabbed the crowbar.

I doubted there was anyone else in this building, but I had no way of knowing if this was the only occupied one so I figured we should move quick. Setting Cappy back down I grabbed my M4, checked the chamber and mag, and flipped off the safety. It felt good to have a rifle in my hands again.

I went back for William who was very pleased to hear that I had found his backpack. Or at least I’m guessing he was pleased, how the fuck could I tell. I left him in the entry closet with our supplies and told him I would be back as soon as I had scouted the street. He nodded, only half paying attention, he was rummaging around in his backpack for God-knows-what.

I left him on his own and moved toward the door. Out on the street, I could see the bodies of the men I killed yesterday. There were also a ton of wrecked cars, burnt-out and flipped over like charred turtles. None of these were going to do us any good. I knew the Jeep was around the corner, unless they’d moved it, but I doubted they had. There was no way I could drag William out onto the street without knowing if any of these other buildings were occupied. Too risky.

Then I had an idea. Not my best idea, granted, but a serviceable distraction and maybe a bit of revenge for all those women upstairs. I was going to burn this fucker down.

I moved William and our supplies to the back fire door. I also liberated a couple cases of MRE’s and several gallons of water. If we didn’t find a vehicle quickly, I wasn’t going to be able to carry much of it and I knew better than to ask William. Still, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity and I sure as shit wasn’t leaving it here.

I moved up to the third floor and started piling books and garbage in the hall. A place this filthy would burn easy enough, at least I hoped it would. I was right. By the time I made it from the end of the hall to the stair well, the pile of trash had already caught the wall behind it.

I ran down to the ground floor and hustled Ian out into the alley. I heard glass shattering around the front of the building, but didn’t hear any kind of alarm, no yelling, no one running to check out the smoke billowing from the now busted windows. Maybe that was a good sign. I still had to find wheels ricky-tick. The fire wasn’t going to stay in one building. My guess was the whole town would be in flames by sundown.

I left Ian and our pile of worldly goods in the alley and made my way cautiously to the street. I hugged the wall as I moved past one wreck after another. As I rounded the next corner, I spotted a sign for a used car lot. I got my hopes up a little too high. As the lot came into view, I saw that all that was left of it was a giant pile of twisted metal. Like every vehicle was thrown in a pile and then stomped on. Strike two.

I didn’t want to move too far from William just in case there were still more of them here. And even though I hadn’t seen a walking corpse since yesterday, I had no way of knowing if there were any of them here either. Fuck, for all I knew these sick fucks kept them as pets.

I had just about given up and decided we would have to go on foot when I saw it. A big, beautiful Humvee parked half way up on the curb. Not some pussified civilian Hummer either, this was the real deal. Painted desert sand like it just came back from the Gulf. Had we made a right instead of a left in the Jeep yesterday we probably would have run right into the fucking thing.

I slid along the wall and opened the passenger door. The floor was littered with beer cans and chip bags. Fucking travesty. I crawled over the mess and hit the starter. It took three tries, but that diesel sucking motherfucker roared to life and I couldn’t help but celebrate a little.

I threw the tranny into gear, cut the wheel hard to the left, and pulled off the curb. Half way through my u-turn the windshield exploded into a spider web of cracked glass. I knew it was too good to be true. We still had some friends here. I tore ass up the street and slammed on the brakes in front of the alley where William was waiting. The top two floors were already blazing and a plume of black smoke rose into the sky.

“Time to go buddy,” I shouted as I jumped out the door, “Grab your back pack and climb in. Stay low to the ground, and crawl onto the floor like I showed you. Okay?”

William nodded, stone-faced and did as he was told. I grabbed an arm load of gear and tossed it through the back door, ran back to the pile and did it again. On the third trip I heard footsteps slapping on concrete. We’d have to leave the rest.

I jumped behind the wheel and we took off. Another round punched into the back window, embedding itself in the glass. I kissed my palm and slapped the roof.

“You can come up now William.” He climbed into the seat and strapped himself in dutifully.

“This car is very dirty.”

“You bet your ass kiddo,” I said laughing, “We can clean it up later. Right now I want to get us the hell out of here and out into the real world again. Where all you have to worry about is a reanimated dead body trying to eat you alive.”

My humor was always lost on William. He just sat staring out the window as the buildings flew by. Eventually the buildings gave way to more and more trees. I backed off the gas, but just a little. I didn’t see any vehicles following but I wasn’t taking chances.

“I think I would like to be a soldier,” William said randomly from his side of the Humvee, “I think I would make a good soldier.”

“You know what? I think your right. How’s about I start teaching you tomorrow,” I replied.

“It is a deal.”

As soon as I couldn’t see smoke on the horizon and I was relatively sure nobody had tried to follow, I pulled off into the woods and drove us back along a fire trail. I cut the engine and just sort of slumped in my seat. I had nothing left in the tank, I mean beyond running on fumes. My adrenaline cut off like a switch and the last two days fell on me like a truck dropped from the top of a skyscraper. I let out one long sigh and commenced to falling asleep.

“Do you promise that tomorrow you will teach me to be soldier?” came a voice from half a mile away.

“Train. The word is train,” I replied, “And yeah kid, tomorrow you start basic. Right now, I gotta sleep, K?”

“Okay. I will make a very good soldier.”

With that he pulled his knees up, let his head fall, and closed his eyes. He was out before I was, I could hear the soft snore. As I drifted off myself I wondered what kind of soldier William would make.

It was barely dark when I had passed out the night before, but I still slept until almost noon given the sun. One of those things was beating itself against the back window. William was staring at it with that blank look of his. I realized it wasn’t completely blank though. It was like he was trying to figure something out, and like he almost had. There were three more of them in the woods slowly dragging toward the Humvee. I knew there was no way they were getting in here, but if too many of them gathered we may not be able to get enough momentum to push through them and get out.

“You ready to roll out William?”

“Yes. Today you will start training me to be a soldier. It is very important that I learn to be a good soldier.”

“Abso-fuckin-lutely! Let’s blow this pop stand.” I hit the starter and threw the Humvee into gear. I saw a wide spot up ahead that should serve to make a three point turn and get us out of the woods and back on the road to New Jersey. Though for the life of me I had no idea why I should be excited to go there.

“When I am a soldier, will I have to swear so much too?” William asked contemplatively.

“It does kind of come with the territory. Just never cuss around a lady or a C.O.” I chuckled at my own little joke.

William sat for minute pondering and just sort blurted out, “Fuck.” Then he nodded approvingly to himself. I laughed out loud over that one and gave the steering wheel a healthy punch.

“Did I do that wrong?”

I pantomimed wiping away a tear and said, “I’m so proud. You’re a natural kid. Let’s call that lesson one. And you, my friend, are all go.”

For the next fifteen minutes William sat in the passenger seat with the calculator look on his face staring out the front window, randomly picking one four-letter word and repeating a few times until he felt like he had it down. He started with the basics, fuck, shit, dickhead, you know fifth-grade stuff. He seemed to graduate to mother fucker and cock sucker pretty quick, he did spend quite a bit of time on the former, wanting to get that one just right before moving on. I smiled the whole time. Another five miles down the road he started experimenting a little, stringing together some of the smaller words. I don’t know where the hell he came up with ass-cunt, but I laughed my balls off at it and decided I may add it to my own arsenal.

When he had exhausted his own list he asked if I knew any others. I told him he had pretty well covered all the ones I knew. I did try to teach the couple of curses I knew in Farsi, but my own pronunciation was bad enough, I don’t think either one of us would have been understood. We passed most of the afternoon that way and I have to say it was the first real good time I had had since before Bentonville.