Decay (Book 1): Civilization (10 page)

“Interesting,” she said with an intrigued tone. The smooth skin on her forehead wrinkled slightly.

“We are with a young woman and three children. We just want to pass on through, and we are hoping to secure our route. We would like to make this a stop if that would be fine,” Bradley spoke, taking the role of leader of the group.

“We can offer fresh vegetables as trade for your hospitality,” Guillermo added.

Deacon signaled that he would need a moment, and he and the woman went through a door, shutting it behind them. There wasn’t much room in the area that they now stood. The only door was the one that the man and woman left through. It appeared that they were at the end of a long hallway.

Bradley suddenly realized that there was no other way out of this room. The tunnel they had crawled through had been closed and padlocked shut by the woman after Deacon came through. He turned to the others, who appeared to be calm and patient. Bradley’s blood pressure shot up. He was not claustrophobic, but the thought that he just walked into a trap screamed through him.

“Hey. Is anyone else a little concerned?” he asked in a loud whisper. A bead of sweat formed on his brow.

Roger looked back and noticed the lock Bradley was staring at. “Oh shit.” He walked over and rolled the heavy lock in his hand, hoping it wasn’t secured. It was.

“What are you worried about? They are just through the door there.” Guillermo gave them an odd look as he seemed to be fine with their predicament.

“They may be cannibals. People in extreme situations will do anything to survive,” Bradley said, His loud whisper becoming louder yet.

This sunk into Guillermo hard, and he too begun to panic. He ran to the door and tried the knob. When he found it to be locked too, he began pounding on the door. When the door did not open he grabbed for his lawnmower blade and made for the padlock on the tunnel. After he began chopping at the lock, the door on the other side of the room opened and Deacon and the woman stepped back out.

“What the hell are you doin’, mate?” Deacon asked with a look of shock on his face.

The three men stood there feeling a mix of confusion and embarrassment. “Well, uh. You locked us in here. That was my fault,” Bradley spoke up but spoke slowly. “I thought the worst of our situation.” He was still unsure if their situation was any better or not.

Deacon did not know how to feel, but he laughed. “I just had to talk to mama first. Any of you married? You can’t invite friends over for beers and a game without approvin’ it with the boss first. Jesus, mates.”

“I’m Sophia Belle by the way. We won’t eat you,” she laughed as she said this, walking away through the door.

“Follow me, mates. We spend most of our time in the attic of the house next to the building we are in now. This is just a safe house we have been working on in case we are overrun and need something more secure. There is an exit out this way.” Deacon took the lead once again as the three men followed him through the apartment complex.

Deacon and Sophia pulled a large desk out away from its spot against the emergency exit. The tracks could be seen on the floor where the desk had been slid around many times before. With the desk pulled out of the way, Deacon slid the door open quietly and peeked outside.

The sun lit the room as the door opened the rest of the way. Deacon disappeared into the blinding light. Sophia looked on, nodded, and then urged the men out into the warm air once more. Deacon flagged them down about ten yards out.

The group made their way through a couple of loose boards in the privacy fence surrounding the yard of a small red house. Some of the grass was green, the rest of it was brown (most of it was just dead while some of it was covered in dried up blood), but all of it was long and shaggy looking. This was the type of yard that drove Guillermo nuts.

The windows in the back of the red house had all been covered with thin sheets of plastic. The sliding glass door had obviously been repaired to allow it to shut again. There was an empty pool in the center of the tiny yard. Running just along the grass was a series of thin ropes that all seemed to lead into the wall.

Deacon led them into the house, the front windows boarded up completely. He took them down the thin hallway and hooked the pointed end of his axe into a loop to bring down the ladder to the attic. “We started stayin’ in the attic when we were attacked one night by a couple of them. Luckily we managed to defend ourselves without any problems, but we decided it would be safer to stay off the ground.”

“We collected bells from some of the shops around town,” Sophia stated as she pointed out the thin ropes connected to the bells hanging on the wall. Bradley knew one of these must be the one from the clothing store. “They are a useful way to hear anything coming.”

“Do you have cats in here?” Bradley asked as he put his ear up to a closed door halfway down the hall. The soft meowing and subtle smell of ammonia was enough to catch his attention.

Deacon looked slightly nervous as he nodded his confirmation. “We—well, we have to survive. Sometimes it isn’t pretty, but we do what we have to.”

“You eat cats?” asked Roger.

“That’s pretty much what I just said, yeah,” Deacon responded defensively. “In this door here we keep the rabbits. I pulled them all from a pet store around the block. I grabbed the food from various other pet stores and markets. The rabbits breed much quicker than the cats do, of course, but we can’t survive eating rabbit alone. Once in a while we can get a tomato plant to grow, and there is an orange tree in the neighboring yard.”

“Why can’t you eat only rabbits?” Bradley asked.

Slightly taken aback, Deacon responded, “Because of rabbit starvation.” The three men stared at him with blank expressions. “You know—rabbit starvation. Protein poisoning, seriously? I thought everyone knew about rabbit starvation.”

“Never heard of it,” Guillermo said. “Are you being serious or just messing with us?”

“I don’t even know what to say right now. How did you guys survive all this time?”

“Well not by eating rabbits and cats,” Bradley responded.

“We would die if we ate nothing but rabbit, so let’s end it there. Moving along with the tour.” Deacon turned from the men and walked the rest of the way down the hall. He reached up to the rope that hung from the attic steps and pulled.

Roger was the last one through the attic door, and although he was opposed to eating cats, the smell of the dried meat hanging in the corner made his mouth water. He didn’t want to be the first to admit it, but at this point, meat was meat. Roger grabbed several strips of what he assumed was cat jerky, and sat on a couch cushion at the opposite end of the room.

They shared stories for the next hour. When Deacon started talking, he didn’t want to stop. He talked about his career, his survival after the attack, and even told a few dirty jokes. Some of his stories were what he referred to as “war stories”. These were the stories he told about working as a firefighter and paramedic in Los Angeles. Seeing the dead walk wasn’t the worst thing he’d seen.

Chapter 9

The bell sounded in the firehouse. It was late morning, and the men sitting around the living quarters of Fire Station thirty-four reacted without hesitation. Deacon stood up from the couch, pressed his index finger onto the power button of the Playstation to turn it off, and moved for the lockers that held their gear.

They had been listening to the news, as well as the commotion over the pager. Their paramedic crew for the shift had already been sent out on several severe injuries. The police were now out in full force after bringing in every off duty officer in the area, and all that was left on standby was the small group of firefighters.

Timmy, a tall, muscular man with a shaved head, came barging out of the restroom, still buttoning his jeans. “What the hell is it?” He asked in his deep voice. His large tattooed right arm reached into his locker for his bunker gear. The bio-mechanical tattoo gave the appearance that his arm was controlled by a series of cogwheels, levers, and pistons.

“There is a fire that started in King’s Diner up on Cochran Street. The fire caused the gas line to burst sending the blaze into the Cochran apartment complex,” Kathrine said. In her late twenties, Kathrine had worked her way to Captain. She has walnut brown eyes, and her long brown hair was often pulled back into a ponytail. None of the guys doubted her abilities or intelligence.

“Hop in. We don’t have all day.” The voice came from the window of the large red engine. Kyle was a few inches under six feet tall. His shaggy blonde hair made him look like a surfer. Despite his small frame, Kyle had an amazing amount of strength and stamina. In the few years he had been a paramedic, he had saved the lives of many people much larger than him by carrying them to safety.

The large garage door rose up, allowing the warm sun to pour in. Before pulling the thirty-five thousand pound truck out, Kyle hit the siren. A light outside on the street flashed, alerting traffic that the behemoth was on the move and they needed to clear the way. Luckily, all the news of a series of attacks had most drivers off the streets.

“Is that Barry’s rig?” Kyle asked. He pointed down the street as they passed through the intersection. Smoke rolled from the front end of the ambulance, except the front end was somewhere in the middle now. The area that used to be the front of the truck was occupied by a car that had been parked on the side of the street.

“Oh God, was that a body?” Kathrine asked. A brief glimpse of a mangled woman lay on the street in between the two vehicles. The woman’s arms waved back and forth. “Engine twenty-one to dispatch.”

“Go ahead Engine twenty-one, this is dispatch,” The woman’s voice came over the radio.

“It looks like we have an ambulance involved in a collision just off the intersection of Mission and Costa Vista. Can you send someone out to check on that please? We are en route to a fire.” Kathrine couldn’t see the ambulance anymore.

“We will do what we can engine twenty-one. Unfortunately we have several ambulances that have not reported back in yet. It seems to be getting worse out there, so please be careful, hun.”

“Ten-four,” Kathrine said before throwing the handset against the dash. She didn’t lose her temper often, and she was doing everything she could to keep it in check now.

“I’m sure everything is fine,” Kyle said. “Let’s get this fire taken care of, and by the time we are finished with that we will have heard from the others.” Even Kyle was beginning to doubt that, however, as he had to swerve quickly to avoid an accident with a car that had a man hanging from the driver side window trying to enter.

The smoke rose up as the truck sped toward the fire. With two blocks remaining, the flames came into view. People lined the streets, no longer worried about their own safety. For the most part, people seemed to abandon all concern for personal safety when there was a chance to watch a disaster.

Kyle pulled the engine next to a fire hydrant, put the transmission in park, and hit the emergency brake. Tommy jumped out first and grabbed the hydrant wrench. By the time he was ready to go with the water Deacon had the hoses attached. With the “ready-to-go” signal, Tommy cranked the valve open.

“It is kind of weird that no other trucks are here,” Deacon said to Tommy. “A blaze like this should have attracted attention from the firehouse on this end of the city.”

“There is some weird shit going on today,” Tommy said as he walked up to take the spray nozzle from Kyle.

Deacon looked around at the crowd as he put on his Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus. It never ceased to amaze him that so many people came out to watch such a horrible scene. Grabbing his axe, he turned back toward the blaze and prepared to enter with Kathrine close behind. With Tommy on the hose and Deacon and Kathrine entering the building, Kyle took command of the operation.

“Radio check,” Deacon said into his radio.

“Copy,” Kathrine responded.

“Copy,” Kyle followed up.

“It was reported that there are at least six people unaccounted for. They’re all residents of this end of the complex where the fire first breached,” Kathrine said.

The glass from the doors crunched and popped under Deacon’s boots as he climbed the stairway to the entrance. There was no need to open the door, as the glass had been broken out in what was probably a hurried attempt to escape. Passing through the entryway, the sound of the roaring flames, creaking wood, breaking glass, and water from the hose merged into a demonic chorus.

“The missing residents are from the second and third floor,” Kathrine said.

“Wouldn’t expect it to be any other way. They are never on the first floor,” Deacon responded. “Any signs of another unit out there?”

“Not yet,” Kyle came across the radio.

“We can’t fight this blaze on our own! We would never leave a unit out on their own to fight a fire like this.” Deacon’s anger increased.

“Our best bet is to try and keep the area clear ahead of you. Without help we have no choice but to let the rest burn. That’s my call,” Kyle said with confidence.

“Good. I want nothing to do with it, mate,” Deacon replied with a hint of humor.

“Through here. I think I hear something,” Kathrine said pointing to the stairwell.

“Yeah, sounds like a woman.” The stairwell was warm as he stepped in ahead of Kathrine. The creaking was amplified in here, yet it wasn’t from the concrete stairs. The quiet moans could be heard just through the door that lead out to the second floor. Once again Deacon placed an ungloved hand to the door.

Slowly wrapping his fingers around the doorknob, he turned it gently. “It’s locked,” he said. “Stand back.” He lifted his right leg up as high as he could with his bunker gear on and gave the door a hard kick, and then another.

The second kick caused the door to fling open. The hallway was covered in flames. Just to the left of the stairs lay a mangled body. Kathrine crouched down and checked for a response even though she knew there wouldn’t be one. The man was missing most of his face.

“Do you think he was trampled?” Deacon asked.

“I don’t know. It looks like his face was chewed off,” Kathrine responded.

Deacon continued his scan of the hallway. A woman moved toward them from the charred door. The middle aged Hispanic woman wore a long blue dress. “Are you hurt ma’am?” Deacon asked as she approached. Most of her hair had been burned off, and the skin on her arms was bubbled and blistered from the heat.

She reached out to deacon, who reached back to take her hands. The moment their hands connected the woman pulled herself close to him, scratching and biting at his face. Unable to make it passed the thick glass of his mask, she began punching violently at his heavily padded chest.

“Ma’am, what the hell is wrong with you? We’re here to help you,” Deacon pleaded.

“Hello, we are with the fire department. We would like to get you out of here. Are your parents still inside?” Kathrine asked. A little boy stood in the hallway at the other end. His Wow Wow Wubzy shirt was covered in blood. “Are you hurt?”

“Can you help get this bitch off of me? Ma’am, I’m going to knock you out if you don’t stop!” Deacon struggled with the woman before finally turning her around and wrapping his arms tightly around her body. “Be careful Kathrine. Have him come to you. The floor may collapse under your combined weight.”

She nodded her understanding and said, “Come on buddy. Can you walk to me?”

Without another word the child moved to her. He walked quickly, yet his legs didn’t bend well enough to allow him to jog.
He must be handicapped
, she thought. Kathrine picked him up as he reached her. She estimated him to be about five years old by his size and weight.

“Are you alright little man?” she asked.

The only response he gave was a low guttural moan, and then he began smacking wildly at her mask and neck. The surprise attack caused Kathrine to let go of the boy, who fell to the floor with a thud. He stood up and instantly returned to his attack, biting and clawing at her legs.

“Junkies,” Deacon said, still holding onto the Hispanic woman. “They must shoot up their children, too. Hook them young to get work and money out of them in return for drugs.”

“Well let’s get these two the hell out of here. If we need to come back in after that we can.” The boy kicked hard, but it wasn’t hard enough to break free of Kathrine’s grip on him.
Little bastard is strong
, she thought. She couldn’t wait until they were back outside where Tommy could take the boy from her.

Tommy was still spraying the massive stream of water into the building when Deacon and Kathrine came out with the two residents. Kyle rushed over to help out. He grabbed the kid and took him from Kathrine, but as soon as Kyle’s arms were around the boy, the boy dug his teeth into the firefighter’s strong arm.

Kyle cursed loudly and dropped the boy. Without any hesitation, the boy charged back at Kyle, punching and scratching at him.  Blood poured down Kyle’s arm as he tried to defend himself from the small attacker. He couldn’t do much along the lines of defending himself as many people stood by watching. Kicking the child across the yard crossed his mind, yet he was stopped by the fear of losing his job.

“Don’t let go of the woman!” yelled Kathrine. She took her coat off and tackled the boy, wrapping him up tightly. “Is anyone coming to help us!”

“No. I can’t get anyone to respond,” said Kyle. The pain in his arm was too much. He lay down in the grass hoping it would pass so he could get to the med kit in the truck.

“Tommy! Shut it down!” Kathrine ordered.

“Ten-four,” Tommy responded. He twisted the nozzle closed and ran to check on Kyle. “Let me grab the kit. You stay here.”

The big man hustled to the truck, disappeared through the rear door, and then reemerged with the large orange medical bag. Before he could reach Kyle, however, a man grabbed ahold of his arm. Tommy spun around and looked down into the face of a man who didn’t really have much of a face to look into.

Most of his teeth had been busted out, and his nose was broken. The blood from his face gushed all down the front of him. Lunging forward, the man knocked Tommy down and kicked and punched at his face. Tommy swung the medical bag hard at the man, causing him to fall to the side.

“What the hell is going on here?” he yelled. Looking around at the city, he finally allowed his senses to pick up on everything else around him. Screams, car horns, sirens, gunshots, and speeding vehicles could be heard from all around them. They had only been fighting the fire for twenty minutes, and all the chaos they saw down the streets had reached them.

“I think we need to get the hell out of here. I can’t hold this crazy bitch forever,” insisted Deacon. The Hispanic woman continued tirelessly to free herself from his grasp. “Your buddy’s back, Tommy.”

The man tried to lunge for Tommy once more, but Tommy was ready for him this time. A well placed boot to the man’s chest put him on the ground for good, or at least that’s what Tommy had thought. Instead, the man slowly stood his stiff body back up and made yet another move for the much larger firefighter.

Looking around quickly, Tommy confirmed that none of the gawkers were still watching. Bodies lay in the neighboring yards and parking lots, many of which tried to pick themselves up off the ground. Feeling confident no one was watching, and that what he was about to do was in self-defense, Tommy punched the man in the face, holding nothing back.

His face burst in a spray of blood, yet he continued to move toward Tommy. With self-preservation a top priority, Tommy unleashed a barrage of punches to the man’s head. Even as the man lay on the ground, Tommy continued to punch, as the skull cracked and blood poured from the man’s eyes and ears, Tommy continued to punch.

Tommy stood over the dead man in the grass. Blood covered most of his muscular body. “It’s the damn drugs, I say.” Deacon’s voice snapped him back to reality. Running to aid his friend, Tommy just grabbed the woman from Deacon’s hands and kicked her hard in the lower back. The sound caused both men to flinch as her back snapped with enough force to bend the woman backwards. She never showed any signs of pain, and without the use of her legs she still tried to crawl to the men.

“Let’s really get the hell out of here,” Deacon said receiving no objection from Tommy. “You grab Kyle, I’ll help Kathrine tie this little brat up.”