“They are a lot alike when you think about it,” Jason agreed.
Kyra turned her head to look at Jason, “What did you do? How did you adapt?”
Jason let out a sigh as he drove. Kyra noticed his dark eyes staring blankly ahead as his expression changed. He seemed frustrated, but he still responded, “I was twelve when the Battle of Earth happened. My parents were divorced and I was an only child. I spent most of my time with my father, however. He had a military background, but nothing extreme. Still though, when the attack came and the governments realized that fighting this enemy altogether was better, they began to ask former military personnel to come back.
“They said that it was no longer for your country, it was for humanity. We weren’t fighting Nazi’s, communism, or terrorists like America used to, instead we were fighting extinction. That was something that my father, and most of the other military personnel, could easily get behind.”
Kyra was intrigued, “So, your father actually fought against the Grey?”
Jason’s expression saddened rather quickly, “I’m not sure, exactly. I remember him coming to me one day and sitting me down to explain to me what I had just explained to you. In fact, I’ll never forget the day: December 13, 2021. It was snowing outside of the same home that I live in now. The Battle of Earth happened a week before that. My father told me that this was something he had to do and that I was going to have to live with my mom until he was able to come and visit me. That was the last time I ever saw my father.”
“I’m so sorry,” Kyra said, “I didn’t mean to bring up a sore point in your past.”
“It’s alright,” Jason answered, he allowed a grin to come to his face as if he’s accepted the past. Jason looked at Kyra for a moment before resting his eyes back on the road ahead of them, “To answer your question, it has been almost 20 years since the Grey attacked us, and I still have no idea what to feel. I don’t know who they are, where they came from, or why they attacked us. The Global Union has kept things quiet for this long and now we’ll never know.
“But I will tell you this, Kyra. You don’t have to force yourself to adapt. You just will. Life goes on and you will always miss your old life, but you will find things that you love about your new life. I think that it’s events like these that bring people together. It was the Battle of Earth that brought humanity together to fight it. Now, we have the Fall of Earth that has seemingly wiped out most of the population and our government. So, if you ask me, it’s up to us that are left to rally together and survive this.”
Kyra looked away from Jason, back at the trees passing by, and found herself smiling. She believed him, but more importantly than that, it was the first time in three months that she felt like there was hope. Kyra let out a, “Thank you.”
Jason giggled and asked, “For what?”
“You’re the first person outside of my family that I’ve seen since the fall,” Kyra answered, “It’s really nice to have somebody be that beacon of hope.”
Jason didn’t respond, he just smiled as he continued to drive. It wasn’t much longer before they found the little market that Kyra remembered her dad stopping at. Jason pulled up and parked the truck in the empty parking lot. They both stepped out, cautiously, and began to inspect the building. The windows were filthy, as if they hadn’t been washed in months, and there was no sign of anybody in the area.
“This doesn’t look too promising,” Jason whispered as they attempted to peak through the windows. The store was dark inside, but Jason was sure that he could see items still on the shelves. He turned to Kyra and made sure that she had her machete ready before pulling out a gun from the back of his waist.
“Have you had that the entire time?” Kyra let out, shocked at what she had just seen.
Jason quickly put a finger up to his lips, indicating that Kyra had said that too loudly, before whispering back, “Yes, but I only use it in emergencies.”
“Why?” Kyra whispered, “You could’ve just shot the one of the road back there.”
“The dead don’t think,” Jason explained in a whisper, “They only react. I’ve seen it. If I would’ve used this back there, the sound could’ve echoed for miles up in these mountains. Every one of those monsters would be on its way here right now. So, like I said, I only use it for emergencies.”
Kyra wanted to argue with him, but chose not to. Something about guns just didn’t rub her the right way.
“I’m going to break this door in and I want you to stay close behind me,” Jason continued whispering, “If you see anything come near you, you swing for the head. Do you hear me?”
Kyra hesitated, but finally nodded. This whole situation was not what Kyra was expecting. Then again, she wasn’t entirely sure what she was expecting. The last time she saw this market, it seemed fine. It was open and her dad went in and out within ten minutes. Everything about this was just putting more fear into her system, but she pushed it aside and got prepared.
Jason kicked the door open, but quickly realized that it was never locked. He moved slowly inside, keeping both hands on his firearm, and scanned every inch of visible space. It was dark inside, but it also seemed to be clear of any danger. Jason inched forward and began to look down each aisle of the small market, before finally lowering his weapon.
“We’re clear,” he said in his regular voice.
“Can you please put that away?” Kyra said as she looked at the gun.
“Not a fan of firearms?” Jason asked and Kyra shook her head, “Neither was I, but recently this has come with me everywhere.”
It was a reminder to Kyra that the times have changed indeed. She let it go and began to look for the right aisle. The two of them found there way to the proper section and began searching for formula and food, but were disappointed to find that it had all been taken. Kyra lowered her head as the disappointment settled, but Jason was frustrated.
He hit the butt of his gun against the metal frame of the shelves, making a loud bang as he did so. Jason let out a loud, “No!”
Kyra wasn’t sure what to do. Although it felt like they had grown close over this short trip, they were still strangers in reality and Kyra didn’t want to push her limits by trying to comfort him. Jason looked around and began to shuffle through other items on the shelves, but there was hardly anything left anywhere.
“Somebody beat us to it,” Kyra said and Jason groaned.
“Yeah,” he agreed, “I just wish there was somewhere else we could look. The next nearest market with baby supplies is an hour away.”
“If there’s even anything left there,” Kyra suggested. It’s not entirely impossible that people have been raiding stores for the last couple months. She didn’t see the fall of the government in action, but she knew that the news stations were disconnected rather quickly which means chaos ensued pretty rapidly. Kyra thought about it before realizing, “It’s every man for himself out there, isn’t it?”
Jason stared blankly at the shelves as he tried to think of something to do or say. He had no explanation and he had no idea what to do, “Probably,” he responded, “I didn’t want to believe that the world would come to that, but you’re probably right.”
Jason turned and looked towards Kyra. He opened his mouth to say something, but paused as his eyes began to stare beyond Kyra’s location. Kyra turned her head around and realized that Jason was staring at the door that had a sign reading Employees Only. Kyra looked back at Jason as if to confirm what he was thinking about.
“What are the chances that whoever raided this place forgot about the storage in the back?” Jason asked Kyra.
Without hesitation, Jason began to move towards the door. Kyra went to follow, but stopped shortly after. Something didn’t seem right. Almost as if there was something missing from their train of thought. Kyra couldn’t put her finger quite on it, but she looked up to warn Jason just as he put his hand on the door handle.
“Wait,” Kyra announced, but it was too late. Jason had alread
y turned the handle by the time that he heard her voice. His head looked back at Kyra right as the force of the dead pushed back against the door.
Suddenly, Jason found himself fighting as he pushed the door back in an attempt to close it again. The weight of half a dozen of those monsters pushing to get out and eat Jason and Kyra was just too much for him to bear. Finally he let go of the door and began to back up, raising his pistol and aiming for whatever head that he could see.
Kyra watched in terror as Jason fought with the door and then prepared to fight, but Kyra’s fear wouldn’t allow her to move. Her hand was wrapped around the machete, but she couldn’t lift her arm to use it. She was frozen with fear.
Jason began to fire as he launched a round into two different skulls, killing a few of the monsters. Unfortunately, the second of them was already getting too close and by the time the bullet had hit its brain, it was beginning to fall towards Jason. The arms of the dead’s infected body wrapped around Jason’s legs, tripping him up and causing him to fall back onto his butt.
Kyra let out a whimper, but Jason kept aiming. He fired another shot, hitting one of the monster’s in the shoulder, but not killing it. The living corpse wasn’t focused on Jason, though, as it zoned in on Kyra and began to move towards her. Jason, realizing this, quickly began to aim at the back of the dead’s head.
“Kyra, get down!” Jason shouted, but Kyra was still too afraid to move. She just watched as the monster of a man, blood dripping from its mouth with its rotted teeth biting at the air, walked towards her for its next meal. Jason shouted one more time, “Kyra! Get on the ground now!”
Kyra, finally, looked down at Jason and realized that he was pointing his gun in her direction. She covered her head with her arms and fell to the ground just as the shot was fired. The next thing that Kyra saw was the corpse landing right in front of her. She stared into the dead eyes of the monster as its blood dripped from a gunshot wound in the back of its head onto the floor.
She looked up to see Jason staring back at her in relief, but that relief quickly turned into a painful cry. One of the corpses that Jason forgot to focus on, since his focus had turned towards saving Kyra, dropped to the ground and bit a large chuck of skin out of Jason’s leg. Jason being trapped under the dead weight of one of the dead themselves, couldn’t wiggle free as a second of the living corpses dropped down and took a bite out of his other leg.
Jason lifted his gun and focused through the pain just enough to take two more shots, killing each of his dead attackers. He let his upper body fall back, onto the ground, and screamed in pain as he could feel his blood leaving his body through his legs. Kyra dropped her machete and walked over to Jason with her hands covering her mouth. Tears began to fill her eyes as she became overwhelmed with guilt and fear.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, “I didn’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.”
“Stop,” Jason cried. He lifted himself back to a sitting position and slowly moved the three dead bodies off of his legs. He then began to slide himself away from the dead bodies, groaning in pain as he did so.
Kyra didn’t know much about medicine, but she could see that his legs had been damaged pretty badly. Jason’s left leg has been bitten on the calf muscle and it was extremely deep. His dark blood was flowing out pretty steadily and the sight of it instantly reminded Kyra of her father’s neck wound. Jason’s right leg had been bitten on the front, where the shin bone is, and Kyra just got a glimpse of the white color before looking away in terror.
“This is not how I thought today was going to go,” Jason said. He pulled his jacket off and wrapped both of his legs together with it. Jason then placed both of his bloody hands onto his forehead as he slowed his breathing down and began to think. Kyra found herself crying, one hand covering her mouth, as she watched in horror without a clue about what to do.
“Maybe they have some bandages here?” Kyra said and she turned to begin looking, but Jason stopped her with his voice.
“No,” he said. His voice wasn’t angry or scared, but worried. Kyra could tell that the worry wasn’t for himself, either. He continued, “One of them bit into my bone, Kyra. There’s no way that I’m going to walk out of here with no feeling in both of my legs.”
“What if I carry you?” Kyra said.
“You’re going to carry me, a two-hundred-plus pound man, out of this market?” Jason argued, “That would take a while. I just shot six bullets into these assholes. You know what that means?”
Kyra looked out the front door, that was still open from their entry, and then she thought about the ringing in her ears that she still had from the sound of the gun. She looked back at Jason and said, “The sound is going to attract more.”
“Who knows how many of them are in the area,” he said, “Could be one, could be one hundred, but the point is that we don’t have enough time for that. You need to get back there, see if there are any supples, and then take my truck and go.”
“I’m not leaving here without you,” Kyra argued, the tears were once again burning her eyes just as they had the night before.
Jason stared at her and Kyra could see the tears in his eyes as well, “Kyra, please, just come here for a second.”
Kyra’s heart began to ache with pain. Flashes of the night before hitting her hard in the moment, she made her way to Jason’s side and got down on her knees next to him. Kyra, staring at Jason, felt like she was watching her father die for the second time. Jason put his hand out and Kyra grabbed it.
“Don’t do this to me,” she asked him, but she knew what was going to happen.
“Trust me, I don’t want this, either,” he replied to her, “but if this is where I go, then so be it. I need you to do something for me, though.”
Kyra nodded and Jason reached over to grab his gun. He opened her hand and placed it in her palm.
“You take this and use it to protect you and your baby sister,” Jason explained, “My wife is at my home. It’s just about twenty miles from where I picked you up. You’ll see a white mailbox at the road with a faded bird on the side of it. That’s my house. Please, find my wife and daughter and tell them that I love them. Take them with you. You need to go to the city. I heard about a facility there that is taking people in and keeping them safe.”
Kyra felt the tears falling from her face, but she nodded through the pain and agreed. She looked down and felt traumatized at the sight of her hands. Soaked in blood and holding a gun, she felt like this new person was something she could never be. It wasn’t something that she wanted to be, but she knew there was no choice.
Kyra, as instructed by Jason, investigated the back room carefully and found a few boxes of formula and baby food that hadn’t expired just yet. She carried them out to Jason’s truck and loaded them before coming back inside to say goodbye.
“I’ll give a few of those cases to your wife for your daughter,” Kyra said, kneeling next to Jason once more.
“Thank you,” he said as tears filled his eyes. He wasn’t crying because of the pain, but because he knew that he wouldn’t get to see his daughter grow up. He asked Kyra, “Tell her that I had to do this. There was no other way.”
“I will,” Kyra cried. Jason reached over to her and handed her the keys to his truck before pulling her in for a hug. As Kyra left, she made sure to turn around and take one last look at him. Jason; the man who saved her life and restored her hope. In his final moments, he looked like he was in pain, both physically and emotionally, but he also looked extremely strong. He would’ve been a great dad in her mind, just as her dad was to her.
Kyra left Jason there, on the ground in the market, surrounded by the bodies of the dead that were once undead. Jason laid there, thinking about his life and how he never got to say goodbye to his father. Ironically, his daughter will never get to say goodbye to him either. But Jason knew that both scenarios were okay. His father died fighting for humanity and Jason would die fighting to keep hope alive in others. He was at peace
with that.
She had only driven a few times with her father, but she knew the basics of driving and with the road being so empty, she didn’t have any issues. Kyra drove back down the road that they came in on. Within minutes of driving, she was beginning to see more of the dead monsters coming out of the trees. Jason was right; the gunshots attracted them and a lot of them. Kyra didn’t even think that there were that many people living in the area to become these monsters from the virus.
Pretty soon, Kyra drove by the burnt corpse that attacked her. The one that Jason ran over with the exact truck that she was driving to save her life. It was no longer on fire and, instead, was just a black pile of melted skin and burnt bones that were still smoking from the heat.
Eventually, Kyra found her road and then her own driveway and pulled into it. She unloaded a few of the boxes, but left a few in the truck to take to Jason’s house. She opened her door to find her mother still laying on her father’s chest. Kyra placed the boxes on the table and went to the sink.
She stared down at her hands and began to wash the dried blood off of her hands. The dried blood of her father and of Jason. Tears streamed down her face as she did so, thinking about everything that she had lost in the last 24 hours. She couldn’t help but wonder; was this how life was going to be from now on? Constant loss and grieving? Is that something that she could even get used to?
Kyra felt a hand touch her shoulder and turned quickly to find her mother staring at her with puffy red eyes from all of the crying. Kyra collapsed her head into her mother’s chest and began to sob uncontrollably. The truth was that Kyra wasn’t ready for this life. She hadn’t even been ready for the life she had before this. She needed to be weak for a moment.
After that moment was over, however, Kyra knew that a lot needed to be done. It started with the two dead corpses in her driveway. She was going to put a knife through the head of the decapitated lady that killed her father and then she was going to burn the bodies. Then, she was going to bury her father and give him a proper goodbye. Finally, she was going to find Jason’s wife and daughter and take them and her family to New York City, where they would find that facility to keep them safe.
World of Dead | Vol. 1 | Issue 2 Page 2