Enduring Armageddon Read online

  I guess that was all the defenders of the warehouse were waiting for. They opened up from the roof and doorways with everything they had. Puffs of dirt shot into the air all around me as they shot. I stood and ran as fast as I could back towards the trucks. I didn’t weave or jerk side to side, I just ran. It worked though, because I didn’t have a scratch on me. Olan wasn’t so lucky. He must have been the primary target because his body was riddled with holes and remained right where the meeting with the mayor occurred.

  “Fuck yeah, this is awesome!” D’Andre shouted as he crouched behind the truck next to me. “We’re gonna need to pick up some armored trucks or something though, because these things are taking a beating!”

  “Did Jesse really mean it when he said we were going to all those other towns?” I asked over the sound of rounds impacting our vehicles.

  “Yeah, man. We’ve been preparing for this for a long time. Allan knew it would come down to this if we ever got nuked. About half of the men in the gathering platoon have been training with him for a couple of years.”

  Shit. My stomach dropped and a hard knot settled into it. We really were the bad guys. I’d inadvertently joined some crazy nut-job prepper militia. Well, maybe not too crazy given our current apocalyptic situation, but still, it wasn’t where Rebecca and I needed to be.

  “So, the plan is to become like a regional power or something?” I asked.

  D’Andre popped up, fired a round from his rifle and sat back down again. “Yeah, something like that. Look man, Allan is a genius. He predicted all of this would happen. We all just started hanging out with him in the beginning because we liked to learn new ways to hunt and because we did a lot of shooting.” D’Andre grabbed both of my shoulders and looked me in the eyes, “He’s fucking brilliant man, wait until you meet him.”

  I’d never really looked into a crazy person’s eyes before, but what I saw staring out of the depths of D’Andre’s soul made my blood turn cold. I’d seen him kill three men in cold blood and take part in the deaths of two more, but he was way more dangerous than I’d ever thought. He was a fanatic about this Allan guy, I could tell. If I survived the day we had to get out of Virden as fast as possible.

  * * *

  Jesse devised a plan to send several of our snipers around the side while the rest of us stayed in place and took an occasional potshot at the building. It worked brilliantly and before too long, all of the defenders on the roof of the building were either dead or had run off.

  That only left the men and women inside the building. Once they realized that we’d taken out their people up top, they surrendered pretty quickly. I suspect that more of them than we realized just slipped out the back door, but in the end we had about twenty prisoners that we locked in the distribution center’s office and put under guard.

  The rest of the day was spent loading trucks and caring for our wounded. There had been several deaths and even more with minor gunshot wounds. The loss of those men just made the loading up even harder on the rest of us. We did have a stroke of luck with two more semi-trailers sitting at the back dock. Both of them started and one was even partially filled with foodstuffs. They must have been either loading or unloading it when the bombs dropped and never finished the job.

  By the time nightfall hit, we’d filled up both of the trucks that were at the dock when we got there and were busy filling trucks three and four that we’d brought with us from Virden. Then the first of the creatures appeared. It shambled up the stairs from the parking lot and attacked one of the men as he came out of the truck. We were able to beat the thing to death, but Lance, the man who’d been attacked had to be put out of his misery before he got sick as well.

  Jesse posted guards and they shot several more of the creatures as they emerged from the wood line. After the third or fourth diseased freak showed up, the prisoners in the office were beating so hard on the glass that Jesse finally sent me over to find out what was going on.

  I opened the door cautiously and peered into the gloom of the office. “What the hell is all the racket guys?” I asked into the darkness.

  “Shit! Finally,” a voice came from inside. “You idiots have got to stop shooting those things. They’re attracted to the noise of gunfire.”

  “Then why the hell were you guys shooting at us?” I asked.

  “Lesser of two evils,” a woman said. “Let me out. I’ll work with you guys.” Several people objected to her offers of help, but a small woman’s face appeared in the doorway.

  “Let me out, I can help you,” she pleaded.

  “Why would you help us?” I asked.

  “Because the alternative is staying here in Jacksonville and starving to death,” she replied.

  “Good point.” I thought it over for a moment then said, “Okay, come out of there.”

  She shot out of the room and quickly closed the door behind her. “They’re planning on breaking out in the middle of the night,” she said as she pointed towards the door.

  “Alright, thanks, I’ll let Jesse know. What about the mutants?”

  “The what? Oh, the messed up people. Yeah, they’re pretty scarce in the daytime, unless they’re hungry…” She trailed off in thought a moment until I snapped my fingers in front of her face. “They come around more at night and they are attracted to loud noises—especially gunfire. You think you guys are doing a good thing by shooting them. All you’re doing is attracting more of them. The sound of gunfire travels for miles you know.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said more harshly than I meant to. I softened and said, “How do you know so much about these things? We haven’t seen very many of them down in Virden.”

  “Maybe because we’re closer to Chicago than you guys are. Hell, I really don’t know. But I do know that these people are messed up from radiation and if you get bitten, you’ll catch whatever they’ve got and in a couple of days, you’ll end up just like them. End of story. Shit, maybe they are a real-life version of a zombie.”

  “That’s what we call them most of the time. They act just like the zombies in the movies, except they’re not ‘undead’ because they still need food and oxygen. If you shoot them enough that they bleed out, they’ll die too,” I said as I thought about the creature that had killed herself trying to get to me at Ali’s shop.

  “Okay, let’s go talk to Jesse. He’s in charge so he should know that you guys have had more run-ins with these things than we have.”

  We marched to the back dock where Jesse and D’Andre were directing the action. The woman—Jillian—introduced herself and indicated her willingness to cooperate and possibly be a part of the Virden community. Then she told Jesse about the problem with the creatures.

  “So you see, you’ve got to stop firing your guns or it’s just gonna attract more of them,” she said when she finished telling Jesse roughly the same version that she’d told me earlier.

  “Okay, so what do you suggest we do about it?” D’Andre said as another shot rang out.

  “Well, for one, stop shooting the damn things!” she exclaimed. “They are attracted to the sound and every time you shoot at one of them, you’ll just end up bringing three more.”

  “Hey boss,” I cut in. “We know these things can be killed just like a normal human, so why don’t we just bash in their brains when they come up here? It’ll be quieter, plus it will help save ammo.”

  “Alright, let’s do it,” he answered. “Chuck, you’re in charge out here. I don’t want to hear any more shooting unless something really fucked up happens. Got it?”

  “Yeah,” I said glumly. “I’ve got it. I’ll let the boys out here know what we need to do.” Me and my big mouth.

  * * *

  I learned a lot about killing that night. I also learned that the men and women on the gathering squad were pretty sadistic. I have no problem with killing one of those things with a well placed blow, or three, to the head or an axe to the throat, but some of the folks took it way too far and seemed to enjoy killing those
things.

  Justin, another member of D’Andre’s personal hit squad, was particularly evil. When given the opportunity to kill a creature without any more of them around, he took his time. I saw him break the kneecaps of one so it was immobile and then he used one of those short Japanese knives, I think it was called a tanto or something, to systematically cut it to shreds. I overheard him say that he’d always wanted to know how realistic the ancient Chinese Death of a Thousand Cuts was on an actual person. It took a long, long time for that thing to die. It was a gruesome, but valuable lesson. When you took away human emotions and the ability to feel pain, one of those creatures could sustain a lot of blood loss from minor wounds. The key to defeating them was brutal, overwhelming, and rapid blunt force trauma.

  The zombies seemed to come in waves. We’d bash in the heads of two or three at a time, then there wouldn’t be any more for twenty or thirty minutes, then several more would stumble out of the woods around the distribution center. It was strange given what I’d seen previously. Every one of the freaks that Rebecca and I saw when we were on the road was solitary and even attacked others like themselves. These didn’t seem to pay any attention to the creatures traveling with them anymore. They just wanted to get at the uninfected and kill us.

  I decided to file that information away for our trip south. We saw the freaks as more of a nuisance than anything else, but if these things started working together in a pack, then we might have a problem.

  We fought all night long against these little groups of creatures and by the time the watery sun appeared through the dense grey sky in the east, I was dog-tired. My hands ached from clenching my baseball bat too tightly and I’d taken several hard hits to my shins as I stumbled around in the dark trying to bash in the skulls of people who’d gotten sick and crazy from the radiation.

  Even though we’d been up all night, the guys who’d been on guard stayed outside in the cold and continued to keep watch while the others finished loading the trucks. Jesse stopped by with Jillian in tow to speak to us. “You all did an amazing job out here last night,” he said as he surveyed the seventy-five or so corpses on the ground around the back side of the building. “Because of what you did, we’ll be able to finish loading up the supplies and return to Virden today. Your families are safer because of what you’ve done.”

  He pointed to our newest recruit and said, “We also owe Jillian a big ‘thank you’ for telling us about these mutant fuckers. If she hadn’t come forward, we probably would have continued shooting them and just ended up bringing more of them from wherever the hell they stay. I know you’re tired, but I need you to remain vigilant out here and when we’re done in a couple of hours, you can rest the entire trip back. Don’t worry, you won’t be responsible for unloading the foodstuffs, the rest of us will take care of that.”

  Jesse pounded my weary back and gestured for me to walk with him. Jillian followed closely behind for some reason. “Chuck, thank you. You could have just left Jillian in with the other prisoners and made your job easier. I think most of us would have. She’s already proven invaluable and has a keen mind about economics in our new society. You’ve shown initiative and intelligence ever since you came to our town.” He stopped and looked me in the eyes, “I’m promoting you.”

  To say I was floored would be an understatement. I was glad that my mask covered my features; otherwise he would have seen my mouth hanging open. “Um, I—thanks?” I stammered.

  “I know it’s kinda out of the blue, but D’Andre, Jillian and I have been talking. We need to have a full-time dedicated security force for our gathering missions. You’ve shown your worth, both in Taylorville and out here,” he said as he gestured towards the splattered blood on my clothes.

  “What about D’Andre? He should lead the outfit, not me,” I said as I wondered how the hell Jillian was somehow involved in the decision making chain already.

  “You’re right, he would be an excellent choice, but I need his brain power and planning ability on the gathering squad. So, he’s going to continue to be my number two man and you’re my choice for our security chief. You’ll have to attend all the planning sessions and all of that, of course, but once we arrive on scene wherever we go, your men will be the ones out here protecting our asses.”

  I thought about turning him down. I mean, I was planning on leaving in a couple of days. The words were on my lips when one of the men behind me let out a blood-curdling scream. We whipped around to see a creature tearing at his throat. Blood fountained from the man’s neck as the zombie ripped his trachea away from his body. Two of the men on my new squad rushed forward and bashed the thing’s brains into a pulp with a two-by-four and a tire iron.

  “What the fuck happened?” I yelled before Jesse had the opportunity to. I’d already made the switch in that instant and I didn’t even realize it.

  “The fuckin’ mutant came out from behind the dumpster and jumped Henry. It must have snuck up in the dark when we couldn’t see it,” one of my crew said.

  “Jesus Christ. Okay, check behind everything and make sure we don’t have any more surprises,” I said as I gestured around the loading area and at the tractor-trailers waiting in the parking lot to be driven back to Virden.

  We walked over to where Henry lay. Blood poured from the wound in his throat. He tried to gurgle something, but it just caused more blood to bubble from the hole in his neck and ooze back into his lungs. I knew that if he didn’t die of blood loss or drown in his own fluids, he was a prime candidate to turn into one of the infected creatures.

  I knelt down beside him and said, “Henry, you’re going to die. I’ll give you one minute to make your peace with God, then we have to finish you off. You know we have to. I’m sorry.”

  His breathing increased as he realized what I’d said, then slowed as he mumbled something. I assumed he was praying. I stood beside him and gave him a few extra seconds. When I raised my bat above my head he started to hyperventilate and his eyes flew from side to side as he sought help from the angel of death that I’d become.

  I brought the bat down square into the middle of his forehead and he stopped breathing as rapidly as he had been. I smashed down again and again until the bat had completely fractured his skull and bits of brain and a lot of blood seeped from his ears. The smell of feces drifted through my paper mask when he shit himself as he died.

  Jesse looked at me in awe and Jillian stared at me in revulsion. “I’ll take the job,” I said.

  We turned to walk back towards the distribution center and it started to snow. It wasn’t the beautiful, fluffy snow that brought happiness to all the school children and joy to the snow plow drivers. It wasn’t even the wet, heavy snow that meant traffic nightmares for everyone in the city. This snow was grey with radioactive ash, stank like burned plastic and meant death for all the plants and animals that had somehow survived this long.

  The snow continued to fall hard and heavy onto Henry’s lifeless body. For a while, it melted wherever his body heat escaped, but eventually his body cooled and he became an indistinguishable lump in the rapidly graying world.

  * * *

  I slept during the entire trip back to Virden. The constant fighting of the night combined, with my aching muscles from carrying boxes of food to the trucks yesterday, to create a level of physical and mental exhaustion I’d never felt before. The moment my ass touched down into the truck seat I slumped against the door and passed out.

  I didn’t see D’Andre and several others make their way back to the distribution center and set fire to the building. I also didn’t hear the screams of the men and women we’d taken prisoner and locked in the building’s office as they were roasted alive.

  FOUR

  The weather became absolutely rotten in the former state of Illinois. The foul-smelling ash-snow mixture continued to fall for the next three days. Travel became even more treacherous as the trucks slipped on the snow and ran off the roads when we could no longer see the shoulders. They spent th
e first day back from Jacksonville unpacking the trucks into the buildings near the center of town while my security crew took a much-needed rest.

  The town was transforming into a fortress right before our eyes. The seemingly haphazard wall of heavy-duty wire fencing and overturned cars had been replaced in many sections by a four-foot high cinder block wall. There were several large semi-truck trailers parked with building supplies. Apparently there was a separate gathering crew for construction materials. I’d heard about them, but still hadn’t met anyone who worked for them, and the fruits of their labor could be seen as a legitimate wall slowly began to encircle the town.

  We even had intermittent power in Virden that wasn’t coming from a gasoline-powered generator. Besides building materials, Allan had his secondary gathering squad collect up as many pieces of gym cardio equipment as they could find. He had electricians rig the ellipticals, stationary bicycles and rowing machines to connect to the town’s electrical grid somehow and we now had entire groups of people whose jobs were to exercise and generate the town’s electricity. It wasn’t steady power by any stretch of the imagination and no one was allowed to use their home’s lights, but it was enough to heat water and power the floodlights around the walls.

  It was unintentional, but we didn’t leave Virden in a couple of weeks like we’d planned. We became complacent and my new duties as the food gathering squad’s security chief kept me busy. Almost every other day, we’d go out gathering supplies. Most of the time, we got into firefights with the defenders of wherever we were going, but it was generally accepted that Virden was a regional power and we weren’t to be fucked with anymore.