State of Panic: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (12 page)

W
e watched
Billy and Ally stroll off into the distance. Billy offered to support her with his arm but she refused. I caught her mutter something about how she’d rather die.

Corey checked his ammo before we waded our way back through the forest towards the residence. My pants were still wet and I could feel them pinching my leg. It was the most uncomfortable feeling.

As we got closer to the residence we could see more of them outside. Not all of them were going house to house like they had been doing the day before, most seemed content to linger around drinking, playing heavy punk music using a generator and taking potshots at glass beer bottles. A non-stop party.

Markus Wainright was among them.

My mind drifted back to the first time I had got introduced to Markus. Six foot four, a Nazi eagle on his chest and a spider web that ran over his bald head, he looked as mean as he acted. And like most of them, if you got on their good side, they were as nice as ever.

He ran the local mixed martial arts gym in town. It originally started with backyard tournaments, then when more and more people showed up wanting to be trained, Mount Pleasant MMA was born. Of course he couldn’t support himself on memberships alone. So his extracurricular activities such as selling drugs offset the losses from the gym. Not everyone who signed up for the gym became a skinhead. Some left after a couple of months because they couldn’t handle the way they spoke about others in the town. Others couldn’t take their hard-nosed attitudes or their lack of empathy for weakness. He observed those who came in over a period of a year. He only took on those who showed a taste for violence, were loyal and could be trusted. Most of his staff were convicted felons. They had done time for one thing or another.

I had been there six months when he approached me. I was in the middle of a sparring session when he stopped it and pulled me to one side.

“You’ve got a lot of heart, kid, but I notice you back away once your opponent is on the ground.”

“Fight’s over.”

He shook his head and narrowed his eyes. “It’s never over until they aren’t moving.”

That was the first time I got a sense of who I was dealing with.

“Look, let me show you. Nick, let’s go.”

Nick was sitting in his corner with his gloves on. He hesitated for a second and looked around at the others. The other six guys that were sparring in the room stopped and watched. They knew that whenever Markus got on the mat, they were about to watch a train wreck. I stepped back to give them room and they began.

At first Nick jabbed a few times and I could tell he was being cautious. Markus picked up on it too.

“Come on. Don’t hold back.”

That’s when Nick got a few jabs in. Markus returned with a few punches and landed one that nearly knocked Nick on his ass. It was when Markus went for a right jab, Nick shot out of the way and landed a hard hook to the side of Markus’s face, that he saw red. There was no hesitation. No thinking about what he was going to do. He turned and ran at Nick, slammed him twice in the face and then threw him into the wall. The guy landed in a heap and was trying to get up when Markus jumped on top of him and started pounding him in the face. Five, ten and then twenty punches later when his face was swollen and he was letting out a gargled breath, Markus stopped. Markus got off him and looked at me. He smiled a toothy grin that was covered in blood, then brought his foot up and brought it home on Nick’s nuts. Nick didn’t even respond.

He was placed in intensive care for several weeks. He never returned to the gym. No charges were filed against Markus as Nick never told the police how it happened. I later learned that he had a beef with Nick. Something to do with the way he had come on to his woman. That was a serious no go. Whether there was any merit to the rumor was neither here nor there. In that moment I knew that I wasn’t dealing with someone that was just dangerous. I was dealing with someone who enjoyed hurting others.

His comment after the fight was just four words. “Don’t ever back down.”

With that he disappeared out back
.

I stared intently at him from the tree line.

Corey snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Sam. Are you with me?”

I shook my head. “Yeah.”

“Are we going in?”

I nodded slowly and we made our approach. At the rear fire door we opened it and slipped inside. In the corridor we made our way down to the first room and tried the handle. It was open. I wanted to make sure that if we needed to dive into a room, we at least knew which rooms were unlocked. We did this with multiple rooms on our way down the corridor.

“Where is she?”

“I think she’s over in the east wing.”

I remembered the map on the wall. We were on the south side. As we made our way up the hall that took us closer to the east side, a door opened and a skinhead came out doing up his belt. He turned sharply to the right but he saw us in his peripheral vision. Before he could get a word out I slammed the butt of the gun in his face and knocked him to the ground. I followed through with three more sharp jabs and then motioned for Corey to open the door that the guy had just come out of.

I crouched down and slung my rifle behind my back. I fished around in his jacket and found a 9mm handgun. I snagged it up and tucked it into the back of my waistband.

Corey pushed the door open but instead of holding it he rushed inside. The door swung closed and I jumped up at the sound of a scuffle. I shouldered the door and entered. Lying motionless on the bed completely naked was Kiera. Corey was strangling a skinhead on the floor who had no pants on. I rushed over and then I saw who it was.

It was Tommy Black.

“Corey,” I tried to pull him off but he just pushed me away.

“This fucker deserves to die.”

Tommy was gurgling and trying to grab at Corey’s face but he just kept leaning back.

“You’re going to kill him, Corey.”

As strange as it sounded, in that moment I felt torn. I knew Tommy. At least I knew the guy that had introduced me to the group. Right then Tommy managed to pry Corey’s hands away and push him off him. I stood there frozen for a minute maybe two.

I had spent time with him. He was the only one who had treated me like a person from the time I had arrived in Mount Pleasant. Now Tommy was on top of Corey.

“Help,” they both croaked out. My eyes flitted to Kiera on the bed. I shook my head, unable to comprehend what they had done. A second, maybe two and then I brought the butt of the gun against the side of Tommy’s face. Once, twice and then a third time. He collapsed on top of Corey. Arms draped at his side.

Corey coughed hard. “What took you so long?”

I went over to Kiera. She looked as if she was in a comatose state. Her eyes were open and she was looking up at the ceiling. I threw a blanket over her naked body and untied her restraints.

Corey got up and gave Tommy a kick, twice.

“No time for that, help me with her. Get her clothes.”

The moment I got one of her hand restraints loose, Kiera went ballistic. It was as though she snapped out of whatever world she had escaped to in order to handle what they were doing to her. She scratched my face and I let out a yell. Her legs were still restrained so was one of her arms. Corey tried to help but he only ended up with a smack in the eye.

“Kiera, it’s me, Corey.”

She didn’t respond. She was jacked up on something, or running on pure fear.

“Corey, go lock the door.”

While he went over I tried to calm her down and let her know that we were there to help. They had muzzled her with a rag otherwise I was certain she would have attracted attention. The only way I could get her to stop trying to scratch me was to put myself behind her and hold both of her arms. I kept repeating in her ear. “I’m not here to harm you. We’re going to get you out.”

Slowly but surely she stopped resisting and began crying.

“Corey, her clothes. Toss them over.” I kept a firm grip as I slipped the top over her using one hand. Once we had her top half covered up, I released her slowly and backed away to see if she was going to go ballistic. Instead she just stared into the distance.

“You ready?”

I figured Corey knew the moment we untied her legs that there was a chance she would attack us. We couldn’t tell if she realized we were there to help or if she thought we were planning on moving her to another room to continue whatever sexual acts they had done to her.

It was like releasing a tiger. There was no telling what she would do next.

Tommy groaned in the corner and Corey went over and slammed him as hard as he could in the face again with his gun. He slumped to the ground — out cold.

Once the final restraint was untied, Kiera didn’t move. I handed her the skirt that was at the bottom of the bed but she didn’t even look at it. It was if she had gone inside herself.

“Give me a hand.”

The moment I tried to lay her back so Corey could get the skirt on, she went nuts.

“Hold her,” Corey said as he attempted to get the skirt on without getting kicked in the face. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was petite, I was pretty sure she would have battered us. Once her skirt was on I released her.

“Kiera. We’re going to take you back to your mother.”

Her eyes locked on to mine. “I need you to trust us. Can you do that?”

She hesitated, nodded and that was all I needed to see.

Outside in the hallway it was empty.

“Okay, let’s go.”

We shuffled out and filed down the corridor heading back towards the fire exit at the rear of the building. My nerves were on edge. Corey held on to Kiera’s arm and went ahead while I turned back keeping an eye out. Rounding a corner, we were on the last stretch of corridor before the exit, when two skinheads came out of a room. I lifted my gun and they dived back inside the room. What followed next was a series of shots. I unloaded about eight rounds to prevent them from coming at me. While I was running backwards, I heard the door open and Corey and Kiera rushed outside.

What I didn’t see because I was running backwards was a skinhead come out of the next corridor. He slammed me into the drywall almost breaking it. A few sharp jabs to the face and I was now fighting for my life. Out the side of my eye I could see the other two skinheads were out of the room and rushing down to help their pal.

The door swung open, a gun fired and the guy in front of me collapsed.

“Come on,” Corey screamed. I fired a few rounds at the two who were coming up and hit one of them. The other one hit the ground out of fear. Rushing out the door, Corey slammed it closed and pushed a large BBQ in front of the door.

As we began running for the forest I heard my name called out.

“Sam.”

I turned to see Markus Wainright.

“You are dead! You are a dead man.”

Corey threw the bag of aerosol cans. They landed a few feet from where we had just come from, and then he fired at them. The explosion was huge. Not only did they ignite and create a massive fireball but the explosion caused the BBQ gas cylinder to explode. The sheer force caused several of the windows around to break and it sent the group of skinheads with Markus rushing for cover.

We didn’t stop to look back. We entered the forest and sprinted as fast as we could around trees, over rocks and through the stream. Even when I felt like I was going to throw up a lung, we kept going. If I slowed, Corey would grab me and pull me on. Likewise, I did the same. All three of us kept running until we had made it through the forest to the lower east side of Mount Pleasant.

The journey back to the address of a home on the east side consisted of a lot of stopping and starting. We hid behind a group of vehicles and spent half an hour inside one of the homes until a group of armed skinheads passed by.

When we made it inside the gate of the address Murphy had given, Murphy came out. His eyes were wide but his reaction didn’t come close to the one that Kiera had when she saw her mother. Both of them sobbed hard. Kiera collapsed into her mother’s arms. There on the floor she rocked back and forth with her.

“It’s okay, I’m here now,” Kate kept saying. Ally came out handing us a bottle of water each. I chugged it down and then placed my hands on my legs so I could catch my breath. I was overheated, sweat trickled down my face and my legs were burning from where the wet jeans had chafed my skin.

Kate glanced up at us and mouthed the words, thank you.

T
he arguments began
an hour after we made it back. The group was divided on what to do. One half wanted to leave town, the other, remain and fight.

“You are crazy. If we go now we can get out of here alive. If we stay they are going to kill every single one of us,” one of the older women said.

Not all of those who had been in City Hall at the start were inside the room. Some had been killed, others we assumed had sought shelter in one of the homes on the west side. There was too much risk involved trying to find them all.

Kate wanted the skinheads to die for what they had done to her daughter. Murphy was trying to keep her calm.

“Kate. I would want them dead as well but the only reason we’ve stayed this long was to get you and our kids. We have them. It’s time to go.”

“Where?”

“I’ve managed to get hold of Dan, we are going to meet up with him an hour outside of the town.”

“Then what? Hide out? How long are we going to survive? This is our home. You just expect me to walk away from here after what they did to Kiera?”

Luke, Billy, Corey and I sat off to one side listening. The idea of being forced out of our town pissed me off but I wasn’t prepared to lose my life over it.

“She has a point, Murphy,” McCabe added. “We are still officers. It’s our job to control this situation.”

Murphy shook his head. “I’m all for fighting if there is a good reason. But right now common sense tells me it’s best for us to retreat. Wait this thing out. We don’t know how many cities have been hit, how bad the fallout is or whether or not the military is coming but if we stay here, we are not only risking our lives but our kids.”

“I’m not a kid,” Billy said.

“No you’re a piss pot,” Luke remarked and then chuckled. “Anyway, do we get a say in the matter?”

“No!” the others resounded.

“This affects us as much as you all. I say we go and kill every damn one of them.”

Murphy shook his finger at Luke while staring at Kate. “Seriously, Luke, if we make it out of this, I’m going to suggest the court puts you back in the program for at least six months.”

“Best of lucking convincing the judge. I saw him laying face down on Bank Street in a puddle of his own blood.”

A silence crept over all of us.

“Why the hell are they doing this?” Wayne Layman asked. No one answered. He then turned to me. “You. I’m speaking to you.”

I raised my eyebrows and pointed at myself. “Me? How the hell am I supposed to know?”

“You are one of them. You dress like them, you hang out with them. Hell, I saw you set on fire that car down on River Street last month. You have to know why they are doing this?”

“Sorry. I don’t.”

That obviously was not the answer he was looking for. He edged his way over through the crowded room and stuck his finger into my chest. “How do we know you aren’t still with them?”

“That I can answer. You’re still alive, dickhead.”

He grabbed a hold of me by the collar. “You know your problem?”

“Hey!” Brett said quickly stepping in between.

“You’re defending him now?”

“He told you. He’s not with them.”

“And you believe him? Huh! The same guy who sent him to a program because he was out of control.”

“Actually it was court ordered.”

Murphy spoke up. “Wayne, lay off.”

Wayne owned a convenience store down on Second and River Street. He wasn’t lying when he said that I was one of the group that lit a car on fire. It was idiotic but in a small town, late at night, tanked up on liquid courage, shit happens. I didn’t light the fire but I was there.

“No, he’s right. I was there that night.”

McCabe was in the middle of talking to Shaw when he turned around.

“I was there. I saw them light that car on fire. But that was then. This is now.”

“And you expect me to believe you’ve changed because you attended a camp in the wilderness for a month?”

“No. Actually I don’t. And quite frankly I couldn’t give two shits if you believe me or not. But I just risked my ass multiple times since this has kicked off. I didn’t need to.” I paused. “I’ve got a target on my back as much as you have. So if you want hold your prejudice against me, go ahead.”

Wayne studied me, shook his head and walked out of the room.

Murphy stepped into the middle of the group. “Look, everyone. No one is going to force you to stay or leave. That’s your own choice. We aren’t in control of your lives. But Dan Adams has a bunker that is north of here. Now it might not be able to support all of us for longer than a few months but the offer is there. If you stay, there is no denying, you are going to be in a fight for your life. These people are not going to stop. I don’t know what’s driving them. Insanity, a cause or god knows what. But they will come for us.”

“What do you think?” McCabe asked me.

“You’re asking me?”

“You spent at least a year and a half with them.”

“Like I told Wayne. All I know is they want to take back the country. This isn’t the only group. This is just a smidgen of the movement that is out there.”

“What can you tell us about Eli?” Brett asked.

I pushed away from the wall. “I don’t know Eli. I heard them mention him. What you have to know is everything is told to us on an as-and-when needed basis. It’s like the military. I was nothing more than a foot solider.”

“You mean, their bitch,” Luke said.

“What the hell is your problem, man?”

“You. That’s what.” He stepped forward. “I saved your ass back there and you act as though I killed two members of your family.”

I scoffed. “You’ve got it all wrong.”

“Do I?”

He shook his head and gave a smug grin. There was silence in the room.

“They’re not all bad.”

“Could have fooled me. I’m pretty sure I saw them stamp to death some guy down on Bank Street, and put a bullet in the head of a mother up on Cedar. But oh, they aren’t all bad,” Luke said.

I understood. I really did. They were some mean assholes painting the town red but like any group, not all were committed to the cause. The guy who had lit a fire in the car, hadn’t wanted to do it. He was pressured into it. It was like any group. Peers could push a person to the edge. Hell, everyone lived on that edge, one way or another. A person didn’t have to be aligned to a group that was considered hateful. We all lived our lives on the edge being pushed towards something that maybe deep down we knew we didn’t need, or want or wish to become. But no, he couldn’t see that. All he saw was the skinhead, the boots, the tattoos. The rest was just details.

Most of the skinheads I had met in the group prior to being sent away to Camp Zero were just looking for a place to belong. Of course, they wouldn’t ever say that. But I could see it in their eyes. It was the same look I had in mine. They all came from rough backgrounds; homes that didn’t feel like home.

It had taken me a month out of the group to see how wrong I was. To see that it wasn’t what they taught that pulled me in. It was the sense of brotherhood. But the truth was, that could be found elsewhere. Until Camp Zero, I didn’t realize that. I gravitated to the first group that lured me in. So who were to blame? The skinheads? The dysfunctional family each one came from? Society? Or all of it?

“It doesn’t matter now,” Murphy said. “What matters is that we work together. So let’s put this to a vote. Whoever wants to stay, stay. Whoever want to go, meet me outside.”

Murphy left the room and there was silence. Everyone looked at each other with a blank expression. Some of the people were just strangers that I had seen around town. The kind of people who wouldn’t have given me a second look if it wasn’t for what happened.

Slowly, one by one they filed out and met Murphy in the kitchen and dining area. It was just common sense. No one wanted to die. None of us were killers. If we left we stood a better chance of surviving. Shaw and McCabe were the only ones who remained. As I was leaving I looked back at Kate. I understood why she wanted to stay, and as for McCabe he was born to the job of being a police officer. It wasn’t in his blood to turn back, especially after losing those he’d worked with.

I stood at the doorway for a second. I wanted to say something but I didn’t think I had earned the right or could have changed her mind. When I joined the others Murphy went back into the living room.

After ten minutes he came out and both Shaw and McCabe were with him. I don’t know what he said to her to change her mind but she went over to her daughter and hugged her.

“Okay, listen up,” Murphy said motioning for everyone to draw in close. “We are going to have to hike out of here. It’s going to be a long walk. We will cut through the forest to avoid detection. Those of you who know how to handle a firearm, make yourself known to McCabe. We have three rifles that can be used. If you have any questions, ask them now.”

“What about food and water?” a woman asked.

“Yeah.”

“We’ll take a few cans, and bottled water but be prepared to drink from the river.”

“I’m not drinking from the river. What if the fallout has contaminated it?”

“Based on the information Sam provided, we are under the assumption that they targeted the major cities in each of the states. As far as we know the streams and rivers around these parts should be okay.”

“Assumptions? As far as you know? You want us to risk our lives based on assumptions?”

“We’re not asking you to do anything. We are not in charge of your lives. You don’t want to drink, fair enough, but don’t blame us when you’re thirsty.”

With that said he turned and had Luke help him gather up what they could from the cupboards. It was mostly noodles, cans and granola bars. Once several bags were filled, we moved out. We were on Maple Street, two streets over from the direction Murphy wanted to go. Thick trees surrounded all three streets. As McCabe opened the back door and stepped outside, the crack of a gun resounded.

In that instant, McCabe fell. Blood poured from a gaping hole in the front of his skull.

“Get back in,” Murphy screamed as more gunfire erupted.