Apocalypse Empire (Book 1): Apocalypse Origins (18 page)

"I'll give it a try. Keep an eye out, okay?" 

"Okay," Shirley replied. She did her best to stay
alert as Jackson headed towards one of the vehicles. 

"Don't move," a voice said.

Shirley and Jackson made to turn around when the voice spoke
again, "I said don't move!".

Greg stirred as Carol slid into bed next to him. "Your
turn," she whispered quietly.

"Already?"

"It's midnight. You've been asleep for hours."

"Alright," Greg grumbled as he roused himself. He
kissed Carol on the forehead then headed downstairs. He'd have to stay up for
about three hours, then he could wake James up for his turn. He found the c.b.
radio sitting on table downstairs and figured he might as well pass time seeing
if he could hear anything. Fifteen minutes later he turned the radio off, still
nothing but static. Greg wandered over to a window and pulled back the covering
a tad so he could look outside. Full moon tonight. It was actually quite
beautiful. If things were different, he'd love to take Carol somewhere so they
could see stuff like this all the time. Hawaii or Cancun or something. He found
himself slightly grateful for what happened. He
wasn't necessarily glad it happened but it had led to him and Carol
getting together. He mentally kicked himself for all the time they could have
had together. He wasn't ready to confess his undying love, but he would have
liked getting to know her without having to worry about if they were gonna live
through the day.

A flash of movement caught his eye and he looked for the
source. Had that been his imagination? He was sure he'd just seen something
move a moment ago. He was just about to give up and conclude he had to be
mistaken when he saw movement again. Same place as last time. And here! A few
feet from the first. No mistaking it this time. Someone was outside the house,
more than one actually. Was it infected? No, probably not. Subtlety didn't
seem to be their strong suit from what he'd observed so far. So that left other
survivors then. Maybe someone had seem them pull in earlier this evening. Greg
sighed. He had to assume they were hostile. Why sneak around otherwise? He
could go wake the others but then he'd lose track of where they were. Based on
their movement, it looked like they were heading for the back of the house.
Greg stepped away from the window and drew his pistol. Greg looked around for
something to use for cover and his eyes rested on the couch. As quietly as he
could, he tipped it over. It wasn't ideal but it was better than standing in
the open.

Greg heard scrabbling at the back door and figured they were
trying to get the door open without making too much noise. Still, Greg didn't think
this could be resolved peacefully. They didn't bust in, which meant they
weren't necessarily looking to hurt them outright. They probably just wanted
their food. Greg wasn't sure if that made a difference though. With limited
resources, taking their food seemed no different from putting a gun to their
head. And how could he trust that they wouldn't try to hurt them? He doubted
they were breaking in without some sort of weapons on them. Greg heard a click
and the back door slowly opened. The moon was bright outside, he couldn't make
out details but could see several people in the doorway. 

"Okay," one whispered, "let's keep this
quiet. They put their cars in the garage so we'll just grab them and be on our
way."

"What if we run into someone?" another asked.
"They might be armed."

"Then we take care of them," the first voice
replied. "It's us or them. They've got stuff that we need to survive. Now,
let's go and get this down." Greg waited until the first figure stepped
through the doorway and squeezed the trigger. The man grunted and fell to the
ground.

"Look out!" someone yelled. The figures scrambled
away from the doorway and began returning fire. Greg ducked his head as chips
from the couch rained down on his head. He heard footsteps coming down the stairs
and figured James was on his way down.

"Greg! What's happening?" James asked.

"At least four guys trying to get in."

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"Figured the gunshots would wake you and I didn't want
to lose track of them coming to get you."

"Fair enough," James said as he leaned out of the
stairwell and fire off a few shots.

"How is everyone?"

"I've got them all in the same room," James
replied. "They're both armed in case this goes south."

Greg fired off a few more shots and sighed in disappointment
when it clicked empty. "You have another clip?"

"No, just what I got in here." James fired off the
rest of his rounds and heard a grunt in response. "How many is that so
far?"

"Two, by my count."

A few minutes passed in silence with neither side firing.
"They're out!" someone shouted from outside. "Rush 'em!"

Several figure burst into the room and paused when they
didn't see anyone. "Check that couch," someone directed. "And
one of you get that garage open. The rest of us are going upstairs."

"What? They might be waiting."

"So what? They're outta bullets just like us. They're
gonna pay for killing our friends."

Greg heard footsteps approach the couch and waited until
there were nearly on top of him. He suddenly jumped up and lashed out using the
butt of the pistol as a weapon. He caught someone in the temple and the crashed
to the floor with a grunt.

"They're still here!" someone yelled. "Get
'em from both sides."

Greg waited for two of the figures to approach him from the
right. He trusted that James would deal with the other two. When they got close
enough, he quickly stepped forward and kicked the first figure in the stomach.
As he staggered away, Greg deflected a punch from the second and managed a
strike to his throat that left him gasping for air. Greg followed up with a
kick to the groin and finished him off with a blow to the back of the head as
leaned over in pain. Greg looked for his first attacker and saw he was still
recovering. Greg took advantage and delivered several swift blows with the
pistol that left him unconscious.

James waited for the two figures to flank Greg and then
sprang from his hiding place. The first crumpled immediately from a vicious
blow to the head from James's pistol. The second turned in shock and James gave
him two hard blows with the pistol. James looked for more opponents and saw
someone heading towards Greg with a knife. Greg was finishing off his second
opponent and didn't seem aware of the danger. James sprinted across the room
and tackled the assailant to the ground. He mounted him and used his knees to
pin his arms to the ground. Several blows from the pistol left
him unconscious at best.

Greg looked up and saw that James had tackled someone to the
ground. Looks like James had just saved his life. He saw movement in the corner
of his eye and looked towards the stairs to see two figures heading up. He
sighed in relief a moment later when a shotgun blast sent them tumbling down
the stairs. One of the figures scrambled to his feet, his friend must have
taken the brunt of the blast, only to be sent crashing into the wall from a
second shot. The unmistakable sound of a shotgun being cocked brought an
end to the fight. Laura walked down the stairs and stepped over the bodies.
 She had a menacing look on her face and Greg was glad she was
on his side. She aimed her shotgun and the people still standing.

"Are we done here?" she asked.

Those still on their feet raised their hands and began
backing towards the door. "Yeah, we're done," one answered.
"We're sorry. We just wanted some food."

"You think it’s okay to take food from my
children?" Laura asked angrily. She let off another shot and another
figure fell to the ground. "Get out of here before I kill all of
you!"

The two remaining figures made for the door only to freeze
when series of howls pierced the night. That's just great Greg thought. The
fight had drawn the infected to them. It sounded really close so they didn't
have long. The two remaining figures sprinted away into the night, leaving
their friends where they lay. "We need to move," Greg said.

"You're right. Good shooting, Laura," James said.

Laura nodded. Carol led the kids down the stairs and tossed
Greg his machete. "I heard the howls. We're leaving right?"

"Yeah," Greg said, "Let's get to the
cars." Greg approached Carol and fished for another magazine in the bag
she was carrying. "Alright, let's-" A crash against the front door
told them they were out of time. A moment later, the living room windows broke
as the infected pounded on them and began making their way into the room. Greg
started shooting and several infected fell to the ground. "Get to the
cars!" he shouted. 

Laura let off another blast from her shotgun then grabbed
the kids and headed for the garage. James had reloaded the pistol and let off
some shots of his own. They were doing okay so far. The infected could only
come in so many at a time through the window but that wouldn't last. Other
infected were pounding on the door and it was bouncing in its frame. Greg
thought it would only be a matter of time before it gave out. Carol unloaded
her pistol and more infected fell to the ground. 

"Let's go!" James yelled. "There's too
many!" Just then the door fell to the ground under the combined weight of
the infected pounding on it.

"Go!" Greg yelled. "I'll distract them. Get
me on the next block."

"What?" Carol asked desperately. "Let's get
out here now!"

Greg fired until his gun was empty and then drew his
machete. The assault slowed down a bit as the infected had to climb over the
bodies to get into the house. "We don't know how many are out there. What
if we open the garage and the cars can't get out. I need to draw some of them
off."

"He's right, Carol," James said. "Let's go.
We don't have much time."

"Take my pistol at least," Carol said.
"There's a few shots left."

Greg nodded and took her gun. "Go. I'll distract them
and then head out the back."

James grabbed Carol by the hand and led her towards the
garage. Greg thrust his machete through the neck of an infected crawling
through the window. He only needed to buy a few moments and then he could be on
his way. Several infected made it through the doorway and Greg fired three
shots before running out. He spent a few moments hacking with his machete but
knew he had to leave soon. Several more infected shoved through the doorway and
Greg managed to stab the first in the chest. He kicked the infected in the
chest to get it off the blade and it sailed backwards and knocked several more
infected to the ground. Looking back to the window Greg saw more infected
climbing into the room and realized it was time to go. He sheathed his machete
and sprinted for the back door. He quickly crossed the backyard and approached
the fence. He'd only get one shot at this, footsteps behind him told him the
infected were right on his heels. He jumped as he approached the fence and
grabbed the top with his hands. Using his momentum, he swung his legs over
to land on the other side. The fence shook violently as the infected crashed
into the other side. He took off for the street, hoping that James and the
others would be waiting.  He ran around the side of the house and glanced
behind him, already the infected were scrambling over the fence.

Entering the front yard, he sighed in relief as he saw two
pairs of headlights coming down the street. They screeched to a stop and Greg
quickly got into the suv with Carol. They sped off just as infected
were beginning to come around the house. "You alright?" Carol
asked. "You're not hurt are you?"

Greg shook his head. "I'm good," he said breathing
heavily. "Just glad you were there." Greg's cell rang and he picked
it up. "Yeah?"

"We'll try to get out of here." Greg paused to
hear a reply from James. "Let's cut the lights. The moon's pretty bright
so we won't crash into anything." Greg ended the call and turned towards
Carol. "Cut the lights. We're gonna try to get out of town.'

Carol nodded and switched the lights off. She had to cut her
speed drastically to compensate. Twenty minutes later they realized this wasn't
going to work. Between the lights being off and cars blocking the road, it felt
like they were making little progress. Greg directed Carol to turn into another
subdivision and they spent a few minutes finding a suitable place to hole up.
They pulled the vehicles into a garage and spent the rest of the night trying
to get what sleep they could.

Carol dozed off but sleep remained far off for Greg. He
wondered what would make people attack complete strangers like that. Yeah,
resources were getting scare, but had people already abandoned common decency?
It was one thing to defend yourself, he'd done that back at the grocery store.
But going after people that hadn't done anything to you was something else
altogether. He had no doubt those guys would have killed him and James had
things gone differently. Who knows what they would have done to the girls, it
didn't bear thinking about. Was this the way the world was going to be now?
Kill or be killed? Greg didn't want to think that way. He had no problem
defending himself, but he didn't want to live in a world where people didn't
care about each other anymore. 

Greg yawned as light filtered through cracks in the garage
door. It was time to go. He nudged Carol awake then rolled down his window. He
rapped on the passenger window and smiled apologetically when Laura jumped
awake. He waited for Laura to roll down her window before speaking.

"We need to decide what to do," he said. "How
are we doing on food?"

"We have about weeks’ worth between both
vehicles," Laura replied.

"We were gonna look around this morning. Do we stick to
that or push on?"

"Might be more of those guys around," James said.
"Definitely some infected around too."

Greg nodded. "We probably have to assume there are
always infected around. Do we risk a fight with those other guys though?"