The Witch and the Werewolf (24 page)

“
And what man?”

“
Screams. There was a
metric shit ton of screaming. We were on the road a day
later.”

“
Cut the shit,” Sergeant
Rodriguez ordered. “And keep swinging that fucking pick
axe.”

Wilkerson worked his way
over to Reid and whispered. “So what the hell do you think
happened?”

“
I don’t know man. End of
the world, cabin fever… you know how it is.” Reid was from Houston.
As far as any of them knew, there wasn’t a Houston anymore. He’d
had the same sense of doom and hopelessness in the shelters. His
family was gone. Everyone he’d ever known, gone to school with,
everyone besides his fellow soldiers that he was crammed into the
bunker with were gone. He could see how someone would flip out and
go bat shit crazy in a bunker. Throw in a bunch of ordnance and it
was a recipe for a bad time.

“
So what do you think
we’re going to find down there? A bunch of skeletons?”

“
Naw,” Reid told him.
“There hasn’t been enough time for the flesh to rot off. And the
humidity in there’s going to be low. It’s just going to be a bunch
of corpses.”

“
Fuck man. You’re one sick
ass dude.”

Wilkerson shivered and the
two men continued working. It was hard work in the bitter cold. The
cloud of debris and dust kicked up as Wormwood and its smaller
pieces slammed into the planet blocked out most sunlight, leaving
the daytime world in a gray twilight. They worked with headlamps
and bundled up in multiple layers of clothing but the six month
long winter tore at his bones. Every strike of the pickax against
the hard rock of the mountain sent shocks of pain through his body.
It was for a good cause, he kept telling himself. Maybe the
President could do something to pull us out of this
mess.

If he was still
alive.

“
I’m through!” he heard
from further down the mountain. Another squad of soldiers was
jumping around enthusiastically, pointing at the hole they’d been
working on. Other’s dropped their implements and slowly the remains
of the 1
^st
Minot Expeditionary Brigade made their way towards the hole.
Reid and B Squad were close, so he actually got to see down into
the hole.

Flickering fluorescent
lights cast shadows about a small hallway. The floors and walls
were battleship gray cement. Reid was sure the survivors would have
heard all the commotion as the 1
^st
Minot tried to burrow into
the base, if there were any. There were thousands of sensors and
cameras scattered about the mountain and yet not a single person
was waiting for them.

“
They’re all dead,”
Wilkerson whispered at his side. “It’s a fucking
graveyard.”

“
Make way,” a soldier
said, pushing his way through the crowd.

Reid turned to see heavily
armed incursion troops shoving their way through. The men were
geared to the ninth. He had to wonder what the men were expecting
as they entered the facility. The crowd grew quiet as the men
dropped down into the hallway, assault rifles at the ready. The
leader motioned for them to head down the hall, into the
facility.

“
Okay, fuck twits,” the
Sergeant told them. “Break it up. We’ll all be inside soon enough.
The General has authorized extra rations for lunch,” he told them.
“So head back to camp. Well done.”

Reid turned to leave when
they heard the first burst of machine gun fire from inside the
complex. The soldiers as one turned back to the hole. Next came the
screams.

“
What the fuck is that?”
Wilkerson said, his voice two notches short of full blown panic.
“What the fuck is down there?”

Reid looked down in the
hole as the facility went quiet again.

“
I have a bad feeling
about this.”

Moments later a man
emerged from the hole. He was dressed in a ragged business suit and
Reid was struck by the tiny little American flag lapel pin. The
creature opened his eyes, which glowed bright red, and bared two
long sharp fangs that dripped crimson.

“
I’m so happy you dug me
out,” the thing said with a mischievous grin. “I was just about out
of blood.”

Two Moon Dawn continued in
Our Lady of Pain

About the Author

John is a transplanted Texan and currently mayor of Hooker
Island, Oklahoma. He is a fourth generation oilfield worker,
occasional drunk, and epic doer of mostly useless stuff. He is
aspiring to be an aspiring writer while doing a bit of Redneck
Gardening on the side. He is married to the most fabulous woman on
the planet and has five mostly evil children.

He writes what he likes to
read, which is a bit of everything.

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